CHEYENNE, WY – A state-funded contractor, Startup Wyoming, has launched a coordinated grassroots lobbying campaign to save the funding of its parent agency, the Wyoming Business Council (WBC), after a legislative committee voted to eliminate the agency’s budget. The campaign, which involved the direct participation of the WBC’s CEO, has raised significant ethical and potential legal questions about the use of state resources to influence legislative appropriations.
On January 29, 2026, Startup Wyoming’s Director of Founder Success, Christine Langley, hosted a Zoom event titled “Your Voice Matters: A Critical Call to Protect Wyoming’s Economic Future.” The event, attended by over 95 people, was organized in direct response to the Joint Appropriations Committee’s vote to defund the WBC. Startup Wyoming is an initiative of Silicon Couloir, a non-profit that holds a contract with the WBC, making the agency its primary funding source.
In a post-event email obtained by The Open Range Record, Ms. Langley urged attendees to contact their legislators before the full legislative body convenes on February 9. “If your business or someone you know benefited from support funded through the Wyoming Business Council, now is the time to speak up,” Langley wrote. “If you worked with me directly or benefited from individualized support through a program funded by the Wyoming Business Council, it is completely appropriate to say so.” (Click Here for the full email)
Participants were provided with a suite of lobbying materials, including a slide deck on “How Legislators Receive and Respond to Constituent Input,” instructions on how to write effective op-eds, and a pre-written letter template to send to legislators. The template explicitly asks lawmakers to “oppose any effort to defund the Wyoming Business Council.”
The event featured WBC CEO Josh Dorrell, who, according to Langley’s email, delivered “an important and timely message: this is the moment when constituent voices matter most.”
The close coordination between a state agency head and a state-funded contractor to lobby for the agency’s own budget has drawn criticism. According to a source who provided an audio/video recording of the event on the condition of anonymity, at least one attendee spoke out during the meeting, calling the effort “inappropriate” and warning of the “damage” being done to the broader business community by the campaign.
While the lobbying itself may not be strictly illegal under Wyoming law, it raises questions about ethical standards and the use of taxpayer money. At the federal level, this type of activity is viewed so seriously that it is prohibited by law. The federal Byrd Amendment (31 U.S.C. § 1352) expressly forbids recipients of federal grants or contracts from using those funds to lobby members of Congress or federal agency officials in connection with federal funding decisions. While this federal law does not apply to lobbying state officials, it establishes a clear ethical standard that the federal government considers it improper for a grant recipient to use taxpayer money to lobby for its own funding. Wyoming has no equivalent state law, leaving a potential ethical loophole for state-funded contractors.
The central ethical question is whether it is appropriate for an organization to use its state-funded position, title, and resources, including contact lists built through its state-funded work, to lobby for the continuation of its own funding.
Silicon Couloir, the parent organization of Startup Wyoming, was contacted for comment on these ethical and legal questions and asked whether the campaign was sanctioned by its board and leadership. No response was received by the publication deadline.
As the legislature prepares to make its final budget decisions, the line between permissible advocacy and potentially illegal, taxpayer-funded lobbying has become a central point of concern.