2007 Final Legislative Report
By Becky Vandeberghe
March 13, 2007

The 59th General Legislative Session has proven to be our most successful to date. With 10 bills on our watch list, it proved to be one of our busiest as well. We weathered many ups and downs. Yet even in the worst defeats we have reason to be hopeful.

Compulsory Attendance, a bill that would raise the compulsory attendance from 16 to 18, thus creating less parental control and more governmental intrusion into the home, died in the House Education Committee 8-1 for the second year in a row. We certainly do appreciate all the help that the Wyoming concernced citizens put forth with their phone calls and e-mails.

A few of the bills that we were supporting did not get as far as we would have liked. One such bill was the Women's Right to Know bill, which was struck down on first reading in the House; we felt the loss clear down to our souls. Political games were played by one freshman legislator that we must reveal. (Representative) Dr. Timothy Hallinan (R-Gillette) actively lobbied against this bill, clearly being allied with the Wyoming Medical Association who opposed this legislation in force. Do not be fooled by his voting record on this one. Representative Hallinan originally voted against this bill, but after seeing the bill was going to fail, changed his vote to be on record as "pro-life". With legislators like this working against us, then going on record as being in league with those who are "pro-life," we have many changes to make in the 2008 election.

However, it is noteworthy that this bill made it out of the committee and onto the house floor for the first time. Not to mention the fact that the speaker had to request a roll call vote in order to defeat the bill. As a result, we now have a voting record of those who opposed this legislation. It will most assuredly prove valuable during the 2008 election. Therefore, we consider this a small victory for the 2007 session.

Next, we dealt with the Lottery bill. With many phone calls and e-mails from many organizations around Wyoming, this bill was defeated on February 9th. We commend the citizens of Wyoming, for a job well done.

Shortly thereafter, we were able to see the Homicide During Pregnancy bill sail through the Senate Labor Committee, pass the Senate floor's first and second readings after an intense lobbying effort, and then squeak through with a third reading vote of 16-12. This bill took a lot of our time and effort along with Wyoming Right to Life. Steven Ertelt, President of Wyoming Right to Life, is a welcome addition to the lobbying efforts on behalf of the unborn in Wyoming. We needed every bit of his expertise in getting this bill passed.

With this bill being heard at the same time as the infamous Quality Child Care bill, I had to call in a substitute lobbyist when the Homicide bill reached the House Judiciary committee. Diane Daphny Ramey was a wonderful addition to our lobbying efforts and the committee voted to pass the Homicide During Pregnancy bill with a 6-3 vote. On the House floor, it again seemed to squeak through first reading, with 31 Representatives voting for the bill. With many attempts to amend and kill this bill from the NARAL and Planned Parenthood organizations, the lobbying effort had to be strong and consistent in order to maintain the support of those who voted in favor of the bill.

The hard work, time and energy paid off with a final victory of a 35-24 vote. The debate on the floor was very intense and we have many wonderful Representatives to thank, too many to list in this report. However, we do want to acknowledge their hard work, so thank you to all those who so passionately spoke in favor of this important legislation. With the Governor vetoing this bill, we now have him showing his true colors as a pro-abortion rights liberal instead of the conservative that he portrays himself to be during the elections. With his veto on this bill, we have him on record. We now can use this against him if he seeks any other office in the future. Again, this was not a loss but a victory when we take this into consideration.

Meanwhile, the Defense of Marriage bill known as SF 13 Same Sex Marriages was also making its way through the legislature. This bill was introduced because 40 other states have this protection since the 1996 Federal DOMA bill was passed and stated that "each state" has the ability to pass their own protection for marriage if they so desire. Wyoming and New Mexico are currently the only states west of New York without protection.

SF 13 surprisingly made it through the Senate Judiciary committee with a 3-2 partisan split. This was a first and we were thrilled to see it make it to the Senate floor for debate. Then an amazing veto-proof vote of 21-8 on third reading, made us hopeful this bill would pass the House as well. When this bill finally made it to the House, we believed it would be assigned to the House Judiciary committee. We spoke with Chairman Buchanan and we were very confident the bill would pass his committee with ease.

However, as we continued to wait, it became obvious that something underhanded was going on. Finally, in the last week of committee hearings, the bill was introduced and to our dismay was sent to the House Rules and Procedure committee. With much confusion we tried to find out why this legislation was sent to a committee that very seldom hears bills. Confirming our suspicions, we were informed by one member of the committee that the only reason a bill is ever sent to this committee is to "die".

Some of us testified on behalf of SF 13 Same Sex marriages on the last day that a bill could come out of committee. The debate was intense, passionate, and well planned out. Representative Simpson (R-Cody) asked many questions that were clearly designed to damage the proponents' position on this bill, which appeared as a political scheme to kill the bill. Apparently not wanting his constituents to know that he was against this bill, he played all his cards against the bill, but then voted in favor of it…for the record of course.

Such odd behavior was only one indication that the cards were stacked against us. This extremely liberal committee that also has a very sly chairman in House Speaker Roy Cohee, failed to pass the only bill that would protect Wyoming from having to recognize gay marriages from other states and countries. This bill was sent to this committee to fail, and fail it did. It would not seem like such a defeat if it had not done so well in the Senate. This despicable occurrence proves that unless we elect principled people in the House and the Senate, we will not be able to accomplish the measures needed for our protection in the future.

Nevertheless, we are clearly gaining momentum. In years past, this bill never even made it through a committee. After its strong showing on the Senate floor, we know now that for this bill to pass we need leadership in the House that will defend the sanctity of marriage. We intend to make sure the citizens of Wyoming remember this in 2008.

Let's not forget all the hard work that was put into Quality Child Care by the Wyoming citizens. This bill is governmental intrusion into the private businesses of Wyoming. We have worked on this one for two years to try to minimize the "socialized spending" that it creates. We did our best and ended up having to compromise. Too many legislators were afraid to say no to this one because of its title and because of the intense pressure from Governor Freudenthal and his wife. But we did manage to get the intrusive quality rating system (created by last year's version) out of the statute and we drastically reduced the funding. This was a minor victory, considering the powerful socialist forces pushing for this bill. It is yet another example of why Wyoming Citizens need to be vigilant when voting in an election and why we must carefully watch the legislators while they are in session.

Overall, we consider this session to be a successful one and hope that as we gain membership and expertise, we will be even more successful in the years to come. If we have the support of the concerned citizens of Wyoming in the form of prayers, emails, phone calls, letters to the editor, as well as attending legislative committee hearings, then the concerned citizens of Wyoming will be heard by our citzens legislature.

Thank you Wyoming citzens, WyWatch members, and other like-minded organizations that fought beside us. We look forward to serving you next year and for years to come.