The conference committee met again today and by vote of 4 to 2 reached a compromise on HB 74. It will most likely be voted on tomorrow in the house and senate.
The conference committee has striped this bill down to about two paragraphs. In its current form it says marriage is between a man and a woman. All the civil union language, same sex language, common law marriage language is gone; and there is no mention of access to the courts for any of these groups.
I talked extensively with our legislator friends and attorneys at the capital to make sure I understood the new version of this bill. This bill, even in the new simple form, will still accomplish what the original sponsors wanted it to accomplish. The language is just not as threatening. Make no mistake, the bottom line is these contracts will not be recognized in Wyoming nor will they have access to the courts.
We still think the best way to kill it is in the senate, and we have a couple of new talking points,
· The entire amendment that the senate worked so hard to insert last week granting court access has been stripped from this bill entirely.
· We need to look at the time frame that this bill has been evolving, and it has changed so many times it is obviously not ready to become law, more time and thought are required for such an extreme bill.
The senators I visited with today said they thought this would probably pass the house, but if we used those talking points we stand a very good chance of killing it in the senate.
Personally I also like the fact that this bill is back to denying access to the courts for a minority group of people, as this has always been Governor Mead’s concern as well. If this does pass I think we are looking at a very good chance for a veto.
Please contact these Senators and ask them to vote no on the concurrence vote on HB74;
· Sen. Driskill-- senatedrskill@rtconnect.net
· Sen. Emerich-- femerich@wyoming.com
· Sen. Nicholas-- nicholas@wyolegal.com
· Sen. Christensen-- lchristensen@wyoming.com
· Sen. Coe-- hcoe@wyoming.com
· Sen. Burns-- bburns@dbburns.com
· Sen. Schiffer-- jschiffe@wyoming.com
· Sen. Vonflatern-- mvonflatern@wyoming.com
· Sen. Scott-- charlesscott@wyoming.com
· Sen. Ross - - tross@wyoming.com
- Sen. Landen - - blanden@bresnan.net
Thank you for doing this! The end is sight!! Thank God this is the last week of this legislative session. Everyone is extremely tired and ready to go home. Most don’t think the senate will discuss or debate this long because they are all sick of it, just like we are! So please get those emails out and let them know HB74 is still a monster that needs to be killed!
Jeran
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