2025 Wyoming Legislature Preview
Marguerite Herman, LWVWY Lobbyist
307-673-8095
Jan.13, 2025
The 68th Wyoming Legislature convenes on Tuesday for its 2025 General Session, tentatively scheduled to use 37 of its 40 allowed days and adjourn on March 6. (The same 93 lawmakers will meet in 2026 for their 20-day Budget Session.)
This session is unusual for the number of members new to their legislative offices (26/62 representatives, 5/31 senators), the number who describe themselves as members of the Freedom Caucus (estimated 37 in the House, undetermined in Senate), and relatively new legislators in leadership positions, including three-term Rep. Chip Neiman as speaker.
The 68th Legislature continues to be dominated by Republicans: 29 of 31 members in the Senate and 56 of the 62 members of the House of Representatives. Depending on how party members vote as a bloc, those numbers have implications for getting their bills through committees and floor votes intact and overriding possible vetoes by Gov. Mark Gordon.
Major issues of the 2025 session, none of them new, include public school funding for operations and construction, property tax relief, election restrictions, property tax relief and “backfilling” for schools and local government, restrictions on activities by transgender individuals, restrictions on school districts and restrictions on the University of Wyoming.
There is a bill to supplement the 2024-26 state budget passed last year. The $692 million Supplemental Budget Bill (not posted yet) contains several policy issues and will likely spark political debate. The version approved by the Joint Appropriations Committee includes $130 million for wildfires and two amounts for K-12 public schools: $226.8 million for construction and $66.3 million for an “external cost adjustment.” As a backdrop, we await a district court ruling on a Wyoming Education Association and school district lawsuit that accuses the Legislature of underfunding that violates the Wyoming Constitution. The bill also contains the governor’s request for $7.5 million in litigation funding and $2.3 million to increase Medicaid payments to providers.
Freedom Caucus leader Rep. John Bear of Gillette announced a so-called “five and dime plan” to get his group’s bills introduced, approved in committee, through three readings and passed in both the House and Senate, all within two weeks (10 days) of the 2025 session. Priorities include more property tax relief, more restrictions on voting, and social and gender-related issues. The caucus also will pursue its agenda by adding and deleting funds in the Supplemental Budget Bill.
NOTE the priorities approved by LWVWY for this session, which can be followed on the bill tracker—Bill Track 50—included on our website at: wyominglwv.org:
Constitutional Issues
o School Funding and Finance
o Access to Healthcare
o Ballot Initiatives
Election and Voter Services
Government Accountability and Transparency
o Process of Open Meetings
o Public and Press Access to Government Work
o Rules and Procedures of the Government
You can track other, personal priority issues by following various advocacy organizations (some are listed below the tracker on the league website).
The Management Council represents both chambers and oversees the the Legislative Service Office (LSO). They are working through a reported 600 bill drafts requested by House and Senate members. In the weekend before the start of the session, the LSO website listed more than 250 pre-filed bills and one proposed constitutional amendment. (Bills start their way through the Legislature when they are “introduced” at their first reading by the House speaker or Senate president.) The session schedule set by the Management Council sets the deadlines for bill introduction as Jan. 29 in the Senate and Feb. 3 in the House. Check the schedule for the entire list of deadlines for bill progress until adjournment. Be aware the Management Council can move those deadlines around and can add back in the three allowed legislative days.
The LSO website homepage provides links to the session schedule, committee meetings, lists of legislators and bills, and other information about this session and the Legislature. The Wyoming Legislature Citizen Guidebook is a good reference for tracking and participating in the session. Committee chairmen are generally open to remote public testimony, and the deadline for Zoom registration is one hour before the meeting starts. (Register where you find the committee meeting announcement.)
Contact Marguerite Herman if you have questions about navigating the site.
LSO website is www.wyoleg.gov. LWVWY is www.wyominglwv.org.