The late Democratic Senator Robert H. Johnson was a force in the Republican- dominated Legislature in the 1970’s.
We were amazed at the stamina and persistence of the Rock Springs lawyer former newsman.
By we, I mean, our trio of journalists who were part of a very small press corps at that a time and were usually the only ones sitting at the table in the corner of the senate every day it was in session.
It was clear that Johnson was a very bright guy who could talk your leg off as the saying goes.
Johnson held the record on the number of amendments offered by one legislator. I’ll bet that a record still stands.
We speculated that his idea was to kill a bill by talking it to death.
One bill he sponsored and was passionate about set up a review system for rules adopted by executive branch agencies whenever a new law was passed.
He maintained that the agencies were making law through the rules they adopted and that detailed how it would be administered.
In some cases pieces of legislation that had been defeated or dropped arose again tucked into a proposed rule, was one of his assertions.
Anyway his bill passed and created the rules review program that gave the Legislative Service Office as well as the public a voice in the validity of the agency rules although the governor still had the final say.
During the next decades the rule review process seemed to work although there were occasional rubs over recommendations between the legislative arm and the governor’s office.
I don’t know what set the Legislature off to reform the process this year through a new law but Gov. Mark Gordon offered one possibility in his veto of the bill — a veto overturned by the Legislature.
“In my mind it is another solution in search of a problem, meant to check a national political box by second guessing effective local government,” his veto letter said.
The new law, he wrote, was based on similar proposals passed in Florida and Kansas. They appear to be part of a national movement.
The reference of the national political box is the order or recommendation local caucus members receive from national Freedom Caucus headquarters in DC.
In Wyoming, the Freedom Caucus controls the house and half the senate.
Supporters of the bill, like the main sponsor
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, believed that expanding the rule reviews will make the program more efficient and fiscally conservative.
Gordon disagreed; he said it is duplicating a current system that seems to be working well and the new law will expand the bureaucracy and increase the unpredictability.
The bill didn’t receive much public notice until the veto by Gov. Mark Gordon and the recent discussion by the legislative management council as reported by CSD’s Leo Wolfson.
The bill does expand the bureaucratic arm and will extend the time spent pushing a set of rules through to acceptance.
The current law gives the governor the right of final approval after the Legislature acts. The new law reverses that order and gives the Legislature the final say after the governor acts.
Gordon, who sensed a possible political trap, said that, therefore he will not sign any rules until the Legislature has acted. That should slow things down.
At least the senate version of the bill was modified before the bill was passed. Originally it called for a new state office or agency with a director who would appoint a staff and a “chief economist.”
While the house killed most of that idea, the law does call for the Legislature to hire two more people
It also allocates $400,000 for a study of the rules review program by the management audit committee.
By listening to the caucus leaders in D.C., the Legislature is growing the bureaucracy rather than reducing it.
Isn’t that contrary to the Wyoming caucus’ goal of cutting government spending and government in general?
Sen. Robert H Johnson would not approve; he also favored local government.
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Contact Joan Barron@307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
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Contact Joan Barron@307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
