Andrews
It didn’t take Mark Andrews long to find the job that would suit him for his entire career: policy analyst for the Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel.
During his undergrad work, he tested out electrical engineering, then switched to international affairs and considered the Foreign Service. But after internships in performance evaluation and budget with the Arizona and Utah legislatures, the hook was set. After nearly 36 years with Utah’s legislative research office, Andrews retired on Jan. 16.
“It’s such a great place to work, you’re so hands-on and involved in so many different issues,” he says.
And he’s well suited to one of the key requirements when serving both parties in a legislature: “I’m not a partisan animal one bit. I’m not now and never was.”
Andrews says he likes the challenge of exploring options and implications around major policy questions and helping committee chairs tee up debate by lawmakers coming from different perspectives.
“The way I’ve operated is, I put my legislator X hat on when I’m in front of legislator X, and I give her or him my best shot regardless of party or position on the issue.”
—Mark Andrews
“There’s the issue identification, and then there’s solutions identification—and then there’s identifying the consequences or the impacts of those solutions,” Andrews says.
He says he would wear different hats according to what legislator or group of legislators he was serving.
“The way I’ve operated is, I put my legislator X hat on when I’m in front of legislator X, and I give her or him my best shot regardless of party or position on the issue,” Andrews says.
Andrews spent much of his tenure working on health policy. He served as the staffer to the state’s health care reform task force when it took on big questions about coverage. That work resulted in the creation of the second health care exchange in the country, expanding affordable employer-sponsored coverage prior to passage of the federal Affordable Care Act in 2010.
After the act passed, he spent years deciphering federal regulations, helping lawmakers decide how to weigh impacts and adjust state policy accordingly.
During that time, Andrews also worked with NCSL, on the Health and Human Services Standing Committee and the Health Innovations Task Force, to offer resources and expertise to peers in other states who were grappling with the complexities of the new health care landscape.
“Mark is a remarkable policy expert,” says Kate Blackman, NCSL’s vice president for policy and research. “He always provided thoughtful, insightful comments that went beyond the surface level to really dive into an issue or share valuable feedback.”
Megan Bolin, the deputy director of the Utah legislative research office, says Andrews “is an out-of-the-box thinker ... always thinking, ‘How can I best serve legislators?’”
She says he developed a thorough new approach to preparing legislators for committee meetings by routinely outlining potential issues and providing deep relevant background to facilitate informed debate.
Andrews is modest about his work, perhaps the result of being in the background, which is where he likes to be.
John Cannon, director of the Utah legislative research office, says Andrews’ humility and kindness are well known. He says Andrews resisted being feted upon his retirement, urging that any money for a celebration go instead to charity. Cannon then reminded Andrews that it sends a good message to the rest of the staff to see someone’s hard work being recognized.
“Only when I made it about other people, then was he like, ‘OK, I guess if we have to,’” Cannon says with a chuckle.
Andrews notes that the job requires humility, a willingness to “believe somebody might have an idea that you don’t have, that might be a good idea,” he says.
The very process of making laws—often compared with making sausage—means better ideas should come out in the end.
“The whole system is designed to amend, define, add, to shape whatever your idea is into something that people can live with, agreeable to majority vote at least in both houses.”
And after years of having a role in that sausage-making, Andrews is as smitten with the process of governing as ever.
“It’s been a privilege to be around the process and to see that it works,” Andrews says. “And it’s strengthened my own conviction in the governmental system bequeathed to us by our founding fathers and propagated through the 50 states. It is a terrific recipe for society.”
Kelley Griffin is a senior editor at NCSL.