Last session, the Freedom Caucus stepped confidently into its newfound majority in the Wyoming House by introducing the “Five and Dime” plan, a list of conservative policy priorities. After a relatively successful session, the caucus said it would switch focus during this year’s budget session to right-size the state’s budget.
This budget session, the caucus’s objective wins are fewer.
Ahead of the session, the caucus again laid out five priorities, with another six “common sense” bills. The main priority was “cut wasteful spending and limit growth of government” by returning to pre-pandemic spending levels.
By the session’s end, only one of those 10 policy bills had become law.
On the last day of the session, the Freedom Caucus held a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda.
“ We passed bills to protect homeschool kids, access to school activities, to crack down on grooming and stalking in the state of Wyoming,” said Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody). “But many of our priorities did fail. Some in the House, due to the two-thirds threshold for a budget session that's required, and many in the Senate, due to the upper chamber calling it quits. Regardless of where our priorities failed, it's clear that we need reinforcements here in Cheyenne, in the state capital, in both chambers.”
Overall, caucus members said they proved their ability to govern again. They pointed to a major school funding bill becoming law, although without the governor’s signature, as proof of this. School finance recalibration is constitutionally mandated every five years.
“ It has not happened for 15 years, but the conservatives were able to achieve this for the first time in 15 years,” said Rep. Scott Heiner (R-Green River). Recalibration was last passed in 2011.
The budget
At first, the caucus made progress on denying the governor’s proposed budget increases. The Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC), stacked with Freedom Caucus members on the House side, amended the budget to be $480 million under the governor’s original proposal.
During the session, the House largely stuck to that more frugal bill, while the Senate restored many of the governor’s requests. Lawmakers in both chambers who are aligned with the caucus fought to see the University of Wyoming (UW), Wyoming Business Council (WBC), food assistance programs and state employee raises cut in an effort to curb a government that's growing too fast in their opinion.
When it came time for the two chambers to negotiate a unified budget, the Freedom Caucus, according to former chair Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette), did what they could with the caucus numbers they had. Ultimately, they largely conceded on UW funding and halved the WBC’s budget, though the governor later vetoed that cut.
“ The governor and his friends were eager to see the biennial budget fail, standing ready with fingers to point at conservatives, but it didn't,” said Rep. Rodriguez-Williams during the press conference. “We passed a budget that funds core constitutional functions of government while allowing the growth of government, while slowing the growth of government itself.”
Four more top priorities
The caucus’ four other top priorities were requiring all counties to use pen and paper ballots, allow parents to sue if they feel their parental rights are violated, remove certain books deemed “pornagraphic materials” from the children’s section of public libraries and codify public access to certain judicial branch documents.
Of those four bills, two failed to be introduced in the House and two failed to gain steam in the Senate.
Other priorities
Another six goals from the caucus included requiring Senate confirmation for state Supreme Court appointments, providing immunity from SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) lawsuits, barring regulations on pregnancy resource centers, protecting medical professionals from working against their deeply held beliefs, banning ballot drop boxes and people collecting and turning in other peoples’ ballots, and barring local governments from using Flock cameras.
Only the pregnancy resource center protection bill was signed into law. Most failed their votes to be introduced in the House. A bill to ban Flock cameras never materialized.
What’s next
Many lawmakers are already looking ahead to the upcoming midterm election with an eye for how the budget negotiations will influence voters’ choices.
“[The Freedom Caucus] went out of their way to cut the budget, and they showed what would happen if they truly got control,” Sen. Ogden Driskill (R-Devil’s Tower) told Wyoming Public Radio (WPR) a few days after the budget passed. “When you look at the [Joint] Appropriations Committee, and they cut to the point that it was absolutely unacceptable to almost everyone in the state. They overran their skis pretty hard on that.”
He added it’s “ just critical that the public continues all the way through the election to make it clear what they would like to see.”
But the Freedom Caucus said they just need to increase their numbers in the Legislature so they can do what they were elected to do.
Rep. Ken Pendergraft (R-Sheridan) said he thinks more grassroots conservatives will run for the Legislature after this session.
“ We need some help in the House. We need some help in the Senate,” said Pendergraft at the closing press conference. “We need some help in school districts. We need some help in county commissions. We need help in city councils, and the more that we prove that it can be done, that we can make a difference, then we can start to put the brakes on the governor.”
Wyoming’s primary election is on Aug. 18.
Registered voters must declare their affiliation with a political party to be able to vote that party’s ticket by May 13. Changing political parties can be done by filling out this form and returning it by mail or hand-delivered to your local county clerk’s office.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
