On March 8, the Wyoming Legislature gaveled out of the 67th Legislative Session.
Open a newspaper, and you will see reports of “mean” debates, incivility, and dysfunction. Unless you are a paid lobbyist, able to sit in the galleries of the House and Senate for four weeks, it is hard to see through the media spin what actually happened in Cheyenne.
From the lambing shed where I spend most of my time this time of year, twisted headlines fill my phone screen - and it’s getting old.
I am writing this in order to filter the facts from the fiction spouted by liberal lawmakers and repeated by their allies in the press – one of the most frequently parroted fiction out there has to do with committee bills being killed.
FICTION: Committee-sponsored bills were killed indiscriminately by conservative legislators.
FACT: Of the 90 committee bills introduced this session, 80 were signed into law by the Governor – that’s an 89% success rate – the highest in 20 years. During the 2022 Budget Session, for comparison, only 59% of introduced committee bills survived.
But that doesn’t mean that a bill is faultless simply by virtue of it coming from a committee – and it’s wrong to expect any lawmaker to vote in favor of a bill simply because of its author. The content is what matters, for any and every bill.
House Bill 39, sponsored by the Joint Corporations Committee, sought to regulate and potentially penalize the free speech of Wyomingites who comment on elections. House Bill 22, sponsored by the Joint Revenue Committee, contained a new tax on internet streaming services.
I voted against introduction of these committee-sponsored bills, and I would again.
And of the ten committee bills that died after introduction, House Bills 42, 44, and Senate File 13 may have been the most necessary and impactful.
House Bill 42 would have banned Zuck Bucks and other private funds from influencing public elections in Wyoming. Over half of US states have already acted on this election integrity issue.
The bill was sponsored by the Joint Corporations Committee, and was killed by the same committee when one member moved to table it indefinitely– and this Representative openly explained that his decision to kill the bill wasn’t because of its merits, but was in response to the defeat of other bills he supported.
House Bill 44 would have eliminated the government’s ability to forcibly vaccinate your children during “public health emergencies” without your consent, and was sponsored and later killed by the House Labor Committee.
Senate File 13 would have allowed the State Legislature to fight back against Biden’s 30x30 land grab, and was vetoed by the Governor.
The legislative process is messy, and as elected representatives, we owe it to the people of Wyoming to shoot straight.
Rep. Tomi Stock represents House District 6 in Douglas. She has been in the Legislature since 2023.
