Having no intention to introduce the lone piece of legislation approved by Wyoming’s Senate, Wyoming’s House Speaker announced Friday that representatives would not return to the floor of the Capitol to continue their special session until Wednesday.
Speaker Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, announced he would not move to introduce SF1019, which does not deal with a proposed federal coronavirus vaccination mandate, basically allowing it to die.
With no pending legislation before the House, Barlow said he saw no reason for the body to reconvene before Wednesday.
“(The Senate) did not send us a COVID-19 related bill,” he said. “They did send us a bill that is related to another subject and it’s not my intention to introduce that bill and refer it to committee.”
The special session that began Tuesday was called by the Legislature to chart Wyoming’s response to the mandate proposed by the administration of Joe Biden.
The House approved two bills related to the mandate, one prohibiting some employers from requiring their workers to get the vaccine to keep their jobs and another saying agencies in the state will not enforce the mandate. Those bills now move to the Senate for review next week.
The Senate killed its only mandate-related bill, which would have prohibited people who have not received the vaccine from being discriminated against, while approving one other bill, which would allow law enforcement officials with the Wyoming Gaming Commission to participate in the state’s retirement system.
Barlow said throughout the special session that he would not introduce legislation that did not relate to the mandate.
The Senate is expected to spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday reviewing the House measures and representatives will return to the floor on Wednesday to look at any changes proposed by the Senate.
