Wyoming Legislature Passes Midway Point In 2018 Session
The 2018 Budget Session of the Wyoming Legislature officially passed the midway point on Wednesday.
In reality, lawmakers may be more than halfway finished, since it isn't known yet whether the legislature will use the full 20 days allotted for the 2018 session.
Wednesday was also the crossover period for the session, meaning that any bill which hasn't won final approval in its original house by Wednesday evening is now officially dead for this session.
A total of 330 bills and resolutions were numbered for introduction this session. As of Thursday morning, 188 bills remain active. In the Wyoming Senate, 126 bills were proposed, and 102 of those have passed the Senate and moved on to the House. The survival rate of bills int he Wyoming House was much lower, with 86 out of 204 bills moving on for consideration by the Senate.
Lawmakers are also working to hammer out a final version of the Wyoming Budget for 2019-2020. The two houses are working this week to reconcile differences between their respective budget bills in a conference committee.
After both chambers sign off on a final version of the budget, it will be sent to Governor Matt Mead for his consideration.
Since Wyoming law allows the governor line-item veto power, he can object to certain items in the budget without vetoing the entire budget bill.