CHEYENNE — The opening of the 2025 legislative session was, well, unusual.
It was like a religious ceremony but no one was singing.
But in both houses the rhetoric was about their faith in the Almighty.
They used words like “godly” to describe how the session would be handled on their watch. One suggested that their election victory and takeover of the house was the will of God.
In only a few years this group that called themselves the New Republicans has progressed from being a fringe of the old Tea Party to take control of the Wyoming Republican Party and the Wyoming Legislature, the first state Freedom Caucus to do so.
So you can understand why they would be a bit full of themselves and also thankful to a higher power
This also should be expected from an extreme right wing religion-based ideology that the state, as far as I know, has never seen before in a legislative state leadership role.
Ir is unsettling and an aberration from the normal opening of session of the Wyoming Legislature which is steeped in tradition.
Each session always opened with a prayer led by local minister or priest or sometimes a member of the Legislature itself.
That was the extent of public prayer. or even the mention of religious belief for the most part during the meetings that followed—the separation of powers thing.
The second aberration on the first day was the introduction of the five priority bills offered by the Freedom Caucus.
All had failed in the 2024 session either in the house or senate or by veto from Gov. Mark Gordon.
The new house leader said the 2025 bills were the most pressing according to voter opinions.
The bills deal with proof-of-residency voter registration laws; immigrant IDs; diversity, equity and inclusion prohibition also known as DEI, and banning environmental, social and governance investing known as ESG.
The fifth bill slashes property taxes and was the one vetoed by the governor last year because of its dollar impact on local governments.
The property tax bill is the only one I have heard people say they really want. The others are part of the agenda of the national Freedom Caucus in D.C.
At any rate, some of the bills were sent to the House Committee on Labor Health and Social Services. The committee was stacked with Freedom Caucus members who had no discussion of the bill and passed it with the only Democrat on the committee Rep. Mike Yin of Jackson voting no.
So the juggernaut is off with the leaders promising to pass 20 bills in the first 20 days of the session including the five priority bills.
The House Freedom Caucus has shown its muscle.
I hope the leaders don’t try to ram bills through the standing committees like they did the other day with their initial pick.
The committees are the bone, the engines of the Legislature If committee chairs fail to do their job of vetting and studying bills and getting public comment, the system fails.
Their importances is why Phil Roberts, retired University of Wyoming history professor, earlier predicted a series of disasters in the current session.
It was because of the way committee appointments were made with seemingly little regard for the fit in some cases.
I think the first test will come when the House Appropriations Committee will begin work on the governor’s supplemental budget.
Gordon noted the number of new or relatively new legislators on the committee.
The committee’s long time chairman, Rep. Bob Nicholas of Cheyenne, was removed by the leadership and is now a member of the House Transportation, Highway and Military Affairs Committee.
A veteran legislator from the house once said it takes at least two legislative sessions before you know anything.
Let the learning begin.
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Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2434 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
