Freedom Caucus: Keep The Pressure Up For Wyoming Special Session

The head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is asking Wyoming residents to contact their legislators and ask them to support a special session of the Wyoming Legislature.

Caucus head Rep. John Bear [R-Campbell County] told Wake Up Wyoming host Glenn Woods on Tuesday that he thinks a special session could be held in May and could tackle several vetoes issued by Gov. Mark Gordon. You can hear Rep. Bear's interview with Woods in the audio file attached to this article.

The caucus, a group of conservative members of the Wyomng House of Representatives, along with Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, have been calling for a special session to try to overrride several vetoes of bills passed by the 2024 legislature in it's recently concluded session.

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Senate President Ogden Driskill and House Speaker Albert Sommers, in an op-ed on Monday, had dismissed the idea.

But the pair did an apparent about face later in the day, saying they may now call a special session specifically to reconsider Senate File 54, a homeowner property tax exemption bill. Driskill and Sommers said they had originally believed that the bill would not provide property tax relief for homeowners this year. But they said later in the day in a memo that they learned that was inaccurate and that the measure could provide tax relief this year.

They said with that thought in mind, a 2024 special session might be worth considering,  and that they are discussing what to do with Governor Mark Gordon and other legislative leaders. If a special session were called, lawmakers could vote to consider other veto overrides as well.

Vetoes That Might Be Considered For Override Votes

The Freedom Caucus, on it's website, has specifically said it would like to override vetoes of the following bills:

HB 125 Repeal Gun-Free Zones

SF 054 Homeowner Tax Exemption

HB 148 Regulation of Abortion

SF 103 Wyoming Prime Act

SF 013 Federal Land Use Plan-legal action authorized

The caucus is also not happy that Governor Gordon "exercised his line-item veto authority to provide further public funding divisive and illegal  "DEI" programming at the University of Wyoming'' and may try to override that line item vetoe as well. Bear told Woods that n fact several line-item vetoes could be considered by lawmakers,

Under Joint Rule 18-1 of the Wyoming Legislature, here is the proces for convening a special session.

The Senate Presdent and House Speaker:

(i) May initiate the written poll of the membershipunder subsection (a) of this rule by their joint agreement; and

 (ii) Shall initiate the written poll of the membershipunder subsection (a) of this rule upon the written request of not less than thirty-fivepercent (35%) of the membership elected to eachhouse, signed by those members.

(c) When a majority of the membership elected to bothhouses responds in the affirmative to the written poll conducted pursuant to subsection (a) of this rule, the

President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Houseshall jointly announce the results of the poll and establish a date for the convening of the special session."

Here is Rep, Bear's interview with Glenn Woods: