Over 1 million readers this year!

Dems, GOP in pitched battle over special COVID legislative session

Will Smith, an emergency room doctor in Jackson, gets jabbed with a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 16, 2020. (Angus M. Thuermer, Jr./WyoFile)

By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile

UPDATE Oct 22 — The 20 bills filed for the special session are available for review at the Legislature’s website.

Wyoming lawmakers are deeply divided along party lines over the need for, and structure of, a forthcoming special legislative session called to fight proposed federal COVID-19 vaccination and/or testing rules.

Democrats have labeled the Oct. 26 to Oct. 28 convening a waste of time and money that could force Wyoming businesses to choose between violating either a federal or state law.

The special session will be “an undue burden to the taxpayer [and] a waste of time and resources for legislators and our staff,” minority leaders Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) and Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie) wrote their Republican counterparts earlier this month.

The session will weigh on Wyoming businesses “who would be forced to choose between following state OR federal law, requiring them to be in violation of one or the other,” the letter reads.

Senate President Dan Dockstader (R-Afton) disagreed, saying that the legislature was being duly responsive to public demand. “We just started to hear more overall concern with [COVID-19 vaccine] mandates,” he said.

“When people are showing an interest [in a special session] we have an obligation to reach out,” he said of his decision to poll lawmakers and launch the session.

Thirty-five House members and 17 senators voted to hold the special session, enough to attain majority approval in the 60-seat lower and 30-seat upper chambers. All nine Democrats either boycotted the poll or voted against the session.

Meantime, the House and Senate Rules & Procedure Committee will debate four pages of special session rules Thursday, according to Dockstader and Speaker of the House  Eric Barlow (R-Gillette). The two committees will discuss — but not vote on — expedited procedures for the three-day session. The committee meeting will be broadcast via livestream available on the Legislature’s website.

Among other things, the proposed rules would give majority floor leaders the authority to propose bills for consideration, call for mirror bills to advance in the House and Senate simultaneously, limit committee discussion and legislators’ speaking time and otherwise condense the process of enacting legislation.

Convened to address what Dockstader and Barlow called  “a critical situation … relating to COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” the special session seeks to counter pending temporary federal emergency standards expected to be enacted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan calls for that agency to enact standards to require all employers with 100 or more workers to have employees produce a weekly negative test result or get vaccinated.

Biden’s plan also calls for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to require the vaccination of workers in most healthcare settings that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement.

The Wyoming Department of Health lists 1,136 COVID-19-related deaths to date, and reports 39.1% of Wyoming’s population has been vaccinated. The New York Times puts Wyoming’s vaccination rate higher and just ahead of Idaho’s and last-place West Virginia’s.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 67% of Wyoming adults have had at least one shot and that residents have the most vaccine hesitancy of any state. Fully 25.3% of Wyoming adults are reluctant to get the jab, compared to a nationwide rate of 10.9%; 58.1% of those Wyomingites list mistrust of the government as a reason.

Will two-thirds agree to rules?

The special session will address federal regulations that have yet to be enacted. OSHA has submitted its proposed rules to the White House, according to Bloomberg Law, but has not yet adopted them.

Wyoming Democrats will vote against the special session rules, the party’s leaders’ letter to Dockstader and Barlow states. Current legislative rules require the new special session procedures to be adopted by a two-thirds majority, their letter says.

House Majority Floor Leader Eric Barlow (R-Gillette), left, and Senate Majority Leader Dan Dockstader (R-Afton) wait to speak with reporters on the opening day of the 2018 Legislative session. (Andrew Graham/WyoFile)

That suggests that the vote margins that enabled the special session — 35 of 60 in the House and 17 of 30 in the Senate, would not be sufficient to adopt a new process of expedited lawmaking.

The proposed special session rules “would rush the legislative process” and limit “the ability to work through considerations from each chamber,” the minority leaders’ letter reads. Proposed session rules would limit debate and public opportunity “to provide meaningful commentary in both chambers.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

Related