Wyoming's Response to ObamaCare
House Speaker Simpson and Senate President oppose Special Session
Lawmakers can't justify calling special session
Star-Tribune Editorial Board | Posted: Friday, April 23, 2010 12:00 am
Some members of the Wyoming House, upset that Gov. Dave Freudenthal has opted against joining a multistate lawsuit challenging the federal health care reform law, are pushing for a special legislative session to address that and other health care issues.
Fortunately, most legislative leaders, even though they oppose the health care reforms, realize there's no need for a special session. It truly would be a waste of time and money for lawmakers to gather again this summer to consider ways to challenge the reforms -- especially since they had the opportunity to do just that during the past budget session.
Under the Wyoming Constitution and legislative rules, a special legislative session lasting up to 20 days can be called either by the governor or by a majority vote of both the House and Senate. In the latter instance, such a vote can be initiated either at the request of both the speaker of the House and the Senate president, or at the written request of 35 percent of lawmakers from each chamber. All of the 21 special sessions convened in Wyoming history been initiated by either the governor or the two legislative leaders.
Because Freudenthal, Senate President John Hines and House Speaker Colin Simpson all oppose a special session on health care issues, the new effort to convene one would be a first for the state. But several lawmakers who favor a special session said they believe they have the 21 House votes needed to meet the 35 percent threshold for a full vote on reconvening.
The session would likely be called for two primary reasons: to instruct the governor and attorney general to join the lawsuit against the federal health care law, and to put on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting the federal government from requiring Wyoming residents to buy health insurance.
But Freudenthal already has wisely decided against joining the lawsuit: Why spend money on litigation that's unlikely to succeed if other states are already carrying the ball? And legislation proposing such an amendment was brought up in both the state House and Senate during this year's budget session, but both bills failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to introduce them.
Second, the ideas offered for consideration are of dubious value. Hines put it best when he said, "My concern is if we’re going to call a special session and spend the time and the money that we be pretty well-assured of accomplishing something. I haven’t seen any proposal to date that we could accomplish anything that could be of direct benefit to the people of Wyoming."
In addition, because most of the federal health care provisions -- including the individual mandate -- won't take effect for several years, Hines pointed out there's no reason not to wait until next year's general session or beyond to take any action in response to the federal reforms.
One of the backers of a special session, House Majority Leader Ed Buchanan, R-Torrington, said lawmakers could also examine other issues such as making health care more affordable and enabling Wyoming residents to purchase out-of-state health insurance plans. Those ideas are certainly worthy of exploration, but they don't constitute an emergency situation that would justify a special session.
We're happy to see that health care is rising higher on the legislative agenda, but there's no need to take action before next year's general session.
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