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America Chumpitaz, of Provo, speaks with U.S. Rep. John Curtis during an open house at the Provo Recreation Center on Friday, March 17, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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U.S. Rep. John Curtis speaks with constituents during an open house at the Provo Recreation Center on Friday, March 17, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Carl Robinson, of Provo, speaks with U.S. Rep. John Curtis during an open house at the Provo Recreation Center on Friday, March 17, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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A sign shows the boundaries of Utah's 3rd Congressional District during an open house held by U.S. Rep. John Curtis at the Provo Recreation Center on Friday, March 17, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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U.S. Rep. John Curtis speaks with constituents representing Americans for Homeopathy Choice during an open house at the Provo Recreation Center on Friday, March 17, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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With over 300 town hall discussions held since first joining Congress in 2017, John Curtis knows how it goes. He stands at the front of the room before an audience as a few people, those willing to speak in front of the crowd, question him about personal policies, national positions and anything else that comes to mind.

On Friday, residents of Utah’s 3rd Congressional District came to the Provo Recreation Center to meet with his staff and find solutions to ongoing problems. Those who registered online early, though, worked to snag a five-minute block to speak directly with Rep. Curtis.

“We wanted to experiment with this format and make not just me available, but the whole team,” Curtis said. “What happens a lot of times in a group is, people who are a little uncomfortable asking questions don’t get to ask their question. This way everybody gets their few minutes.”

The center’s multipurpose room was divided into two sections. One on side, members of Curtis’ office sitting at different tables representing their focus areas. On the other, rows of folding chairs so people could wait and lounge chairs facing each other on a platform.

For two hours, Curtis sat and spoke with residents about whatever they wanted, though each person had to fill in a desired topic when signing up. The conversations, Curtis told the Daily Herald, were mostly on specific issues, outside of a handful of well-wishers and one resident who asked about energy prices.

“Mostly it’s been, ‘Hey, here’s my individual situation. What should I do?’ I had a couple people actually ask me how to get involved with politics,” Curtis said. “Those are the types of things you wouldn’t get in a town hall meeting.”

Ashlee Taylor came to the meeting from Springville to speak with Curtis and express her gratitude. Taylor is executive director of The Refuge Utah, which seeks to provide a safe environment for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in Utah and Juab counties.

“I just wanted to thank him for his service. I really appreciate everything he’s done for the district and I wanted to thank him for what he’s doing,” Taylor said. “Just talked to (him) a little about the issues that we see facing the individuals that we serve and how he’s making things more accessible for those individuals.”

Taylor explained that Curtis’ office making information on social services more accessible and readily available aids the organization’s mission to help people in need.

Provo resident Lauren Anderson was not able to get a slot to speak with Curtis, so he came anyway and waited to see if there would be a last-minute opening. Anderson hoped to speak with his representative and neighbor about topics both broad — climate change — and specific.

Anderson wanted a few minutes to discuss the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal statute created in 1946 that dictates “how federal administrative agencies make rules and how they adjudicate administrative litigation,” according to Cornell Law School.

The statute empowers the federal government and federal agencies to create and amend regulations. “We have no way to prevent that. We can’t vote out the bureaucrats that put that in place regardless, and public comment period — sounds great but they can just ignore the comments and do it anyway,” Anderson said. “I’d like to see if he or any of the other people in Congress are looking at that.”

While most attendees spoke with Curtis either on their own or with a partner, Tiffany Caldwell came with a group of likeminded individuals — members of Americans for Homeopathy Choice, a national organization that seeks to protect access to homeopathic drugs.

According to Caldwell, homeopathic drugs are not herbs or supplements, but products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration that are “made from natural substances.”

At the end of the day, Curtis and members of his staff spoke with a constant stream of concerned citizens and were grateful the nontraditional format worked smoothly. It also allowed the government employees to showcase the office’s functions outside of what people may see on television.

“There’s more to your member of Congress than going back to Washington, D.C., and voting. So what we decided to do was take the show on the road, so to speak, come out and help people understand we deal with Social Security issues, we deal with passport issues, we deal with immigration issues,” said Corey Norman, Curtis’ chief of staff.

The top priority for residents in the room was immigration “hands down,” according to Adrielle Herring, outreach advisor. Norman pointed to confusion surrounding the disbanding of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2003. The department was then divided into Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“When INS was just one organization, they knew, ‘I can just go to one spot.’ Now they don’t know,” Norman said. “If you look at the office, the immigration casework that we do is probably twice as much as everything else combined. And these are real issues. You’re talking about people who have fiancé visas, people who are here trying to adjust their status … so it gets very complicated.”

More constituents signed up to speak with the immigration table than anyone else, staffers said. Other stations included military, passports, social services and public lands/energy.

Curts said the majority of conversations focused on “nuts and bolts” issues like green cards and immigration visas, allowing Curtis to work the way he did as mayor of Provo — by diving into a task and helping someone.

“I think we’re solving problems today for people, which is really rewarding,” he said.

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