CHEYENNE — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said he expects the legislative session that opens this week to be “interesting.”
I think it will be more than that; I think it will be “riveting” at the very least to see what the Wyoming Freedom Caucus (WFC) can do.
This is new stuff — a majority party in the House with a religion-based ideology that never has been dominant in this Legislature before.
In the past, a few legislators of that persuasion tried to pass pieces of the hard right agenda without success.
Bills to ban or limit abortion, for example, were introduced but not did not pass often after long emotional public hearings.
Now it’s all different.
This is the crop of lawmakers that the voters wanted to run the show.
So here we are.
It would have been better if their starting-out agenda were more positive.
Other than property tax relief which is a popular program to help people, their list of five priority bills they hope to pass in the first ten days is pretty negative.
According to various online accounts, the Freedom Caucus bills ban, prohibit, restrict or invalidate something or other.
WFC members claim their bill list is what the voters want according to their experiences and polls.
All the bills were introduced in a prior session but either failed to pass or were vetoed (the property tax bill.)
WFC leaders also are expected to bring up the “culture war” bills again that deal with such tender issues as transgender rights and diversity programs.
The biggest surprise to me last week however was the declaration that the WFC will strive for unity this session.
This is a real switcheroo for a group that in the past two sessions banned traditional Republican lawmakers from their caucuses and dismissed them as RINOs (Republicans in name only) who should be caucusing with the Democrats.
In the House, they sat together as a bloc and stayed in touch with the national Freedom Caucus headquarters in D.C. which was pushing a national agenda for the states.
They were not an inclusive group.
Last week, WFC leaders tried to make a point when they said their priority bills came from the local people or what their polls showed.
This possibility of more focus on local problems rather than national issues and unity with traditional Republicans are in sharp contrast to the aggressive approach the Wyoming Freedom Caucus Committee displayed earlier in urging people to watch the Senate and Gov. Mark Gordon. Neither is under control of the WFC.
These are the two entities capable of stopping WFC.
The WFC package is expected to pass the House easily. The test will come in the Senate, a place I always regarded as the decider, populated by seasoned veterans.
Meanwhile at least one of the new leadership’s committee appointments confounded me.
Democratic Sen. Mike Gierau of Jackson was re-appointed to the Senate Appropriations Committee. He also was named to the Senate Journal Committee
The Journal Committee historically has been the first stop for freshmen legislators in both houses.
Yet Gierau, a ten year veteran, was named along with a couple of freshman senators.
And it is not a mistake.
Gierau welcomed the appointment.
He said he was “honored to be named to the Journal Committee” which he had served on previously.
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Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
