Wyoming Lawmakers Clash Over Budget Amendments

Senate completes budget changes while House still has dozens of amendments to consider

Published on Feb. 21, 2026

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As Wyoming lawmakers work to finalize the state's next two-year budget, the House and Senate have taken different approaches. The Senate has moved quickly through its amendments, while the House has struggled to get through a record number of proposed changes. The process now moves to a joint conference committee tasked with reconciling the differences between the two chambers' budget bills.

Why it matters

The budget is one of the most important pieces of legislation the Wyoming Legislature considers, as it determines funding levels for state agencies, programs, and initiatives. The clash over amendments highlights the challenges lawmakers face in balancing competing priorities and interests as they work to craft a final budget that can pass both chambers.

The details

The House brought a record 241 total amendments on the second and third reading of the budget, far surpassing the number in any previous year. This has put the House a day behind schedule, as lawmakers struggled to move the process along at a quicker pace. Meanwhile, the Senate has moved through its amendments much more quickly, adopting 28 revisions, withdrawing 11, and rejecting 12. The amendments have addressed a range of issues, including funding for the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council, and various state agencies.

  • The House began sorting through third-reading amendments on Friday morning.
  • By the time the Senate had wrapped up its third-reading amendments, the House lawmakers had worked through 23 of theirs and still had 96 to go.
  • By 5 p.m. Friday, the Senate had sorted through all 51 of its amendments.

The players

Rep. Ocean Andrew

A Republican lawmaker from Laramie who attempted to end debate on amendments shortly before midnight Tuesday, which would have killed the remaining second-reading amendments.

Rep. John Bear

A Republican lawmaker from Gillette who asked his colleagues Wednesday morning to keep debate on amendments brief, but the body subsequently spent nearly two hours debating one amendment.

Rep. Jeremy Haroldson

A Republican lawmaker from Wheatland who had intended to bring a rule change on Friday to limit debate on bills and budget amendments, but withdrew the amendment due to a lack of votes.

Rep. Steve Harshman

A Republican lawmaker from Casper who proposed a third-reading amendment to invest $100 million from the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund to give the transportation department loans for constructing highways.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss

A Democratic lawmaker from Laramie who sponsored an amendment that approved $1 million in matching funds to be evenly split between the University of Wyoming's rodeo and debate teams.

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What they’re saying

“We're struggling now to fund our highways, water systems, all those things, and we have the ability then — and we do this with water and other things in our infrastructure — to invest in ourselves.”

— Rep. Steve Harshman (wyofile.com)

“Both these university teams have been performing at exceptional levels for many years.”

— Sen. Chris Rothfuss (wyofile.com)

“If we want to talk about the most vulnerable, this is it.”

— Sen. Tim Salazar, Senate Appropriations Chairman (wyofile.com)

What’s next

The process now moves to a joint conference committee, which will be responsible for working out differences between the House and Senate to craft a unified budget bill to bring back to their colleagues for final approval. This could prove to be a challenging task, as leadership had to appoint a second joint conference committee two years ago when the first one failed to reach an agreement on the budget.

The takeaway

The clash over budget amendments in the Wyoming Legislature highlights the complexities and competing priorities lawmakers face in crafting the state's next two-year spending plan. The process now moves to a critical stage where a joint conference committee will have to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget, a task that has proven challenging in recent years.