Today was a great day for the WEA and public education in Wyoming. Senate File 70 was the bill of the day. The House returned the additional funding for instructional facilitators and resisted an amendment that would have stripped the funding for food service.

An additional amendment added funding to the bill that allows three school districts to pilot a gifted and talented summer school program. This bill was then sent to the Senate who concurred on the changes. It next goes to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

Please send an email thanking the following Representatives for voting for the amendment to return the additional funding for instructional facilitators:

Alden, Bagby, Blake, Brown, Craft, Davison, Diercks, Dockstader, Edmonds, Edwards, Esquibel, F., Esquibel, K., Gilmore, Gingery, Goggles, Hales, Hammons, Harvey, Illoway, Jaggi, Landon, Martin, McOmie, Meyer, Miller, Millin, Olsen, Petersen, Quarberg, Shepperson, Slater, Steward, Stubson, Thompson, Throne, Wallis, Warren, Zwonitzer, Dn.

Please send an additional email to these Representatives thanking them for voting against a 3^rd reading amendment that would have stripped the funding for school food service:

Alden, Bagby, Blake, Brown, Craft, Davison, Diercks, Dockstader, Edmonds, Edwards, Esquibel, F., Esquibel, K., Gilmore, Gingery, Goggles, Hales, Hammons, Harvey, Iekel, Illoway, Jaggi, Lubnau, Martin, McOmie, Meyer, Miller, Millin, Olsen, Petersen, Shepperson, Slater, Steward, Thompson, Throne, Warren, White, Zwonitzer, Dn.

The WEA Lobby Team would like to thank the WEA members across the state who have been active in this process through lobbying at home prior to the session, calling the voter hotline, sending emails, and attending the ReBeL Conference where they were able to lobby Legislators in person. We have a long list of accomplishments that will be outlined in tomorrow’s update. As WEA members, you should take great pride in the quality of education that is offered in Wyoming; we have come a long way in a very short time.

It is a very exciting time to be working in education in Wyoming!

Bills WEA worked this year

Daily Bill Status Report

Please watch for positions that change throughout the session. Most of these changes are due to amendments to bills.

Number Link to Introduced version

Bill #	Bill Title	Link to Amendments	Explanation of the Bill	WEA' Position	Status
HB0003	Campaign finance reporting-electronic filing.	Yes	Changes campaign finance reports to an electronic form that would be posted online and would be searchable. Allows for only electronic filing	Support	H Speaker Signed HEA No. 0033
HB0009	Campaign finance reporting.	Yes	Limits Political Action Committee contributions to $3,500 per individual for legislative races and $7000 for statewide candidates per election. A very blatant abuse of the current law lead to this change	OPPOSE	Assigned Number HEA0042
HB0017	Community college commission-duties.	Yes	Implements some of the recommendations from the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Community Colleges. Our only concern is that it allows the Community College Commission the ability to cancel programs at community colleges due to low enrollment.	Support	H Adopted HB0017JC01 59-0-1-0-0
HB0025	School building plan review exception.		It just cleans up the language and allows districts to contract for building plan reviews. In practice, I believe that districts already do this, so I do not think it changes practice.	Watch	Assigned Number HEA0004
HB0054	Natural gas valuation.		Provides a fairer tax system for sour gas of which funding goes to the school foundation account.	Support	S President Signed HEA No. 0019
HB0077	Tuition-dependents of disabled firefighters and EMTs-2.		Allows children of disabled firefighters to go to college tuition free	Support	S President Signed HEA No. 0021
HB0081	Community colleges-capital construction.		loosens regulations on legislative approval of construction projects from everything over $50,000, to everything over $100,000	Watch	Assigned number HEA 0014
HB0113	School finance-minimum teacher resources.		Clarifies funding for extremely small schools granting them additional funding for the last two years and then clarifying the language so that it does not continue in the future.	Watch	Assigned Number HEA0045
HB0134	School district immunity and liability insurance.		Clarifies language for school funding of extremely small schools.	Watch	H Speaker Signed HEA No. 0027
SF0009	State retirement-board immunity.	Yes	This bill protects the members of the retirement board from legal action.	Support	H Appointed JCC02 Members
SF0017	School facilities-infrastructure costs.	Yes	I see red flags that would require the SFC to choose cheapest option available in every situation. The recent Supreme Court Decision speaks to this specifically	Oppose	Assigned Number SEA0004
SF0021	Hathaway scholarship program.	Yes	Provides student who lose their scholarship due to low GPW with an opportunity to earn it back if they bring up their GPA while they pay their own tuition.	Support	H Appointed JCC01 Members
SF0022	School facilities-amendments.	Yes	Basically it is clean up language. It does stipulate that a school building cannot be demolished without a public meeting.	Support	H Appointed JCC01 Members
SF0029	Public library endowment challenge program.	Yes	Provides public libraries an opportunity to raise funds through a matching endowment program. This bill would allow donations of $10,000 to be matched by another $10,000 from the state.	Support	S President Signed SEA No. 0040
SF0053	Common school reserve account funding.	Yes	This is a great bill - After Hathaway is full, this bill take the funding that was previously going to Hathaway and puts it in the common school trust land account.	Support	S President Signed SEA No. 0033
SF0070	School finance-amendments.	Yes	The WEA supports all portions of this omnibus bill	Support	Assigned Number SEA0045
SF0071	Hathaway scholarship program-success curriculum.		Expands the foreign language of the Success Curriculum to include Sign Language	Support	S Appointed JCC01 Members
SF0083	Retirement-rehired retirees.		Provides clarifying language to the current rehired retiree law.	Support	S President Signed SEA No. 0037