WASHINGTON — It was a Friday morning in late April and the congresswoman was already behind schedule.

Making her way down the long hallway on the fifth floor of the Longworth House Office Building — smaller than the Rayburn complex but no less confusing to navigate — the click-clack of her shoes echoed throughout the empty chambers. The place was mostly deserted, save for a few staffers dressed in khakis and plaid shirts for casual Friday.

Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials have received over 100 citizen comments to date – an unusually high number – on the potential impacts of its purchase of the massive Marton Ranch last year.

WASHINGTON — When it comes to issues of cryptocurrency and digital assets, no member of Congress has been more vocal than Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

Kanye West’s presidential campaign has moved its headquarters to Casper, after being told to stop using one of West’s old addresses in Cody. But it’s an open question as to whether the campaign is going anywhere.

West’s far right political advisers are fighting amongst themselves, with two engulfed in scandal, and recent reporting suggests West may have lost interest in running for the White House in 2024. A source close to West recently told the Daily Beast that, “Anyone

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill which would amend federal civil rights laws to bar most transgender student athletes from participating on female school sports teams, as dozens of states, including Wyoming, have passed similar laws in recent months.

WASHINGTON — Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives tried and failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a resolution which would have rolled back an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water rule seen as a keystone of his administration’s climate agenda.

Over the years, the State of Wyoming has sued the federal government over everything from restrictions on oil and gas production to vaccine mandates to wolves. But Wyoming officials recently headed to federal court over something different: To push back against what it sees as a federal attack on the state’s crypto-friendly banking laws.

A top Wyoming education official blasted a new policy proposed by President Joe Biden’s Department of Education impacting transgender athletes in schools. Cast by the administration as a compromise seeking to preserve the rights of transgender students and fairness for those competing against them, the new measure appears to have angered both advocates and opponents of transgender student protections.

Wyoming’s speaker of the House has formally reprimanded a Laramie lawmaker for social media posts that critics saw as advocating for political violence. In a Wednesday statement, Speaker Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) said the personal posts from Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie) represented “inappropriate, uncivil conduct for a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives that reflects a discernable lack of judgment.”

Wyoming is advancing a workforce development initiative to diversify the state’s economy and build a highly skilled workforce.

Wyoming has long prided itself on being business friendly, touting studies that routinely rank the state as one of the best places in the country to do business. But Senate President Odgen Driskill (R-Devils Tower) questions if that’s really the case, noting surrounding states continue to attract more businesses.

When the House Minerals Committee convened for its first time in the 2023 General Session, Chairman Rep. Don Burkhart laid out the ground rules: Cellphones needed to be silenced, comments should be directed to the chair — and going forward, no one could participate by Zoom.

Despite living in the nation’s least-populated state, Wyomingites following policy debates in Washington have seen many home-state issues prioritized by Republican party leaders of late.

Since retaking the U.S. House majority earlier this year, Republicans have pushed through bills to increase oil and gas leasing on federal lands, block President Joe Biden from selling oil reserves to China, restrict doctors’ ability to perform abortions and eliminate COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health care workers — all issues central to political debates in Wyoming.

When Speaker of the House Rep. Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) refused to allow debate on a school choice bill, a prohibition on “chang[ing] the sex of a child” and a ban on teaching sexual orientation and gender identity to young students, it was not the first time one of Wyoming’s legislative leaders came under fire for holding back controversial legislation. But the national attention the Wyoming Freedom Caucus managed to draw to the issue might have been unprecedented.

“Conservatives Put The Screws To Republican House Speaker Who Killed School Choice Bill,” wrote the Daily Caller. “Wyoming’s GOP House speaker buries parental rights and school choice bills,” reported the Washington Examiner. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board also made note, writing Sommers had been persuaded by “local district-school officials who fear competition.” Meanwhile, residents in Sommers’ Sublette County district were “bombarded,” as he put it, with robotexts from the State Freedom Caucus Network.

This week, the Wyoming Truth is running a four-part series reflecting on the political debates central to this year’s general session, and exploring what’s to come for Wyomingites at home and in Washington. Check out part one.

While the legislative session didn’t kick off until January, the battle between establishment Republicans and those aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus began last November, when the GOP met to elect its leaders.

In the pivotal race for House Speaker, Rep. Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale), widely seen as a “traditional” Wyoming Republican, narrowly beat Rep. Mark Jennings (R-Sheridan) of the more conservative Freedom Caucus.

Jackie Van Mark knows Wyoming GOP politics.

For over 100 years, since her great-grandfather first homesteaded the dryland wheat and sunflower farm she now manages in Torrington, Van Mark and her family have been enmeshed in local and national government.

Lawmakers allocated over $120 million to the University of Wyoming (UW) to wrap up long-planned construction projects and greenlighted additional funding for employee salary raises. Several initiatives also will receive more funding as outlined in the supplemental budget approved during this year’s general session.

Given the divided state of the Wyoming Legislature, there appears to be an understanding that its more controversial bills may have to wait until 2025.

Wyoming lawmakers are already gearing up for their next session and planning to dive into topics ranging from property tax reform to school choice to new regulations for commercial fishing guides.

WASHINGTON — Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman is one step closer to passing her first individually-sponsored bills since taking office, as lawmakers held hearings this week to markup policies touching on her priorities of local environmental control and tribal sovereignty.