The House got it right, the Senate didn't

The 2022 Wyoming Legislative Budget Session is slated to end this Friday, if everything goes according to plan; however, nothing has gone according to plan this session it seems.

Let’s first talk about deadlines something the House leadership adheres to but the Senate side ignored this year and three bills were never debated on the House side because of it.

The bill with the highest profile was the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, Senate File 51. There was some interesting debate in committee from the sponsor who admitted not having talked to any transgender athletes before having the legislation drafted, not having realized that the Wyoming High School Activities Association had rules in place and has had rules in place for several years; to University of Wyoming students and athletes speaking against the bill, but parents and clergy speaking in favor of the bill.

The bill passed out of committee on Feb. 23 and was placed on General File the same day. However, the bill was not taken up on Committee of the Whole on Feb. 24. It also was not approved on Committee of the Whole on Friday, Feb. 25, two days after being placed on General File. Friday was the deadline for bills to pass Committee of the Whole in the house of origin.

Finally, on Feb. 28, the Senate passed the bill on Committee of the Whole, with second reading March 1 and third reading March 2, all past the agreed upon deadline.

According to Rep. Mike Greear of Worland, the House leadership, specifically House Speaker Eric Barlow, did not assign the bill to committee because it crossed over the House after the agreed upon deadline.

On Monday, one representative sought a rules change in order to bring the bill directly to the Committee of the Whole. His motion was soundly defeated.

One legislator argued in favor of bringing it forward stating that the House should consider policy over procedure. While another legislator said everything the legislators do during session is in regard to policy for Wyoming’s citizenry. He argued that while many residents may support the bill it was not an emergency as there were rules at the high school and collegiate levels that have been addressing the transgender in sports issue for years.

Another representative argued that some important bills on the House side died because they ran out of time in being able to get them to be heard by the Committee of the Whole before the cut off date. The House adhered to the rules, so should the Senate.

No matter where you stand on the bill, I stand with Greear and those who voted for respecting the process and respecting the leadership.

The deadlines are decided upon by leadership as they try to find a timeline to efficiently but effectively debate bills during a 20-day budget session.

Everyone agreed going into the session that time was of the essence and priorities needed to be made to ensure necessary bills had the opportunity to get through the process.

Many of the representatives who voted to not take up Senate File 51 did so not because they were opposed to the bill but rather, they like Greear respected the process.

Deadlines and procedures are in place for specific purposes. Without them who knows when the work gets done. One or two days does not seem like a huge time but as the old adage goes, give them an inch they will take a mile. Give them a day they may take another and another and when will the session end.

The session does have to end. We have a citizen legislature, not a full-time legislature.

So kudos to the House leadership for sticking to the rules and deadlines.

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Another issue in the Senate is that they tossed out months of hard work on redistricting. The Interim Joint Corporations Committee worked with county clerks during the interim to ensure House and Senate district populations were within deviation to meet the one person one vote Supreme Court rule. The House made some adjustments but kept the 62-31 plan from the committee mostly intact. The Senate threw it all out for their own redistricting map.

At one point during the Senate’s many amendments on the redistricting of the state’s legislative House and Senate districts, Washakie County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch said she was notified by one clerk that the new lines had an apartment building divided between districts.

The clerks are the ones who deal with elections, special districts and voters. They need to be involved in the discussion. To leave them completely out of the discussion was not right.

I hope the conference committee can work out the issues and come up with something that fits the state and keeps the Big Horn Basin representation intact.

The legislators need to realize with the state’s shifting population redistricting is going to get harder and harder so it is important to get it right.

--Karla Pomeroy