Wyoming Legislature live: Gordon says Wyoming ‘outgunned’ on Colorado River

Wyoming is “out-manned and outgunned by virtually every other state on the Colorado River,” Gov. Mark Gordon said during his State of the State address, referring to ongoing negotiations about which states might have to reduce their reliance on the embattled river system.

To ensure Wyoming’s position, Gordon implored lawmakers to adhere to his budget request to “shore up” the State Engineer’s Office budget and to add funding for contract services through the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office. Doing so would help “protect Wyoming’s water use in all of our basins where water flows out of the state.”

Wyoming, along with much of the Colorado River basin, is in the midst of a 30-year-drought, Gordon acknowledged.

“We all know we have a significant water crisis on our hands, from the Snake, the Tongue [rivers], North Platte [River] and Colorado [River],” Gordon said. “Wyoming is faced with more significant legal threats and engineering challenges. We must make sure we have the resources to address these issues.”
State Engineer Brandon Gebhart announced in January that Colorado River water managers will likely order extra water releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to help maintain Lake Powell, due to a lingering “snow drought” in the region. Last week, the state engineer issued a “priority administration” order on the North Platte River and its tributaries. That means many junior rights holders, which include municipalities, must stop water diversions from the system.

— Dustin Bleizeffer

During his State of the State address, Gov. Mark Gordon called on lawmakers to “rejuvenate, renovate and reimagine the Wyoming Business Council,” acknowledging the Joint Appropriations Committee’s proposal to defund and dismantle Wyoming’s top economic development shop. 

“We’re in a real competition with other states and other nations, and we need to fully understand that growth expands our choices, but does not need to change our character,” Gordon said, adding that news of the Business Council’s potential demise has already “put a chill in the air” for the business community.

“Our competitive neighbors are already salivating,” Gordon said. “Let us not feed their ambition.”

The governor suggested that a task force could be created to reform the council after the budget session. The council had requested a budget of $112 million for the next biennium, or two-year budget cycle. Gordon, in his recommendation to lawmakers, trimmed the request to $54.6 million, mostly by removing $50 million for an ongoing broadband buildout effort.

— Dustin Bleizeffer

In his State of the State address, Gov. Mark Gordon pushed back on several cuts proposed by the Legislature’s primary budgeting arm. 

One of the more drastic measures includes defunding and dismantling the Wyoming Business Council, the state’s economic development agency. Gordon instead called on lawmakers to work with him “to rejuvenate, renovate and reimagine the Wyoming Business Council.”

More specifically, Gordon recommended forming a task force as “an appropriate way to seek the reform desired.”

“The talk of killing the business council has already put a chill in the air, a ‘closed for business’ sign, if you will,” Gordon told lawmakers.  “Our competitive neighbors are already salivating. Let’s not feed their ambition.”

Gordon also pointed to a program designed to supplement food needs during the months when kids don’t have access to school lunches. Known as the SUN Bucks program, the funding provides income-qualified families with a debit card loaded with $120 per student, or $40 per month. 

The Legislature opted out of the program last year. Gordon asked lawmakers to reconsider that decision. 

“What kind of people are we if we won’t feed our kids? Why wouldn’t we do this?” Gordon said. 

In his budget proposal, the governor recommended across-the-board pay raises for state employees. Lawmakers rejected the suggestion and opted instead to increase pay for only certain positions, including plow drivers and Wyoming Highway Patrol officers. 

“Wyoming’s government must be efficient. Some may believe there is never a good time to bolster state employees,” Gordon said. “Those may be the same people who love to criticize them for working for the government. But let me tell you, they are wrong.”

— Maggie Mullen

People in business attire sat on lounge chairs and benches of the House lobby during Gov. Mark Gordon’s State of the State speech, looking at their open laptops and phones. One woman balanced a binder on her knees, another wrote and looked at copious notes in a large notepad. Tyler Lindholm, a former state lawmaker who now works for Americans for Prosperity, walked into the lobby and greeted a woman. Three troopers stood guard at the lobby’s entrance. The House gallery was packed for the governor’s speech, with many people standing.

— Maya Shimizu Harris

About 20 people — many wearing lilac sashes printed with the words “Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.” — gathered in a small room of the Herschler Building to hear the League of Women Voters speak about election bills up for consideration this session. Sashes, pins that said “Protect Wyoming Elections” and “Vote,” an array of pamphlets and four fat red binders with more than 1,500 petition signatures sat on a table draped with a white League of Women Voters cloth. 

The league’s petition urges lawmakers to “oppose legislation that creates unwarranted barriers to hard-working, honest Wyomingites casting their votes.” Wyoming League of Women Voters President Linda Barton said these signatures come from every county in the state. 

The group held a press conference focused on numerous bills that aim to ban ballot drop boxes, mandate pen-and-paper ballots, restrict the kind of identification people can use to vote and require random hand count audits of ballots, among other election requirements and restrictions. 

Carol Mathia and Vanda Edington, both Cheyenne residents, stood talking at the sidelines of the room before the press conference began. Edington wore a purple sash and a pin that said “Wyoming Women Voting Since 1969.” Mathia wore a pink and yellow sash and a League of Women Voters pin. “I feel that these laws are voter suppression laws,” Mathia, who has worked as an election judge and ballot counter, said of the bills that were the focus of the morning’s event. “All this is going to do is make it harder to vote.” 

