Medicaid expansion clears a hurdle! But many good bills have died. 

View this email in your browser ([link removed])
[link removed]



** 2021 Legislative Update No. 3
------------------------------------------------------------

You can read bills, view proceedings and find the schedule for the State of Wyoming's 66th Legislature here: [link removed]

You can contact Teton County legislative members by email:

Senator Mike Gierau, Senate District 17 - [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Senator Dan Dockstader, Senate District 16 - [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Representative Andy Schwartz, House District 23 - [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Representative Mike Yin, House District 16 - [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Representative Jim Roscoe, House District 22 - [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])


** Mostly Bad News Out of the Wyoming Legislature
------------------------------------------------------------
While there was some encouraging news last evening with initial approval of a Medicaid expansion bill in the House, a whole lot of other good bills died in the Wyoming Legislature on Monday.

Yesterday marked the final day for bills to clear their house of origin. In order to continue through the legislative process, bills had to pass first reading, or “Committee of the Whole,” in their chamber.


** Medicaid Expansion Bill Provides a Ray of Hope
------------------------------------------------------------
Senate File 154 – Medicaid Expansion with Federal Match Requirements

Sponsored by Representatives Schwartz and Yin and Senator Mike Gireau, Senate File 154 died without a hearing in the Senate yesterday, but House Bill 162 squeaked through the House to continue its slog through the legislative process.

House Bill 162 – Medical Treatment Opportunity Act

A bill that would increase access to Medicaid for thousands of low-income, hard-working Wyoming residents who are currently uninsured, House Bill 162 passed the House Revenue Committee last Thursday after the bill’s sponsors brought forward a standing committee amendment that changed the language of the bill to match that of Senate File 154.

On Monday, reflecting the drama that Medicaid expansion typically evokes in the Wyoming Legislature, Medicaid expansion almost faced a similar fate to Senate File 154 in the House.

Facing a hard, 7 p.m. stop time set by House Majority Floor Leader Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale), House leadership listed Medicaid expansion among the final few bills to be heard by the body that evening.

With 10 minutes left until deadline and just Medicaid expansion left for members to hear, Representative Mark Jennings (R-Sheridan) made a motion to immediately hear an abortion bill – House Bill 134 – Human Heartbeat Protection Act – instead, in what appeared to be an effort to run out the clock and kill the bill.

The maneuver required a two-thirds vote to pass and force leadership’s hand, however, and it came up short, failing on a 35-23 vote at just a few minutes after 7 p.m.

Sommers, disregarding his own time restriction, decided to keep the bill alive. “I said we were going to quit at 7, but I don’t want to prejudice this bill,” he told members. House Bill 162 passed first reading by a standing vote at a quarter to eight. Thirty-seven lawmakers voted ‘aye.’


** House Bill 164 (Grand Teton National Park – Transfer of State Lands) Falls
------------------------------------------------------------
Co-sponsors, Representative Andy Schwartz and Senator Mike Gierau, shepherded this bill all the way through the House only for it to die during third reading on Monday.

House Bill 164 would have authorized the sale of a square-mile of the Kelly state lands parcel in Grand Teton National Park to the National Park Service.

An amendment added via committee, that Schwartz and Gierau voted against, required $500,000 in proceeds per acre. At 640 acres in size, that put the basement sale price for the land at $320 million: 820% of the appraised value of $39 million.

That addition had already tainted the bill, but on third reading, Represenative Steve Harshman (R-Natrona), struck that amendment and added language that set the land price at $5 million per acre, requiring $3.2 billion from the federal government for its purchase, and the bill ultimately failed.

The Wyoming Constitution requires that all state lands disposed of be sold at a competitive auction. If that happens, the land could be purchased by a private entity and developed.


** Senate File 150 – Death Penalty Repeal Dies
------------------------------------------------------------
Lawmakers voted to defeat a bill to repeal Wyoming’s death penalty on Thursday, 11-19. Senator Gierau voted in favor of the repeal.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Brian Boner (R-Douglas), focused his argument for bringing the bill forward primarily on fiscal grounds. Maintaining the option to sentence convicted defendants to death costs the state about $750,000 annually, while the state has not executed a person for nearly three decades.

No individuals currently sit on death row in Wyoming, and the state has conducted only a single execution in the past 40 years. Additionally, last week, both chambers passed budget legislation that will cut the public defender’s office death penalty representation.

Kylie Taylor, state coordinator of Wyoming Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, issued the following statement.

“Today’s vote to keep the death penalty, paired with that budget, risks a constitutional crisis. We have the death penalty — a failed government program that risks innocent lives — but no means to provide the right to an adequate defense, as defined by our Constitution.”


** Two Marijuana Legalization Bills Died on Monday
------------------------------------------------------------


** House Bill 209 – Regulation of Marijuana
------------------------------------------------------------

Having garnered bipartisan support in the legislature, we had hoped this might be the year this bill would pass, but it failed to make the cutoff on Monday.

The bill would have allowed persons 21 and older to grow up to 12 marijuana plants in their home for personal consumption. It spelled out licensure of dispensaries, and prohibited cannabis use outside of one’s home. Buyers would have been subject to a 30% excise tax, which would have raised nearly $50 million a year, according to the Wyoming Department of Revenue.

