In a budget session, the budget is supposed to be the priority. That may be a problem for this Legislature, which last year became the first in recent memory to fail to pass one.
Last year, the damage was masked by a strategic appropriations, despite a failed supplemental budget. State government kept running.
This year, there is no safety net. If the Legislature fails again, Wyoming shuts down. No schools. No police. No fire protection. No hospitals.
That reality ought to focus the mind.
Instead, House leadership and the majority are fixated on social engineering. They want to make voting harder.
They want to subordinate the governor and the courts to the Legislature. They want to manufacture campaign issues by attacking libraries. None of these machinations keep the lights on.
Fortunately, the majority of the House and the Speaker of the House have created a culture where it is perfectly appropriate for members of the legislature to kill bills before they even have a chance to be debated.
For a non-budget bill to be introduced into the legislature, a vote of 2/3rds of the body is necessary for introduction.
The Freedom Caucus set the culture they expected when killed a record 13 committee bills in the 2024 legislative session.
The Speaker of the House has the ability to decide, purely arbitrarily, what bills come in front of the legislature. Typically, the Speaker retains a few bills that are not ready for prime time in his drawer.
Speaker Chip Neiman changed that culture. He used his power to kill 95 bills, by not introducing them last session.
Neiman set the culture of his term as Speaker of the House. That culture is that killing bills is a perfectly appropriate exercise of legislative power.
Message received: killing bills is not only acceptable — it’s policy.
That culture now cuts both ways. In a budget session, the minority has the power to block distractions and force focus where it belongs: on passing a budget.
Some legislators may hesitate, fearing retaliation from the Freedom Caucus.
Here’s the blunt truth: if you’re not in the club, they’re coming for you anyway. Perfect voting records didn’t save incumbents last election, and they won’t save anyone this time.
As Senator Ed Cooper noted, Freedom Caucus operatives openly tie campaign money to obedience.
According to the Greybull Standard, Senator Ed Cooper said, “The state’s Freedom Caucus (FC) in D.C. has pledged $30,000 to each house race in Wyoming. The [FC] members are judged on how they vote on each of their agendas and the email that they get every day. The more you are in line with the voting the better your campaign donation is. I’ll just leave it there. No matter what they think, that is what they are told to do.”
Mailers, texts, and attack ads are coming regardless of how you vote.
So stop worrying about appeasement and start worrying about Wyoming.
Vote against dumb bills. Vote against social engineering. Vote against unconstitutional stunts and time-wasters. Keep this session about the budget—and only the budget.
Wyoming voters are not stupid. They know opposing a bill that would bankrupt schools and counties over library book placement does not make someone pro-pornography.
They know opposing reckless civil liability schemes doesn’t make someone anti-gun. And they know supporting police, fire departments, and roads does not make someone a “tax-and-spend liberal.”
Do the right thing.
And if that means voting against the introduction of every Freedom Caucus bill this session? So be it.
And, when Freedom Caucus leadership slips up and kills necessary expenditures, like Indian Health services, hold them accountable. Point out their nonsense. Don’t let them kick it under the carpet.
Don’t buy their triangulating excuses like we are cutting local service so we can cut your taxes. It’s a smoke screen. Make them bear the consequences of their choices.
The people of Wyoming are getting sick and tired of a legislature that is strong on rhetoric and short on vision.
The legislature needs to focus on passing a sound budget. Save the social engineering for a general session.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