The message of Barton and her colleague, Cheyenne President Kari Eakins, was much the same — “I’m here today because the League of Women Voters has identified a slate of election bills proposed under the guise of election integrity that will intentionally and effectively make it harder for eligible, law-abiding Wyoming citizens to vote and to have a voice in their government,” Barton began. She described the bills as “unnecessary and unwarranted hurdles” that “represent significant government overreach.” 

Many of the bills in question are repeats. But unlike previous years, many of them came out of the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee “with strong support” for the 2026 session, rather than being sponsored by individual lawmakers, Eakins pointed out. “That, historically in Wyoming, can increase a bill’s chances of being enacted into law,” Eakins said.

— Maya Shimizu Harris

It was a somber start to the 2026 budget session for members and allies of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, who gathered at 7 a.m. alongside other officials, clergy members and voters in Cheyenne. 

The caucus asked “friends, family and neighbors” to join them “in a gathering to pray for unborn babies, for the Lord to guide our work during the session, and more.”

Standing in the Wyoming Capitol Rotunda, Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, recalled the Wyoming Supreme Court’s ruling last month that struck down the state’s two abortion bans as unconstitutional. 

It was one of “the most emotional things” he’s ever dealt with as a lawmaker, Neiman said. He wept that day, Neiman said, unable to control himself. 

Today, Neiman looked ahead. 

“We are facing an election year,” he said, telling those who had gathered to ask candidates “where they’re at on life.” 

The group of about 65 people then descended the steps of the Capitol and walked the block to the Supreme Court building. 

There they stood in a circle on the grass, some clasping their hands, eyes closed. Others wore cowboy hats, held signs — “Abortion is not healthcare.” — and an American flag. Cars passed. Two wild geese flew overhead. In hushed tones, several pastors led in prayer. 

Nine out of ten times, the masses will choose evil, Sheridan Republican Rep. Ken Pendergraft, a pastor, told the group. But God has a “perfect will,” and would decide what came next, Pendergraft said. 

No lawmaker who spoke pointed to specific legislation. The day before, however, Neiman’s bill banning abortion except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy was posted to the Legislature’s website. It’s a different approach than the one he described to reporters in the immediate aftermath of the ruling. That one would put the decision to voters in November in the form of a constitutional amendment.

— Maggie Mullen

The budget session began quietly. Lone lawmakers, lobbyists and legislative staff trickled in through the echoing capitol extension a little after 7 a.m., walking past the statue of Chief Washakie and empty chess tables. Lusk Republican Rep. J.D. Williams, dressed in a navy suit jacket, tan boots and a red tie illustrated with bucking broncos, walked alone through the long corridor. Williams only “slept a little bit” last night — he stayed up reviewing about 40 bills and talking with people back home. “I had a lot of work to do,” he said. 

The House and Senate chambers were still. Three lawmakers — Rock Springs Republican Rep. Cody Wylie, Rawlins Republican Rep. Pam Thayer and Baggs Republican Rep. Bob Davis — sat at their desks in the House talking. A doorman wandered from his post to peek over the second-floor banister and listen to Hulett Republican Rep. Chip Neiman addressing a group of Wyoming Freedom Caucus lawmakers gathered in the rotunda. Some offices were open, one revealing an empty table and a stand stuffed with multi-colored bags of chips. 

Powell Republican Sen. Dan Laursen walked toward the staircase next to the Wyoming Supreme Court gallery cradling in his left arm a bottle of CeraVe lotion, a small black fan and a blue cloth bean bag. “I’ve got a bean bag so I can throw it at someone,” he said. (He was joking. He uses it to help him write on his i-Pad.) 

Among his priorities, he wants to see the Wyoming Business Council defunded this session. “I’m not sure they’re doing the job they were set out to do,” he said. Last month, lawmakers on the Joint Appropriations Committee advanced Laursen’s bill to dismantle the council in a 9-3 vote. 

Chase Christensen, the superintendent and principal of Sheridan County School District 3, walked up the stairs on the Senate side. It’s his seventh year at session. He’s here to talk with lawmakers about potential amendments for proposed education measures — specifically the school recalibration, school discipline and K-3 reading bills. He had breakfast this morning with his district’s representative: Buffalo Republican Rep. Marilyn Connolly.

— Maya Shimizu Harris

Based on the last few months of legislative hearings, we’re expecting a dramatic and likely contentious budget fight this session. The Joint Appropriations Committee, the Legislature’s budgeting arm, made major cuts to the University of Wyoming and voted to defund the Wyoming Business Council, and it’s uncertain whether the full Legislature will agree with those recommendations. A bruising battle over education funding is also expected.

But first, lawmakers will gather at 10 a.m. today to hear Gov. Mark Gordon deliver his State of the State address. (Watch the speech online here.) He’ll be followed by Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Lynne J. Boomgaarden, who will deliver the State of the Judiciary to lawmakers, some of whom contemplated cutting the number of justices after the high court ruled Wyoming’s abortion bans violated the state constitution. 

From there, the House and Senate are expected to take up bill introductions, which are always interesting during a budget session, where bills require a supermajority just to be considered.

— Joshua Wolfson