Democrats, Freedom Caucus, Unhappy With Legislative Committee Assignments

In the famous George Orwell novel “Animal Farm,” a group of revolutionary pigs decree that, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

It’s possible the same latitude is being given to certain committees of the Wyoming Legislature.

“Clearly there is an ideological balance that I think is taking precedence here, which is why I think there should be a concern,” state Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson said. “I think everyone has priorities, and I think the speaker and the president-elects have priorities of what they want to see.”

The Wyoming Democratic caucus expressed outrage over the weekend when it was announced that no Democrats would be assigned to the Joint Education Committee. The Democrats gained one seat in the House this year, boosting their membership from five to six.

The apportioning of committee assignments is supposed to represent the overall makeup of the legislative body. Presumptive Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, and House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, made the selections for their respective chambers.

Committees play an integral role in shepherding bills through the legislative process, holding the power to kill a bill before it’s ever considered by the entire chamber.

On Monday, the Wyoming Democratic Party urged its members on social media to raise awareness about the Education committee snub and call on their local lawmakers to reverse the decision, calling it a “deliberate move” by the Wyoming Republican Party to weaken public education in Wyoming by removing their opponents from the issue.

“We need to fight for our public schools,” the party said. 

The Democrats however did get seats on the Agriculture and Transportation committees, committees they hadn’t held seats on since 2020.

Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, said when it comes to the pecking order of committees, it’s usually a matter of personal preference and skills. State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, disagreed, saying there “absolutely” are committees considered more important than others.

To that point, Certain committees handle more controversial bills and the Appropriations Committee has the most control over the state’s purse strings, voting to support or kill any spending bill and the state’s budgets.

Freedom Caucus Still Unhappy

On Monday, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus put out a press release where it condemned the committee assignments in the Senate. 

“We are troubled by the committee assignments in the Senate, where an overwhelming majority of committees are controlled by Liz Cheney Republicans,” the caucus said. 

Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, a Freedom Caucus member, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday he had no problem with the committee selections in the House, which he thought were much fairer than the selections made by outgoing House Speaker Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale.

“Under Albert we didn’t have a single conservative chair,” Allemand said. “I thought Speaker Neiman was very fair.”

The Senate has far less Freedom Caucus-aligned committee leadership than the House however, with seven of the 10 committees chaired by more moderate Republicans. 

The Freedom Caucus said in its press release the public should be zeroed in on watching the Senate and Gov. Mark Gordon in the upcoming session. It also threatened retribution against lawmakers who don’t come in compliance with the Freedom Caucus agenda, saying the public “will be watching the Senate to see which game players to purge next.”

“Will they work with the House or fulfill their mission to block any legislation from conservatives?” the Freedom Caucus posed. “The people want action- not a strategy from the establishment desperately clinging to power. The elections proved the power is with the people, they have cleaned the House.”

The Freedom Caucus took over a majority of seats in the House for the first time this year, after growing from a group of only a handful of lawmakers or less about five years ago.

Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, found fault with their complaints, saying the Freedom Caucus is fixated on levying attacks, which he called “asinine.”

“It’s obvious the House Freedom Caucus has no clue about what state Senate is,” he said. “The upper chamber is about deliberate debate when the Senators disagree. It’s what makes our system healthy.”

Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, another hardline conservative, said he had no problem with the Senate committee assignments.

“I thought they were OK, it’s just part of the process,” he said.

Why They’re Mad About Education

Yin told Cowboy State Daily that the real question to be asked is why Neiman and Biteman took the two Democrats off the Joint Education Committee. 

Yin said on KODI Radio Monday morning the decision to keep Democrats off the Education Committee is also part of an effort to guarantee school choice legislation gets passed into law in the upcoming session. School choice is the concept of giving parents public dollars to use towards seeking private education for their children.

“Both in the House and the Senate, Republicans have moved toward privatization of education,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “If there are things that get in the way of private outside companies take control of Wyoming schools, maybe that’s the reason to get rid of Democrats on Education.” 

Wyoming’s Democrats have generally opposed these efforts in the past.

“In my opinion, privatization of public schools means outside companies choose how they teach our kids in Wyoming instead of Wyoming school boards,” Yin said on KODI. “I want local people to decide their education decisions versus reducing the costs to let a private company decide how they do their business.”

Charter schools are also part of the school choice fight. Although he grew up attending a charter school, Yin believes they’ve become compromised in Wyoming by private interests. One example of this is the Cheyenne Classical Academy, which has its curriculum provided by Hillsdale College, a controversial conservative, religious institution.

“I don’t want my taxpayer dollars to let an out-of-state company decide how the kids in Wyoming are taught,” Yin said.

Neiman told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday he tried to be as fair as possible when making his committee selections but also mentioned that he specifically discussed the decision to put no Democrats on the Education Committee with Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, who he chose as the committee’s chairman.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily about being fair or not fair, I think the problem is you have no opposing voices when it comes to having those discussions about education, which are really, really important in the state of Wyoming,” Yin said on KODI.

Brown, a current member of the Education Committee disagrees, saying the Democrats make up such a small minority in the Legislature they weren’t likely to change the decisions made in his committee. He also said if they want to be put on the premier committees, they need to increase their membership.

“If they want to be on the higher end committees, they need to get more representation,” Brown said. “Representing the electorate means we need to pay more attention to representing the 90% of the state and who they elected and less from the less than 10%.”

Yin wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Senate or House could overrule legislative leaders and appoint a Democrat to the Joint Education Committee, although such a move is uncommon.

More than anything, he wants the public to know what’s happening at the Legislature, saying “people on the ground need to know what’s happening.” 

Fellow Jackson Democrat Sen. Mike Gierau took a different perspective when speaking to Cowboy State Daily on Monday, saying he thought the legislative committee assignments in the Senate were fair. There are only two Democrats in the Senate so it’s impossible to have Democratic representation on every Senate committee.

“The incoming presumptive Senate President did his best he could to allocate the resources in a fair and reasonable way,” Gierau said.

Gierau was particularly pleased that there will be two Teton County members serving on the Travel Committee, one of whom will be the House chairman, and two Democrats, a committee with particular importance for the tourism focus in his area.

“We’re in good shape, we’ll get a good Teton County perspective on there,” Gierau said.

Veteran Lawmakers Snubbed

Reps. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, the three most senior lawmakers in the House, were all put on only one legislative committee. Neither Nicholas and Larsen, who have 18 years of combined experience on Appropriations, were chosen for this committee.

“It’s probably not only disrespectful but it’s also probably because a lot of people in the Freedom Caucus were calling for them to be put on no committees at all,” Brown said. “It’s disrespectful to the institution.” 

Former House Speaker Tom Lubnau said the Legislature traditionally honors legislators with experience with more leadership roles and committee positions. 

“This administration for whatever reason chose not to have that approach,” Lubnau said.

Nicholas and Harshman both took the high road when speaking to Cowboy State Daily on Monday, although Nicholas did admit he found it surprising.

“Sometimes you’re on the winning team and sometimes you’re not,” he said.

Brown said he wasn’t surprised by the snubs and said it’s simply a result of the prioritization that past speakers gave to certain members of the Legislature they were aligned with.

“They feel slighted over the last 4-8 years,” Brown said. “They weren’t given any chairs or anything extra. It’s what’s caused some of the consternation. They’ve never been in charge and now they don’t know what it’s like.”

Harshman said he’s genuinely excited to get back on the Travel Committee, his first committee in the Legislature.

“The biggest deal is I’m there to represent the people,” Harshman said. “I support the process and the speaker.”

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.