Winters reports on legislature

House District 28 Representative Nathan Winters has been busy during the Wyoming Legislature going on in Cheyenne.

According to Winters, 170 separate pieces of legislation were brought to the House of Representatives this year. Of those, 54 failed to pass the 2/3rds majority that is required for introduction of a bill during the budget session and another 25 were not introduced either because of lack of time or were withdrawn by the sponsor.

“There has been broad discussion of the best way to move forward during our economic downturn,” said Winters

The first bill Winters brought was the Government Non-Discrimination Act. This bill protects Christian colleges from government entities penalizing them because their faith-based view of marriage and belief that a person’s biological sex cannot be changed.

According to Winters, this bill is timely because of the 5-4 ruling by the US Supreme Court last summer which redefined marriage but failed to acknowledge protections for religious beliefs regarding marriage and sexuality that clash with their new definition. This has brought a wave of conflict across the country and should be addressed.

This bill failed introduction by one vote and that vote, which would have been in favor, was called to another meeting and could not be there.

Another bill Winters brought dealt with some of the issues that have arisen over the wolf issue in Wyoming.

According to Winters, Wyoming worked hard to have a Wyoming Specific Wolf Plan that allowed for a trophy game zone and a predator zone. The plan allowed for agricultural producers in the trophy zone to apply for predation claims if wolves got in and destroyed their livestock. The predator zone was set up without that predation system because the Ag producers would have been able to take care of the offending animal.

The problem came when a Federal Judge in Washington, DC, who did not like the plan, brought it to a halt in September 2014.

In the meantime, Ag producers in the predator zone have been left in a situation where they cannot take care of the offending animals and they cannot get help with the damages done to their livestock.

This bill received unanimous support in the House Agriculture Committee and will continue through the process.

Wyoming residents are encouraged to use the Wyoming Legislature’s website to track legislation and participate in policy making during the 2016 Budget Session in Cheyenne. The Web address is http://www.wyoleg.gov/"www.wyoleg.gov and is continually updated as each bill moves through the respective bodies.