Lack of cooperation between houses highlights session, Rep. Lawley states

A combination of many new members in the State House of Representatives and brand new leadership created a different dynamic in Rep. Martha Lawley’s third session as House District 27 representative.

Lawley, in an interview Monday, looked back at the general session that ended March 6. According to the Legislative Service Office, the 37-day session saw 556 bills and resolutions numbered for introduction. The Wyoming Legislature passed a total of 178 bills. Of the 209 pieces of legislation that were introduced in the Senate, 99 of those bills passed both the House and Senate. The House introduced 252 bills and 79 of those garnered the approval of both the House and Senate. 

Per the LSO, 47% of committee bills passed both chambers, while 27% of the individually sponsored bills passed both bodies. 

The session, Lawley said, “was a mixed bag with some good things that happened. Overall, she noted that things, “at least on the House side, were a little bit easier to manage than my first two sessions.”

She said having new members and new leadership, all of whom were receiving basically, on-the-job training, leant itself to the nuances of this year’s session.

As for the new members, she said everyone in the House worked hard. “I think we worked fairly efficiently, considering those factors (new members and new leadership).”

She added that some committees went long due to new members asking a lot of questions, which was understandable.

Regarding leadership, Lawley said, that it appeared to her as a “rank and file member” that there was more cooperation and coordination between the Senate and House leaderships in the previous two sessions she served than in the session that just ended. 

“I didn’t see a lot of that … I am not in leadership, so maybe there was attempts to do that, but from that position of a rank-and-file member of the House, I didn’t see a lot of that,” she said.

That, perhaps, lead to the issues with the supplemental budget and the Senate opting to not pass the supplemental budget. 

“It was a unilateral decision the Senate made, and I know they have their reasons, and I even think some of their stated reasons are good that they were focused on, ‘should we spend the money now?’” Lawley said. However, the legislators were all seeing the reports that show a downturn, so that was not in dispute, but she would still rather have seen the chambers work together on the critical funding and have discussions together.

She said the Senate began working ahead of their announced decision to ensure that the Senate’s Top 3 priorities were funded:

—Funding for wildland fire fighting.

—External cost adjustment for schools

—Funding for the existing property tax refund program, because it has been so well utilized by Wyoming citizens

Lawley said she had wanted to see the funding, that had been in the supplemental budget, funded another way for development disability waiver program; for caregivers and of adults with developmental disability; and for caseworkers for persons with developmental disability under the Department of Health budget. She said that could not be worked out with the time and bill constraints after the Senate killed the supplemental budget.

“I had quite a bit of comment from people in my district that this impacted,” Lawley said.

Also eliminated once the supplemental budget bill was dead was in backfill for hardship counties including Washakie County for the loss of revenue from the 25% reduction in residential property tax.

“I was, I guess, disappointed at the lack of opportunities we had to try to address some of the concerns that were that Top 3 from the Senate side. I would say that was the most challenging thing for me,” Lawley said.

TOWN HALLS

Lawley will host the first in a series of Coffee and Conversation events this Friday, March 14 at 10 a.m. at The Other Store to visit about the session. She is also planning a Town Hall event in early April. 

More on Lawley’s wrap-up interview, including discussion of education bills will be published next week.