January 27, 2023 |
At the legislature Thursday, two separate bills moved forward on narrow votes.
In the House, a bill banning discrimination by private or public business of individuals because of their Covid vaccine status or refusal to wear a mask passed on a 39-21 vote.
The floor debate lasted over an hour and was intense at times as lawmakers struggled over the balance of rights between businesses and individuals.
Representative Jeremy Haroldson of Platte County said he knew a person who died from the cure, not the disease it was touted to prevent by the business that required it.
Representative Sarah Penn, a nurse practitioner at a large medical clinic in Fremont County, characterized the response to the Covid scare in Wyoming as an overreaction that was driven by media reports.
Penn is a member of the Health Committee that approved HB 66 with a do-pass recommendation last week. Yesterday, the lawmaker described how patient visitations at her facility in Riverton dropped to minimal levels because people were afraid to seek treatments or were turned away when they sought care.
Missing from the debate were any arguments about the efficacy of either vaccines or masks as protecting against Covid-19. The loss of dollars if the bill becomes law was the biggest concern. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Bob Nicholas, opposed the bill not on the science, but because of the possible loss of federal dollars to the state.
Representative John Bear of Gillette shrugged off the threat of any financial dollars to state. Bear said other states and cities snub the federal government every day without consequences.
Although the bill passed the committee of the whole Thursday, a critical question will dog it the rest of the way through the legislative process. HB 66 has no real enforcement mechanism. The Health Committee removed the criminal penalty before approving it last Friday. Although a civil penalty has been added, critics of the bill in its current form mock it by saying the only class of people in Wyoming who will benefit are attorneys who would argue court cases over alleged discrimination.
In the Senate, a bill sponsored by Sen. Larry Hicks of Baggs that would send over $5 million in “rainy day” fund money to border states to help stem the flow of illegals was approved on 3-2 vote. Sen. Hicks said Wyoming law enforcement is mopping up the problems associated with the flow of illegals largely through drug busts involving deadly fentanyl. Click here to continue reading about the bill.
