October 21, 2021 |
Wyoming lawmakers are busy drafting bills and counting heads as they prepare to meet next to deal with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate the governor says is illegal federal overreach.
More than a month after President Joe Biden threatened medium to large companies with penalties if they don’t require their employees to take the experimental gene therapy drug, workers are facing deadlines to choose between their job or a jab. Union Pacific Railroad’s deadline, for instance, is December 8th.
Senate President Dan Dockstader and House Speaker Eric Barlow described the situation as “critical” and demanding of legislative action now, not next year. They’ll gavel the session to order on Tuesday morning.
The first vote will be an acid test. If it fails, the session will short-circuit and lawmakers will adjourn. While both chambers produced enough votes to trigger the session, the tallies fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the rules and approve an abbreviated, three-day session.
In the senate, where 17 members voted for the session, 20 are needed to change the rules. State Senator Larry Hicks told Bigfoot 99 that he’s confident the votes will be found in the upper chamber.
The lower chamber, where the magic number is 40, needs five more than the 35 who voted to hold the session. One of those “aye” votes will likely come from the newest state representative, Lusk rancher J.D. Williams, who was selected on Tuesday to fill the vacant seat from House District 2. That leaves four.
Representative Jerry Paxton, said yesterday it was too early to tell if the 40 votes can be found. Despite some Republicans and the one Independent are likely to vote with Democrats against the rule change, Paxton said he’s hopeful because the issue is too large to ignore.
Paxton voted for the special session in last week’s vote conducted by leadership, as did Senator Larry Hicks. Representative Donald Burkhart, House District 15-Rawlins, was one of the Republicans who voted against the session. Burkhart did not return our phone call Wednesday.
As far as what kind of legislation should be passed, Paxton said Wyoming doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Florida Legislature, he said, has drafted bills that protect citizens and will stand up in court.
The Florida Legislature drafted legislation that allows workers to sue employers if they’re fired or face retaliation for refusing the vaccination. Another bill there would strip liability protections for businesses and allow workers who suffer damaging side-effects from a mandated jab to sue their employers for compensation and damages.
In Wyoming, as many as 30 pieces of draft legislation were being shared among lawmakers. Leadership will whittle the field down three bills by this weekend. Representative Tim Hallinan of Campbell County is a medical doctor. Hallinan has drafted a bill and found a co-sponsor in the senate. We asked the representative from Gillette how the process works to get his bill on leadership’s short list.
Having a senate co-sponsor is important because the three pieces of legislation making the final cut will be presented as mirror bills in both chambers before being assigned to committees. Representative Hallinan said his bill focuses on exemptions from the shot.
Under the terms of the bill Hallinan drafted, any employer who violates the exemptions would be subject to a $5,000 fine payable to the employee. The bill also would strip away liability protections for employers against being used when of their workers is harmed by a forced inoculation.
Senator Hicks is also working on two bills he has signed onto as a co-sponsor. Hicks said he’s trying to thread a needle between protecting the rights of employees while also being sensitive to employers who are facing federal penalties from the Biden mandate.
The framework Hicks described would include the same kind of religious and medical exemptions that Representative Hallinan’s bill includes
One published report yesterday indicated that one draft bill written by a Wyoming lawmaker carries a punitive damage of $500,000 on businesses which discriminate for or against workers based on their vaccination status.
Whether the legislature actually debates the substance of any bills remains the big unknown. The process could be undone by the results of the rules vote Tuesday morning. Representative Paxton said it’s a toss-up if the vote will pass or fail.
We also know you can tell what a person truly believes by how they spend their money. So we asked Representative Paxton if he booked a room in Cheyenne for one night or three.
Stay tuned. Next week promises to be interesting.
