Monday afternoon on the first day of the 68th Budget Session there was a flurry of consent lists that held interim committee bills that needed to pass introduction so they could be sent to the standing committees. Each budget session, which differs from the general session where each bill must pass a simple majority vote, non-budgetary bills must have a two-thirds majority to even be discussed.
Monday was a killing spree of committee bills.
Had it not been for the 67th Budget Session, this would not even be a story.
Last Budget Session, Two Years Ago
The establishment news media had a field day with the fact that the newly conservative majority killed thirteen committee bills right off the bat. Numerous articles were written claiming that the interim committees had worked and vetted those 13 bills and thus they had a right to be heard. The Wyoming media did so in dramatic fashion.
For example, Wyofile put it this way 2 years ago, nearly to the day:
"Tensions simmer after Wyoming Freedom Caucus kills committee bills to start session."
“Committee bills are drafted during the offseason meetings, where they get extra attention and deliberation by lawmakers, state agencies, the public and other stakeholders. That vetting process requires time and money, and in return those bills are traditionally prioritized during the session over individually sponsored legislation. They are typically much more likely to pass.”
Cowboy State Daily's headline was more dramatic: "Down The Tubes: Wyoming House Kills Record 13 Committee Bills on Introduction" Not that CSD noticed, it's not a record anymore; and the Freedom Caucus isn't the new record holder. Here is what CSD wrote 2 years ago, the same day Wyofile published their article:
“During the 2023 interim session, Sommers said more than $679,704 of state money was spent conducting and staffing the committee meetings. ‘That doesn't mean that every bill that comes out is good, that doesn't mean every bill should go to introduction,’ Sommers said on the House floor. ‘But the vast majority of committee bills should be introduced.’”
This Year
Monday, the first day of the 68th Budget Session, the House killed 21 bills while the Senate killed 11 bills. Here's the list:
Most of the day's votes turned out this way:
House:
Ayes: Representative(s) Allemand, Andrew, Angelos, Banks, Bear, Brady, Bratten, Brown, G, Brown, L, Campbell, K, Filer, Fornstrom, Geringer, Guggenmos, Haroldson, Heiner, Hoeft, Johnson, Kelly, Knapp, Lawley, Lien, Locke, Lucas, Mccann, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Riggins, Rodriguez-Williams, Schmid, Singh, Smith, Strock, Styvar, Tarver, Washut, Wasserburger, Webb, Webber, Winter
Nays: Representative(s) Byron, Campbell, E, Chestek, Clouston, Connolly, Davis, Erickson, Harshman, Jarvis, Larsen, L, Larson, Jt, Nicholas, Posey, Provenza, Sherwood, Storer, Thayer, Wharff, Williams, Wylie, Yin
Ayes 41 Nays 21 Excused 0 Absent 0 Conflicts 0
Senate:
Ayes: Senator(s) Biteman, French, Hutchings, Ide, Laursen, Mckeown, Pearson, Salazar, Scott, Steinmetz
Nays: Senator(s) Anderson, Barlow, Boner, Brennan, Case, Cooper, Crago, Crum, Dockstader, Driskill, Gierau, Hicks, Jones, Kolb, Landen, Love, Nethercott, Olsen, Pappas, Rothfuss, Schuler
Ayes 10 Nays 21 Excused 0 Absent 0 Conflicts 0
The Headlines from February 9, 2026 were very different than in 2024. There was no discussion of how much money had been spent on those 21 bills. The ‘other Republicans,’ as the Cowboy State Daily would later call them, didn’t give long statements about how much time had been wasted.
In an article by Wyoming Public Media, both chambers used multiple consent lists to help expedite bills that were already vetted in interim committees, giving each body more time to work on the budget. Wyoming Public Media using this headline, quoted Rep Karlee Provenza:
"Wyoming Lawmakers kill dozens of bills on budget session's first day"
“It's unusual to have controversial bills [on a consent list]. It's usually just committee bills, which this is, the difference is that now, committees have different control. They’re controlled by the Freedom Caucus…
“Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, called the death of the 13 bills ‘a little offensive,’ but also like Harshman blamed the two-thirds rule rather than any individual legislators. ‘I don’t think that we can provide the proper consideration of whether something should or should not be introduced where we really don’t have a chance to debate the bill at all.’”
This year, when it wasn’t the Freedom Caucus principally responsible for killing those 21 bills, the commentary from the Cowboy State Daily is a little different:
"Six of Seven Election Reform Bills Killed on Monday, Freedom Caucus Not Happy"
"The Wyoming House of Representatives rejected six of seven election reform bills considered on Monday, as a coalition of other Republicans and Democrats denied the supermajority needed to introduce legislation during a budget session."
There are definite differences in the way the news media handled the committee bills being killed on the first day in 2024 legislature versus day 1 in the 2026 session.
Is this revenge for the killing the establishments committee bills or were the bills brought forward by the conservatives bad bills? Could it be the power shift to conservative ideas instead of the more liberal mindset that has been in power for decades has just become a part of the process?
Whatever the answer to these questions, there is an obvious and clear media bias in how events at the Wyoming Capitol are reported.