October 20, 2021 |
It’s official. The Wyoming Legislature will meet in special session to address COVID-19 vaccine mandates, according to an announcement released on Tuesday by the Legislative Service Office. The LSO reports that 35 “aye” votes were received from House members and 17 from state senators. The session will convene on Tuesday morning, October 26, at 10 a.m.
Carbon County’s delegation was split. State Senator Larry Hicks and Representative Jerry Paxton both voted for the session. Rep. Donald Burkhart of Rawlins voted “no.”
Leadership wants to keep the session to three days with only three bills, all addressing a single topic—vaccine mandates. If leadership is successful in trimming the sails of how the legislature conducts business, House and Senate Committee meetings will be held opening day in a mirror-bill process with all three readings of the bills scheduled for Day 2. This schedule differs from rules used by the 66th Wyoming Legislature when it met in regular session earlier this year. Changing the rules requires a two-thirds vote, and will be the first order of business after the session convenes on Tuesday.
The rules debate Tuesday morning promises to be lively. While the 35 “aye” votes in the House and 17 in the senate were enough to trigger the session, they are not enough to change the rules. For the vote on the rule change to be successful, 40 house members must and 20 senators must vote “aye.” The legislature’s Democrat caucus, which opposes the special session and any challenge to President Biden’s call for vaccine mandates, will be joined by some Republicans to defeat changing the rules. The vote will be close. It might even fail, possibly derailing the session.
In a written proclamation Tuesday, Senate President Dan Dockstader and House Speaker Eric Barlow stated that the reason for the special session is because “a critical situation exists relating to COVID-19 mandates which requires legislative action and cannot be deferred until the convening of the 2021 budget session.”
As of Wednesday, at least 30 bills had been drafted. Lawmakers will be working today and tomorrow to reduce that down to 10, from which leadership will choose the three to be considered during the session.
This will be the second time the Legislature has invoked the authority to call itself into a special session. The last time was in 2004. Wyoming voters amended the Wyoming Constitution in November of 2002 to allow the Legislature to convene a special session. Prior to the passage of the constitutional amendment, only the governor could call the Legislature into special session. Governor Mark Gordon has said that he supports a special session to address the Executive Order issued by the White House mandating vaccine requirements, an order the governor called “illegal.”
