This story is part of a collaborative legislative initiative by WyoFile, Wyoming Tribune Eagle, The Sheridan Press and Jackson Hole News&Guide to deliver comprehensive coverage of Wyoming’s 2026 budget session.
CHEYENNE—For her final time as a sitting member of Congress, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis addressed the Wyoming Legislature on Monday morning.
During her speeches, Lummis touted her work advancing Wyoming priorities in the nation’s capital. Among them were the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, digital assets and data centers, and a presidential pardon for a Wyomingite.
Lummis has been a mainstay in Wyoming politics for much of her life, having first been elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1978 and serving from 1979 to 1983. From 1985 to 1993, she again served in the Wyoming House, and then from 1993 to 1995, she served in the Wyoming Senate. After leaving the Wyoming Senate, Lummis took short, intermittent breaks between her service in public office. She served as Wyoming state treasurer from 1999 to 2007. After that, Lummis served in Wyoming’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat from 2009 to 2017. Lummis was then elected to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2020 as the first Wyoming woman to hold that office.
While many government employees had Monday off for President’s Day, Lummis’ presentations helped lawmakers kick off the second week of the 2026 budget session.
Like her Senate counterpart, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, Lummis lauded the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, sometimes referred to as the Working Families Tax Cut. The law reduces taxes on tips and overtime by allowing Americans to deduct up to $25,000 for tips and up to $12,500 for overtime, increases the child tax credit by $200 and creates Trump Accounts for children born between 2025 and 2028. The accounts launch July 5 and children are enrolled by a parent or guardian with Internal Revenue Service Form 4547. The U.S. Treasury Department deposits $1,000 into an Individual Retirement Account for eligible children, which they cannot access until age 18.
On behalf of Wyoming-based Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, Lummis announced the company would make a financial contribution to the Trump Accounts of Wyoming children born in 2026. Neither the company nor Lummis’ announcements indicate the contribution amount.
With Kraken announcing its relocation to Cheyenne in June 2025, Lummis said she hopes it, as well as other digital asset and artificial intelligence companies, can help keep Wyoming youth in the state.
She described the appetite for artificial intelligence as “insatiable,” adding she has worked hard to ensure the companies looking to power AI data centers know they can come to Wyoming. She noted Microsoft and Meta currently operate data centers near Cheyenne and Google “is looking here” because the state has a surplus of energy production. Wyoming exports 12 times as much energy as it consumes, Lummis said.
Lummis also touted her push for Troy Lake to be pardoned by President Donald Trump. Lake is a Wyoming diesel mechanic imprisoned for violating the Clean Air Act by disabling emission monitoring systems in commercial vehicles. He pleaded guilty and began a 12-month federal prison sentence on Dec. 5, 2024.
Lake was pardoned on Nov. 7, 2025. Now, Lummis said, Lake is working with her office to push to reform Environmental Protection Agency regulations “that will protect our air,” but help to ensure the vehicles still work well in cold weather states, like Wyoming.
Lummis reflected with fondness and gratitude on her time in Washington, D.C., saying Wyoming is a special place.
“I hope that we have provided you with a footprint and a foot pad to go forward, so the jobs we’ve worked so hard to create can just grow for Wyoming,” Lummis said. “That every area of Wyoming that’s yearning to keep their young people here… have a home right here in Wyoming where they can raise their families.”