Wyoming State Legislature Update
Toni Decklever, MA, RN, WNA Lobbyist
January 13th marked the first day of the 40 day general session for the Wyoming State Legislature. During this session, many pieces of legislation try to make it through the process of becoming a law. Some of these bills are the product of interim committee work that has been in process since May of 2014. Some bills are from individual legislators with issues that have been brought up by their constituents.
WNA’s biggest victory was the extension to 2020 of the Wyoming Investment in Nursing (WyIN) funding. THANK YOU to all the WNA membership who took action when we asked you to email your Legislator. Your grassroots support made this happen!
There were also a couple minor amendments that were adopted to the current statute regarding WyIN. These include removing the required year of teaching experience as part of the criteria to apply for graduate degree funding assistance and allowing teaching at a community college as part of the payoff for doctoral education assistance.
The Wyoming Nurses Association follows the bills that address the associations Legislative Agenda and those that come out of the Labor, Health and Social Services Committee (LHSS). This committee has been working for the past year to address several pieces of legislation, including Medicaid Expansion. SF 129 Expansion of Medicaid received a great deal of attention, but did not make it through the Senate. It got as far as 3rd reading and then was defeated 11-19.
A total of 423 bills were filed with the Legislative Service Office. 246 were House Bills and 146 were Senate Files. There were also 18 resolutions filed. In the first few days of the session, bills were introduced and assigned to a committee where they were discussed and debated. If the bill passed out of committee, it moved on to the Senate or House floor.
Though many bills do not make it through the entire process, it is possible that the committee or legislative sponsor will try to get it through next year when the body meets for the 20 day budget session. The Senators and Representatives will hear suggestions for interim topics and will develop the priorities to be studied during the interim. Committees will begin meeting as early as May, 2015 to begin working on studies and issues that could possibly become draft legislation for next year.
Committee meetings are open meetings that anyone can attend. The schedule will be posted on the Wyoming Legislature Website when it is formulated. WNA members are encouraged to attend these meetings in order to provide information to the LHSS committee. For more information or if you have questions, please contact Toni Decklever at tonisrn@gmail.com