Wyoming House Adjournment Monday Kills Chloe’s Law, Tax Relief Bill
Nine bills died in the Wyoming House on Monday night after House members voted to adjourn for the day before considering the measures.
House Democrats joined together with members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus in voting for adjournment on Monday evening.
That killed the measures by virtue of causing them to miss the deadline for bills to be approved by the Committee of the Whole in the Second House.
Among the bills that died was Senate File 144, known as "Chloe's Law." That measure would have banned doctors from performing gender-reassignment surgery or gender transitioning surgery on children in Wyoming. However, the measure had been heavily amended during the legislative process.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus posted a statement on Facebook on the failure of Chloe's Law:
''If the body truly wanted to protect children from butchery, more members would have supported our early efforts to pull and re-refer HB144 to a different committee before it was gutted by the House Appropriations committee. The WYFC does not believe in patting ourselves on the back for supporting do-nothing legislation with a good title. We have been fighting to end the mutilation of children all session.''
House Speaker Rep. Albert Sommers, meanwhile, issued a statement saying he was more than willing to continue proceedings until all of the bills were considered:
“I made it clear to House members that we would stay in session until midnight to hear all of the Senate Bills on General File,” said Sommers. “Although many voted to continue tackling bills slated for discussion, the Freedom Caucus joined Democrats to stop debate, ensuring a number of bills still waiting to be debated would not be considered.”
But supporters of adjournment questioned the wisdom of slogging through the bills when House members are mentally exhausted and not in the best state to consider important and often complicated laws.
The other high-profile bill which died when the House adjourned on Monday night was SF 136.