CHEYENNE—When Wyoming’s legislative leadership announced committee assignments in December, Democrats were slated to be left off the Senate and House Education committees for the first time since at least the turn of the century.
Senate leadership, however, changed course, and Democrat Sen. Chris Rothfuss of Laramie will continue to serve on the Senate Education Committee after doing so since 2011. Rothfuss is a professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.
“Some decisions were rethought, and I advocated for continuing to be on the Education Committee,” Rothfuss told WyoFile. “And I’m very happy that it turned out that way, that we were able to accommodate that.”
Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, originally assigned Rothfuss to the Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee and the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.
Rothfuss will remain on Minerals, but swapped his seat on Corporations with Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, for Education.
Landen, a retired Casper College administrator, told WyoFile he didn’t mind leadership’s position, adding that he was “happy” to remain on the Senate Corporations Committee, where he served last term.
Biteman, who was absent from the Legislature Monday, did not return WyoFile’s request for comment by publication time.
The swap did not draw objections from the Senate nearly a week ago when the body stood by Biteman’s selections — though another committee assignment drew a separate dustup. It also failed to catch the same flack from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus or the Wyoming Democratic Party when committee assignments were announced in December.
The Freedom Caucus — which holds the majority in the House — called the majority of the Senate’s committee chairs “Liz Cheney Republicans” in a December Facebook post. Meanwhile, the Wyoming Democratic Party expressed concern that House leadership had removed Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, from the House Education Committee.
“Wyoming’s public schools have been successful because leaders from all sides have worked together to support teachers and students,” Wyoming Democratic lawmakers said in a Dec. 7 press release.
“Taking Democrats off the Education Committees shows that leadership is more interested in political control than working together to solve real problems,” the press release stated.
The House Education Committee remains without a Democrat.
It’s the responsibility of the House speaker and the Senate president to assign lawmakers to their respective committees, which play decisive roles in Wyoming’s lawmaking process. A bill must pass through both a House and a Senate committee hearing to become law.
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