The Salt Lake Chamber has announced that U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, will be honored as the 39th "Giant in Our City" at a chamber event May 3 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. The award honors those with exceptional and distinguished service and extraordinary professional achievement, the chamber said.
“In the history of the state of Utah, no other individual legislator has had greater impact,” said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “Sen. Orrin Hatch spent the entirety of his career dedicated to the citizens of Utah, as well as the state’s business community. Sen. Hatch has shown that he is not only a great politician, but also a great statesman. He has been a peacemaker and a collaborator in getting things done to move America forward, and, more importantly, Orrin Hatch has always done what he believes is necessary for the next generation.”
Now in his seventh, and final, term as Utah’s senator, Hatch is the most senior Republican in the Senate and the longest-serving Republican senator in United States history. Hatch became the president pro Tempore of the Senate in 2015. Among his many initiatives are the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, the Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America’s Security Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Utah School Trust Lands Exchange Act.
“For more than four decades, Sen. Hatch has spent his career fighting for those who could not fight for themselves,” said Wilford Clyde, chair of the Salt Lake Chamber board of governors. “He has given so much to the state of Utah. For his devotion to the citizens of Utah and to our country, we are pleased to be honoring Sen. Hatch with this award.”
Hatch is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. He is also a member (and former chairman) of the Judiciary Committee; a member (and former chairman) of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; and a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation. He also serves on the board of directors for the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.