2025 Wyoming Legislature
Week #6 Feb. 18, 2025
LWVWY Lobbyist Marguerite Herman
marguerite.herman@gmail.com, 307-630-8095
- Members of the 2025 Wyoming Legislature took off Monday for President’s Day and return to the Capitol Tuesday to begin the sixth week of the session. It is day 23 of the scheduled 37-day session. The pressure is on committees over the next nine days to work bills and get them out for floor debate.
- Another major task is work by a Joint Conference Committee (JCC) to find a compromise version of the Senate and House supplemental budget bills that can pass the two chambers and go to the governor. There is motivation to do that early enough to override possible budget vetoes before adjournment on March 6. The governor has three days to make line-item vetoes after the budget reaches his desk.
- House leadership named its JCC members a week ago: House Appropriations Chairman Bear, Speaker Neiman and Reps. Heiner, Knapp and Lien. The House version is still in Senate Appropriations Committee, with no Senate JCC conferees named yet, according to the LSO website. LSO tries to publicize and record JCC meetings, though advance notice is hard.
- Unlike the full biennial budget approved in even-numbered years, the supplemental budget is not required, and an impasse can be fatal for a particular item. JCC members are required to stand firm on how their chambers voted, at least on this first round talks.
- The fifth week of the 2025 session began in the House with feelings still raw from the previous week’s budget debate and statements in the news by the Freedom Caucus that questioned the integrity behind amendments to increase agency budgets. Former Speaker Steve Harshman of Casper took the podium for three minutes Monday morning to denounce the suggestion that representatives were acting out of self-interest. They are working for their constituents and Wyoming, he said, adding, “Words matter.”
- Find the latest on some 600 pieces of legislation written for this session on the LSO website bill page. Be sure to reference “engrossed” versions as they move from one chamber to the other. I have heard from senators who are inundated with emails that they are focusing on mail from constituents, so please note in the subject line if you are from their districts. You also may phone or text or use the LSO’s hotline.
- Two of LWVWY’s priority issues – elections and school funding – were debated in House committees and on the floor last week.
- Senate Corporations started work Friday on six elections bills, starting with HB131 Ballot drop boxes prohibited. Currently, five county clerks who serve about half the state’s population use drop boxes for people to deliver absentee ballots. County clerks described how they secure drop boxes and how voters rely on them. LWV Cheyenne members Roz Schliske and Deanna Davis, a member of the South High School “We the People program, gave first-person testimony as election judges. I told the committee LWVWY opposes voting restrictions that do not benefit voters or election security.
A committee vote on HB131 is expected Wednesday morning. Other elections bills on Senate Corporation’s list for Wednesday and maybe Friday.
HB154 False voting amendments
Can’t vote twice in a Wyoming election OR in Wyoming and another state in a federal election
HB156 Proof of residency-registration qualifications
Adds requirement to prove citizenship and state residence for 30 days before an election
HB238 Ballot harvesting prohibition
Lists few who can deliver an absentee ballot for someone (WY has no “harvesting” problem)
HB173 Independent candidate requirements
Increases petition signatures required and moves deadline to 2 ½ months before the Primary.
Status of other elections bills:
SF98 School board trustees-party affiliation (House Corporations)
Ballot will list candidates’ registered affiliation
SF190 Election transparency (House Corporations)
Bundles several election changes to cut early voting by 25 percent, increase citizen ID requirements, ease automatic recount threshold, machine voting only for disabled people
HB157 Proof of voter citizenship (Senate)
Adds requirement to show citizenship when registering
HB160 Voter identification – revisions (Senate)
School ID not accepted at the polls
HB206 Elections-acceptable identification revisions-2 (Senate)
Photo ID required at the polls (no Medicare card)
SJ8 Political Expenditures (House)
Asks Congress to write a constitutional amendment to allow limits on campaign spending
On school funding, the House improved HB199 Wyoming Freedom Scholarship (voucher) bill to include assessments, and the Senate restored income eligibility. But the bill, on 2nd reading Tuesday, still omits pre-school eligibility from Wyoming’s Education Savings Account law. Please continue messaging senators to restore pre-schooling. (The Senate also changed the scholarship name to “Steamboat Legacy.”)
HB316 School finance-model recalibration-2 is working through committees to the Senate floor this week. SF162 Education block grant model amendments, referred to Senate Education, wants the Legislature to order school districts how much they can pay teachers. The Senate killed resolutions to build schools with local bond issues and take the courts out of school finance.
LWVWY priorities for this session:
- Constitutional Issues: School Funding and Finance, Access to Healthcare, Ballot Initiatives
- Election and Voter Services
- Government Accountability and Transparency: Process of Open Meetings, Public and Press Access to Government Work, Rules and Procedures of Government.
Find more about LWVWY priorities on our 2025 bill tracker.