After voting to bar photo- and broadcast journalists from the halls that run next to the House and Senate floors in the Wyoming Capitol, the Legislature’s Select Committee on Legislative Facilities, Technology and Process will reconsider the measure during its Thursday meeting.
“Sen. Dan Laursen has some proposed changes,” Committee Chairman Cale Case (R-Lander) told WyoFile. “I am hopeful that we can just roll it back.”
Case was the lone Republican lawmaker to vote against the measure last month, which would eliminate the opportunity for journalists to gather eye-level images of lawmakers at work in each chamber, relegating documentation of what’s happening on the floors to the galleries above.
The committee voted 4-2 in favor of the measure. Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) was the second “no” vote, and previously said he voted that way since “it’s important that we have as much journalism as possible for the Legislature.”
What changes the committee will consider are unclear.
Laursen, who voted in favor of the measure, told WyoFile on Tuesday that he “just wanted to discuss it again,” but declined to provide other details. “I think we should just wait until we see what happens,” he said.
Legislative leadership made the original call for a media-policy change, citing increased traffic in the hallways as a problem.
The Wyoming Press Association pushed back following the September vote.
“It has been the role of the fourth estate to report on work being done for the people of Wyoming by their legislators. To limit or revoke access sets a dangerous precedent not only for the Wyoming Legislature itself, but for local government agencies to follow suit,” Darcie Hoffland, executive director of the association, previously told WyoFile.
The committee is slated to discuss the media policy at 10 a.m. Thursday, according to the agenda.
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