The Legislative session is over and it is a wonderful thing to sleep in my own bed again. This session will be the last one we hold in the Jonah building, next year we will be back in the capitol. The capitol’s renovations are scheduled for completion this summer. We took a tour of the capitol during the session and I was deeply impressed, it will surely be a landmark worthy to represent the state.

There are some interesting facts for political junkies like myself for this year’s general session, one is that there were 503 total bills filed for the session, 326 in the House and 177 in the Senate, of those 127 House bills became law and 87 Senate bill be came law. It is worth noting that of the 214 bills that became law 78 were committee bill and the rest were bills brought forth by individual legislators. This may seem like a lot of bills but most are sponsored by legislators who are responding to the requests from constituents or perhaps agencies. I sponsored 4 personal bills this year and one resolution to make an adjustment in our state constitution for sewer system funding, all of my efforts were in response to requests and concerns of constituents.

Central Wyoming College has been working for a number of years to construct a new Ag and Animal Science facility, which had been funded based on estimations from the state, but when the actual design was completed it was determine the estimates were significantly short. Senator Bebout and I were able to work with the Joint Appropriations Committee to fund the $3.9 million dollar shortfall associated with this project. I am excited to see it move forward this year.

For a summary of the legislative session from the Republican Party, click here.