Legislative and executive branch cooperation is a hallmark of Wyoming governance

Wyoming’s political culture is distinct from its federal counterpart. That’s something we should celebrate and work to preserve.

Opinion

As a graduating senior from the University of Wyoming, I spent the last year researching the historical relationship between Wyoming’s legislative and executive branches for my Honors College capstone project. While I won’t disagree that state politics can feel polarized and antagonistic, my research process, and what I learned from it, affirmed my belief that Wyoming governance is cooperative and collaborative at its core.

As a Wyoming native, I’m passionate about my state, its history and idiosyncrasies, so for my project, I set out to understand how our citizen Legislature shapes politics and governance. Does a short annual legislative session — typically 40 days on odd years and 20 days on even years — impact the function of the legislative branch, and what does that mean for the executive branch? Does the Legislature’s limited time mean the executive branch has to pick up the slack with executive orders? Admittedly my curiosity was driven, in part, by all of the attention the national government receives for Congressional efficiency and presidential executive orders — both of which have become more common over the last several administrations.

I chose to focus on the administrations between 1987 and 2018 — Govs. Sullivan, Geringer, Freudenthal and Mead — primarily because I was worried that the COVID-19 pandemic, and its unique impact on governance, might skew my data on executive orders. I interviewed individuals who held leadership positions in government during this time. For the executive branch, this included former governors and chiefs of staff, and for the legislative branch, this included positions such as speaker of the house and majority and minority floor leaders. I also analyzed the rate of executive orders and volume of legislation passed per year.

Before I tell you what that analysis revealed, the first big lesson about Wyoming politics comes directly from the research process. When I sent out my first round of emails requesting interviews with former Wyoming state government leaders, I figured it would be at least a day or two before I heard something back. But, I had responses indicating interest less than 30 minutes after the first email went out. That’s just one example of the accessibility that Wyomingites enjoy when it comes to interacting with government officials, both past and present. This accessibility, and willingness to listen, directly impacts citizens’ relationship with the government.

From my research and interviews, I learned that the rate of executive orders was not dependent on the amount of time the legislative branch was in session. The amount of legislation passed per year did depend on what session the legislative branch was in, with the longer, general session reliably producing more new laws than the shorter budget sessions. Members from both the executive and legislative branches believe that the time limit makes the Wyoming Legislature more efficient, prevents underprepared legislation from being brought to the floor, enables citizen legislators and limits overregulation.

Members of both branches emphasized the importance of limiting government action to active problems in the state. As citizen legislators, the limited time the legislative branch meets per year means they have to hold other jobs in addition to serving in Cheyenne. Both legislative and executive branch members believed that Wyoming’s government works well for the state of Wyoming, and although some recommended changes, most of these changes were minimal, primarily dealing with when the 40/20 day sessions fell in the calendar year, increasing communication across the government and within branches and challenging the custom of legislative leadership holding their position for only one term.

Wyoming is one of only a few states in the country that has no language specifically regulating executive orders in its Constitution or statutes. Former members of both the executive and legislative branches that I interviewed believe it is unnecessary to further regulate the usage of executive orders in Wyoming, because we have not seen them abused. Executive branch members emphasized using restraint when using executive orders, out of respect for the legislative branch.

That’s how Wyoming’s legislative and executive branches have historically functioned, but it is not necessarily how they will continue to function today and into the future. We have seen increased conflict recently, both internally within each branch, as well as between the two branches. Legislative and executive branch members I interviewed emphasized that historically, even though people have not always seen eye-to-eye, there was an understanding that everyone was ultimately working to secure the best future for Wyoming. As a young person in Wyoming, part of what draws me to this state is the sense of community and accessibility we all have with one another. People here care about one another, even if we do not always agree. Traditionally, this community relationship has been present in our government as well.

It is up to each of us, from citizens in the general public to officials across all branches of our government, to decide who we are in Wyoming and decide what identity we want to preserve in our government for the future.

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