2012 Legislative Session nears its end; get your input to your representatives

The 2012 Wyoming Legislative Budget Session has ended its third week.

This means that all legislation must have passed from its house of origin to the other chamber. In other words, if a bill did not get three readings in its house of origin, passed all three, and was transferred to the other house, it can’t be passed into law this year.

Of the 244 bills numbered for introduction, 138 remained active this week after the crossover deadline on Tuesday. The Senate introduced 97 pieces of legislation and 71 of those bills have moved to the House for consideration.  The House introduced 82 bills and passed 67 bills on to the Senate for deliberation. Sixty-five bills were not considered for introduction.

Other important dates are coming up.

Today – Friday March 2, 2012 – is the last day for a bill to be passed by a committee to be considered by the entire chamber.

March 5 is the last day for a bill to have its first reading in the second house; March 6 is the last day for second reading; and March 7 is the last day for the third and final reading.

After that, the House of Representatives and the Senate will try to work out any differences in bills they have passed in conference committee.

So if you’re tracking a bill that’s important to you, now is one of your last chances to get in touch with your representatives to voice your opinion!

To track the status of bills, go to http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/session/BillsInfo.aspx

For contact information for your representatives, go to http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWeb/LegInfo.aspx

For general information about the legislature, go to http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWeb/Session/SessionHome.aspx

Guy V. Padgett has been with WyoFile since October of 2011. He serves as WyoFile’s operations director

Leave a comment

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for: 

  • Your real name — first and last. 
  • Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
  • The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
  • Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
  • Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
  • No more than three comments per story, including replies. 

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

  • Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
  • Comments that are not directly relevant to the article. 
  • Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
  • Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
  • Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know: 

  • Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement. 
  • We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
  • We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance. 
  • Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
  • We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you. 

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *