Bills are flying and dying in the Wyoming Legislature's budget session. And lawmakers haven't even touched the budget itself yet.
WyoFile's Maggie Mullen and Wyoming Public Radio's Chris Clements highlight some of the biggest upsets – and an incident of checks on the House floor that's launched investigations.
Chris Clements: This is the Cheyenne Roundup, a weekly look at Wyoming's legislative session from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile.
Maggie Mullen: Lawmakers gaveled in and hoo boy, things were off to the races.
CC: Yeah, that's an understatement. It's Friday, Feb. 13 at about 9:30 in the morning. We are in Cheyenne, actually across the street from the Capitol, in Wyoming Public Radio's politics headquarters. Today we're going to break down some of the surprises from the session's first few days, how the balance of political power is playing into those surprises and what's up with the budget.
But first: Maggie, you got a huge scoop.
MM: Sure did. I got a tip about a private citizen handing out campaign donation checks to lawmakers on the House floor Monday night after hours. I worked alongside Jasmine Hall at the Jackson Hole News&Guide, and we were able to substantiate the tip.
CC: Is that kind of exchange unusual?
MM: It's unusual to see something like that happen on the House floor. It's raised a lot of questions for lawmakers about optics and potential misconduct.
In fact, both the House and Senate are now investigating the controversy.
The person in question is Rebecca Bextel. She's a Teton County conservative activist. Our investigation found that Bextel handed out checks to several Republican legislators.
CC: What kind of proof were you able to track down?
MM: We relied on interviews with lawmakers, a photograph taken by a lawmaker and security footage to substantiate the tip.
When I first approached Bextel to get her side of the story, I caught her at the top of the stairs outside the House gallery, which everyone is out of breath when they get to the top of those stairs. But the conversation didn't last very long. Let's roll the tape.
Maggie Mullen interview tape: There's been, maybe, quite a bit of chatter at the Capitol. Folks wanna know, Monday night when you were on the floor with lawmakers – I'm sorry, you're out of breath. I get out of breath every time I go up those stairs. People are chattering about, you know, what you may or may not have handed to lawmakers on the floor that night. So I just wanted to put it to you: What did you hand to –
Rebecca Bextel interview tape: It's nobody's business.
Maggie Mullen interview tape: Ok, I mean, that's fine. Were they checks?
Rebecca Bextel interview tape: It's nobody's business.
Maggie Mullen interview tape: Ok, thanks, Rebecca.
MM: You can sort of hear her walk away into the House gallery.
Donor checks actually are the people's business in the sense that Wyoming law requires that those filings are public. The next campaign finance reporting deadline isn't until August 11. That means candidates aren't required to disclose donations or expenditures until then. We'll be watching for that, and obviously whatever comes of these investigations.
Later in the day on Wednesday, she admitted in a social media post that she hand delivered the checks on behalf of an unnamed Teton County donor, but maintains that she did nothing wrong. Quite the story to unfold in just the first few days of the session.
CC: It's a massive story, Maggie, and the shockwaves from it are still reverberating around the Capitol. And I'll go on the record here and be the first to call it Checkgate. I think that's appropriate.
Something that was really noticeable this week was just how many bills that were drafted by lawmaking committees died. I counted about 33 out of roughly 105 committee bills that were up for introduction.
MM: We also saw that happen two years ago, so why is this a big deal?
CC: Well, committee bills have had time and taxpayer money put into them, so they're generally expected to do better than bills sponsored by individual lawmakers.
Killing so many committee bills highlights the balance of power between Wyoming Freedom Caucus members and allies, and moderate Republicans and Democrats, who're in the minority in the House. It's a sign that the Legislature continues to be pretty polarized.
Remember: Bills need a two-thirds majority vote to be introduced.
MM: For sure. The Freedom Caucus only has a simple majority in the House, just over half the votes.
CC: That's right, and we're seeing moderate Republicans and Democrats playing defense together.
Here's Representative Ken Chestek, a Democrat from Laramie:
Ken Chestek: The only opportunity we have to have any real influence on legislation is during introduction votes when there's a two-thirds rule. Once we get past that, it's gonna be a lot harder for us to do anything.
MM: The shoe is on the other foot with the Freedom Caucus calling out lawmakers for "not really caring about committee bills."
CC: Exactly. Representative John Bear, former Freedom Caucus chair of Gillette, told me something similar in the hallway.
John Bear: It's a little different when you're killing bills that the people want … But they still have the right to do that, just as we did in 2024. The difference is: What is it that the people want?
MM: The Freedom Caucus came out of the 2024 election saying they had a mandate, that their newfound majority was proof voters wanted sweeping change.
CC: Yeah, but that was undercut a bit though, by low voter turnout in that year's primary. Just 27% of eligible voters cast a ballot in that primary. That's where most races in Wyoming are actually decided, the primary, not the general.
MM: Bear also told me before the session that lawmakers voting down Freedom Caucus priorities will pay the price in the next election. So we'll see how that shakes out in August and November.
But let's get into some of the committee bills that died.
CC: There's a bunch, Maggie. And some are pretty consequential.
I'll start with recalibration. This is a constitutionally mandated update to how the state funds its public schools. A committee has been working on it with outside consultants for the past year.
MM: And this is similar to the budget, in that the House and Senate were considering an identical draft.
CC: On the House side, it failed to be introduced. It was unpopular among Wyoming educators and school administrators because it proposed to cut hundreds of teaching positions and boost class sizes, with some pay raises.
The bill is still in play over in the Senate, so we'll be watching to see how it's marked up there.
MM: Another slate of committee bills to come to end: election legislation. Those measures were also backed by Secretary of State Chuck Gray, so kind of a legislative-executive branch alignment.
CC: The House shot down six bills forwarded to them from the Joint Corporations and Elections Committee. Damage in the Senate was less severe, with two bills failing.
MM: Among the dead: banning ballot drop boxes and so-called ballot harvesting. That's when someone collects and delivers ballots on other people's behalf. This is common at nursing homes but some advocacy groups also do this at events. Also dead: Requiring pen and paper ballots. And expanding access for poll watchers.
CC: Some other election bills that came from individual lawmakers also died, like requiring all ballots to be counted by hand. That would've been a really big change. Currently all counties use machine tabulators to tally up votes.
MM: But some of these election bills are still in play. One that came out of the Corporations Committee allows for certain recounts to be done by hand. And one sponsored by Majority Floor Leader Representative Scott Heiner from Green River sets up a process for recalling municipal elected officials. That would be another big change, as there's currently no way to do that.
CC: Another big committee bill upset that I noticed was the proposal to dissolve the state's primary economic development agency, the Wyoming Business Council. The bill to abolish the agency and split up its remaining work between other state agencies failed to be introduced.
MM: That said, the cuts to the agency are still in the proposed budget.
CC: Before we get to the budget, I want to rewind to the Legislature's first day for just a second. The governor and the chief justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court addressed the Legislature.
[Gov. Mark] Gordon continued to urge the Legislature to walk back their cuts to his recommendations. He highlighted funding for SUN Meals. These are lunches distributed to K-12 students during the summertime.
MM: Chief Justice Lynn Boomgaarden had her own message for the Legislature, which was this: Judicial decisions are not political statements.
Lynn Boomgaarden: I would feel cowardly and complicit if, at this point, I didn't address an uncomfortable reality. Recently the public has heard rhetoric suggesting retaliation against or defunding of courts because of the outcome in one high-profile case. There is no greater threat to a stable system of government than the weakening of the Judicial Branch for political gain.
MM: Reading between the lines, that case she mentioned was likely the Supreme Court's ruling that Wyoming's two abortion bans are unconstitutional. The Freedom Caucus – without evidence – alleged the decision was "engineered." And they've proposed overhauling the ways judges are chosen.
CC: Thanks Maggie, I'm glad you brought that up. And now, I think we can get to the budget.
MM: Alright! They started to work on the budget at the end of this week. The next thing we're looking at is Tuesday. That's when lawmakers will start bringing amendments.
This is where we can expect to see some lawmakers try to restore some of those cuts. Others, like certain members of the [Joint] Appropriations Committee are sure to try to defend the budget as it's proposed.
This is also where we could see the House and the Senate really go in different directions with the budget. How far apart they land remains to be seen, but to pass a budget they'll have to figure out a way to compromise and agree to a single version of the bill.
CC: It's been interesting to see Wyomingites are starting to trickle in to lobby their lawmakers and advocate for what they want to see brought back into the budget. So that'll continue to be something to watch.
Thanks for listening to the Cheyenne Roundup, your weekly look at what lawmakers are up to during the 2026 legislative session from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile. New episodes drop every Friday throughout the session.
MM: Make sure to like this episode and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
CC: Editing and producing by Tennessee Watson, Nicky Ouellet and Mike Vanata.
MM: Follow our ongoing legislative coverage at wyomingpublicmedia.org and wyofile.com. Thanks for listening.
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