An additional financial benefit to the state would have come from no longer having to incarcerate people for possession of cannabis.

Wyoming Department of Corrections data do not differentiate by drug, but it was reported to the committee hearing the bill last week that Wyoming currently has 335 people locked up for drug crimes, at a cost of $42,340 per person per year. Another 2,501 people are on probation or parole for drugs, at the rate of $2,125 annually.

That all adds up to nearly $20 million per year.

House Bill 82 – Implementation Requirements for Medical Marijuana

A second Wyoming bill related to marijuana advanced out of the House Judiciary on Thursday after a 6-3 vote, but also died without a debate in the House.

The legislation would have authorized $30,000 for a report on medical marijuana. The report would have identified medical conditions that benefit from treatment with medical marijuana and provided recommendations and a timeline for implementation of medical marijuana use.


** House Bill 128 – County Option Real Estate Transfer Tax Fails
------------------------------------------------------------
This bill, co-sponsored by Representatives Schwartz, Roscoe, Yin and Senator Gireau, would have allowed counties to consider adopting a real estate transfer tax of one percent on the sale of properties exceeding one million dollars, but died in committee.


** Bad Bills That Have Thankfully Fallen
------------------------------------------------------------
House Bill 11 – Oil and Gas Production Tax Exemption – this bill would have further cut taxes on industry during a historic budget shortfall, but was not heard in committee and will not move forward.

House Bill 108 – Wind Energy Production Tax – this bill would have created a tax of $1 per megawatt hour on wind energy production but died in committee.

House Bill 94 – Solar-Electricity Generation Taxation – this bill would have allowed for wind and solar to be taxed but died in committee.

House Bill 144 – Transfer of Public Lands – Not considered for introduction. Could it please be gone forever already!


** Bad Bills That Have Unfortunately Survived
------------------------------------------------------------
Senate File 81 – Second Amendment Preservation Act – Sponsored by Senator Bo Bouchard (R-Laramie, Goshen) and co-sponsored by 14 others, this bill passed its first reading in the Senate on Monday. The title kind of says it all, but it’s interesting to read the full bill: [link removed]

Anti-Abortion Bills Advance

Seven anti-abortion bills advanced out of committee to be debated in their respective chambers last week. With the exception of one, these bills survived the Monday cutoff.

We had hoped that some of these bills would never see the light of day in the Legislature, but it appears that lawmakers are determined to interfere with a Wyoming woman’s right to control her own reproductive system.

Of course, none of these bills will stop abortion, but they could very well move it out-of-state, making it even more difficult for the most vulnerable women to have control over their bodies.

Senate File 133 – Prohibiting Abortifacients and Chemical Abortions

This is potentially the most damaging bill to Wyoming women and their partners. The bill would outlaw two drugs and their generic equivalents: Mifepristone and Misoprostol, which are used to terminate pregnancies between four and 10 weeks. These drugs are not available over-the-counter. The drugs are also commonly used by OB/GYNs to induce labor during the delivery of a live baby, and to help women dispel tissue when experiencing a miscarriage.

Originally Senate File 133 would have criminalized those practices, as well, but the bill was amended to allow its use during a miscarriage. The original bill also would have made use of the drugs a felony punishable up to 14 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine, but amendments reduced the felony to a misdemeanor and reduced the fine to $750.

Sharon Breitweiser of NARAL Pro-Choice of Wyoming estimates that between 70 and 100 abortions are performed annually in Wyoming, almost all using the medications Wyoming legislators are trying to outlaw.

House Bill 70 – Abortion-Informed Consent – This bill would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, singles out one medical procedure (abortion) for mandated counseling and penalties for nonconformance, and promotes a false narrative about informed consent and abortion safety.

House Bill 134 – Human Heartbeat Protection – Thankfully this bill did not get a hearing on Monday and is dead. It banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people even know they are pregnant.

House Bill 161 – Human Life Equality-Prohibiting Discriminatory Abortions – This bill would prohibit abortions done for certain reasons, thereby inserting political interference into family decisions and intruding on the doctor-patient relationship.

House Bill 253 – University of Wyoming Ban on Funding for Abortion – This bill would prohibit UW from using any of its funds to provide abortions for students or health insurance coverage for abortions for students.

Senate File 34 – Born Alive Infant – Means of Care – This bill would unnecessarily modify an existing Wyoming statute regarding “means of treatment for viable abortion,” insert political interference into family decisions, advance a false narrative regarding abortion in Wyoming and stigmatize physicians. Governor Mark Gordon vetoed this bill last session, but he is under great pressure from the far right, which seated more members in the legislature in the last election.

Senate File 96 – Homicide Amendments – This bill would create new crimes of first and second degree murder for killing or attempting to kill a pregnant person, and would effectively establish fetal personhood by defining a “child in utero” as a member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development.
Support Teton Dems with an Ongoing Donation ([link removed])

============================================================
** Teton Dems Facebook ([link removed])
** tetondems.org ([link removed])
** [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
** Instagram ([link removed])
Copyright © 2021 Teton County Democrats, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
PO Box 337, Jackson, WY 83001

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]