Bills on abortion, voter crossover die in second-to-last week of Legislature

CHEYENNE – With just a week left in the state Legislature’s budget session, a handful of bills that drew long discussions in the Capitol were killed by the quick-moving process of the second-to-last week.

The bills covered a wide range of issues, from reproductive rights to train crew requirements to firearm protections. Here is a rundown of the bills that failed to receive a hearing by the Thursday deadline:

48-hour waiting period on abortions: A bill that would have required women to wait 48 hours to have an abortion after meeting with their doctor failed to receive a committee hearing in the Senate this week. House Bill 197 would have placed Wyoming among several states that have imposed some sort of waiting period on abortions. During a House committee meeting that lasted more than an hour, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Richard Tass, R-Buffalo, argued the bill provided “a gift of time for the baby.” HB 197 was never heard by the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee and will not be considered by the full Senate.

Two-man train crew requirement: An effort to regulate train crew sizes also failed to receive a Senate committee hearing. House Bill 79, proposed by Rep. Stan Blake, D-Green River, would have required a minimum of two crew members on all trains operating on Class 1 railroads in Wyoming. The companies that operate those railroads in Wyoming, Union Pacific and BNSF Railway, strongly opposed the bill during a House on the legislation, while a handful of railroad workers testified in favor of the proposal, arguing the key issue with the bill was public safety. During the 2019 general session, a similar proposal received a hearing in the Senate Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee but was rejected by a 3-2 vote.

Read more: https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/bills-on-abortion-voter-crossover-die-in-second-to-last/article_21f2f00f-2bb7-5c6e-9be6-33c1a0240be5.html