capcity.news · Wyofile · September 5, 2026
Wyoming Freedom Caucus fills House negotiating team tasked with bridging $170M budget gap - Cheyenne, WY Cap City News
# Wyoming Freedom Caucus fills House negotiating team tasked with bridging $170M budget gap
The Speaker of the House chose himself and four Freedom Caucus allies to serve as negotiators for the lower chamber. The Senate hasn’t named its representatives.
by Wyofile February 26, 2026 February 26, 2026
The Wyoming Capitol during the 68th Legislature's budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
by Maggie Mullen and Maya Shimizu Harris, WyoFile
CHEYENNE—It remains to be seen which Senate lawmakers will be responsible for negotiating a unified budget between the Wyoming Legislature’s two chambers. The House named its Joint Conference Committee members late Tuesday afternoon, while the Senate adjourned before doing so.
Whoever is chosen for the task has a $170 million gap to bridge between the House and Senate budget bills.
That’s how far apart the two chambers landed after their separate budget deliberations, according to a summary from the Wyoming Legislative Service Office. Don Richards, budget and fiscal administrator for the office, told lawmakers Monday the disparity between the two budgets is “not unusual.”
This session’s gap pales in comparison to 2024, when lawmakers faced a $1.1 billion budget chasm. But the two chambers must now square off on fundamental disagreements regarding the proper role of state government.
“The differences are not that big numerically, but they are rather stark philosophically,” Senate Minority Floor Leader Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, told WyoFile. “And it’s not just the [Wyoming] Business Council.”
The two budgets diverge on reductions to the state’s economic development agency, how deep to cut into the University of Wyoming’s block grant, how to pay for state employee pay raises and a number of budget footnotes, including one that would defund Wyoming Public Media.
A few dozen Cheyenne residents turned out for the 60th birthday celebration and funding rally for Wyoming Public Media, a nonprofit that operates radio stations that keep residents apprised of goings-ons in Wyoming. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
The Senate and House ultimately adopted the same number of budget amendments — 37 each — despite the Senate having a total of 70 while the House had a whopping 247 proposed changes. That number in the House was a record, far surpassing proposed changes in any previous budget year since at least 2002, when the Legislative Service Office began keeping a digital record of amendments.
Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, selected himself alongside Reps. Abby Angelos, R- Gillette, John Bear, R-Gillette, Scott Heiner, R-Green River and Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, to the Joint Conference Committee. All five are members or allies of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a group of Republicans that has taken the hardest line on the budget.
“I would say this $170 million difference, it’s probably as close as we’ve been in years,” Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, said after Neiman announced his committee appointments. “And so I think the good conference committee on this thing, you guys will probably knock this out in five minutes. So, good luck to you and do a great job for Wyoming.”
Once the Senate announces its own negotiators, the 10 lawmakers will meet to start reconciling differences.
#### House makes some compromises
Debate on the budget is “always robust,” Rep. Lloyd Larsen, a Lander Republican who previously served on the House Appropriations Committee, told WyoFile before the lower chamber’s third reading of the budget bill.
Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2026 budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
“I would say that what makes this one unique is just the embedded positions on the budget and unwillingness to make any changes, particularly those that would save us money and prevent damage to the state,” he said, adding that he couldn’t “quite connect the dots” of the rationale behind some of these positions.
Larsen had expected the House to maintain its position during the third reading of the budget. While holding fast to many of the recommendations from the Joint Appropriations Committee, the state’s main budgeting arm, lawmakers in the lower chamber did give some slack.
Notably, the House adopted an amendment brought by Bear, the Gillette Republican, that would cut $20 million, rather than $40 million, of UW’s block grant.
The concession comes with some caveats. The amendment requires the university to use some of its state money to review its “organizational structure and staffing patterns,” identify positions and degree programs that could be eliminated and “recommend opportunities to further restrict any diversity, equity and inclusion” programming. The university eliminated its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2024 on the heels of legislative-directed cuts and pressure.
What’s more, the school would be required to submit a $5 million cost savings and reinvestment plan to the governor and the JAC by December or risk losing another $20 million in block grant funding.
The House voted on Bear’s amendment right after members had adopted a similar one brought by Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, that would have restored the full $40 million in block grant funding with similar caveats. The Casper lawmaker’s amendment didn’t require the university to further examine diversity, equity and inclusion programming.
“I’m trying to get a parachute for everybody so we can have a safe landing on this issue of our university,” Harshman said as he began explaining the intent of his amendment.
“If they can’t save $5 million bucks, we’ll take the full 40 as proposed by this side of the Legislature.”
But Bear, who was the first person to speak on Harshman’s amendment, made it clear that he didn’t believe it went far enough.
“This is a good amendment, but I’m going to ask for a no vote,” Bear said. “I need to let the body know that there’s a new amendment that is going to be very similar. We think it’s an improvement.” (Bear’s amendment deleted Harshman’s.)
Gillette Republican Rep. John Bear is joined by other members of the Wyoming Legislature as the Wyoming Freedom Caucus hosted a press conference on the opening day of the 2026 budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
The House had added $6 million outside of the block grant back into the budget during second reading to support UW athletics.
Lawmakers in the lower chamber made changes and restored funding in other areas as well. They voted, for example, in favor of Laramie Democrat Rep. Trey Sherwood’s amendment to boost salaries for some state employees. Gillette Republican Rep. Ken Clouston’s successful amendment restored the governor’s recommendation of about $10.3 million under the Department of Health to pay for a preschool external cost adjustment. Lawmakers also went for Cheyenne Republican Rep. Rob Geringer’s proposal to give some funding back to the Wyoming Business Council.
The House’s third-reading negotiations finally concluded around 7:45 p.m. Saturday.
Bear, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee and is a Wyoming Freedom Caucus member, told WyoFile he had expected budget negotiations to be difficult. He also foresaw the Senate restoring most of Gov. Mark Gordon’s budget recommendations.
But he didn’t foresee what he described as “the big-government Republicans and Democrats to bring so many amendments and filibuster” — words that largely reiterated a social media message that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus posted following the first day of second reading on the budget.
“If they successfully stop the budget from passing, they will put us into a constitutional crisis,” Bear said.
Lawmakers are constitutionally required this session to approve the state’s next two-year budget. If they fail to do so within the session’s timeframe, they wil