Senator Dan Dockstader (R-Afton) from Senate District 16 called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Wednesday, February 25 with a legislative update from Cheyenne.

(0:00) Coming over the phone live this morning from Cheyenne, (0:02) Senator Dan Dockstead are with us this morning. (0:05) Senator, I realize you’re extremely busy right now (0:07) as always during the session, (0:09) so we’ll jump right into it (0:10) and what you’re seeing with the state legislative session, (0:13) of course, a budget year. (0:14) So let’s start with the budget (0:15) and get your thoughts on what came out of the Senate.

(0:20) Good morning, Duke. (0:21) Good morning, all of Lincoln County. (0:23) Appreciate joining you this morning.

(0:26) As far as the budget goes, (0:27) it’s now in the hands of the negotiators. (0:30) It moves into the Appropriations Committee (0:33) and they trim it up and decide what we’re going to do. (0:36) The Senate came in, they actually, (0:38) it was kind of a historic move.

(0:40) It’s been nicknamed the big beautiful amendment (0:42) and all the cuts that occurred (0:46) leading into the legislative session (0:49) by the Appropriations Committee (0:51) were restored in the Senate. (0:53) That included the restoring the money (0:56) for the University of Wyoming (0:57) and some of the other programs in the state, (0:59) allowing us to review the process in third reading. (1:03) And the third reading was crucial (1:05) because then we went back in (1:07) and looked to take a closer look (1:08) at what we were going to cut or add or keep.

(1:12) In the Senate on that amendment, (1:16) the Senate originally had 16 votes going into it. (1:20) And by the time the votes were cast, (1:22) 20 more, 20 people had come on, (1:25) which is a significant number (1:27) to make that change for the budget. (1:29) And that was noticeable.

(1:31) That was, to come in and do that, (1:33) I’ve never seen it in all my years (1:34) or anyone had ever heard of that. (1:37) But essentially the Senate said, (1:38) hold on, we’re going to rethink this (1:41) and go back in and do things like fund the university. (1:45) Now the Senate came in higher (1:46) in the budgeting process than the House did.

(1:48) The House had some more cuts in that third reading. (1:50) So what they’ll do is go into negotiations (1:53) and then they bring that out on the floor, (1:55) which they’ve done kind of a review (1:58) and say accept or reject. (2:00) And that’s what happens.

(2:03) School recalibration, also part of the budgeting process, (2:06) moved out of the Senate into the House. (2:08) The House rejected school recalibration altogether. (2:12) The Senate passed a bill (2:13) and moved it over to the House for approval.

(2:17) That bill had nearly unanimous support in the Senate. (2:23) There was one person voting no on school recalibration (2:27) and that was me. (2:28) I didn’t feel like it met the needs (2:30) of Lincoln County School District number two (2:33) nor my two adjoining districts.

(2:36) Keaton won and Lincoln won. (2:38) And so I gave it a no vote. (2:40) We’ll see where the whole process goes now.

(2:43) It’s in the negotiation process for the schools. (2:45) I still don’t think it adequately takes care of our schools (2:49) like we need to across the state. (2:50) And that’s where we are budget (2:53) in school recalibration-wise.

(2:55) Personal bills that I’ve been working on, (2:57) medical necessity standard timeline amendments. (3:00) That takes the process of insurance approval. (3:04) You go to the hospital, go to your doctor (3:05) and wait for the insurance to approve it.

(3:07) It’s now at 45 days. (3:09) That squeezes it down to 21 days. (3:12) That passed the Senate.

(3:13) It’s now in the House for consideration. (3:15) We’ll see what they do with it. (3:16) Things are going kind of slow there.

(3:18) They had to work Saturday (3:19) just to try to catch up this past week. (3:22) But that bill, medical necessity standard timeline (3:25) is 45 to 21 days. (3:27) And then should that pass, (3:29) I will bring back another bill next year (3:31) that says in that timeframe, (3:33) they also have to do the reimbursements.

(3:36) A lot of pushback from our friends in the insurance company. (3:39) They’ve already approached me (3:41) and talked about negotiating those 21 days. (3:44) And at this point, it’s just still a process, (3:46) but the bill has passed in the Senate.

(3:49) Another bill I was working on (3:50) was Wyoming Pharmacy Act amendments (3:53) started on this last summer (3:54) with the pharmacies across Wyoming. (3:56) They want the act opened up (3:58) so that they can essentially provide more services (4:01) at the pharmacy level. (4:03) So when you get certain medications (4:04) like glucose monitors and antibiotics, (4:10) medical devices, things like that, (4:11) you can get from your pharmacy.

(4:13) That really doesn’t have to take a physician (4:15) to prescribe those. (4:17) A pharmacist with his training and approval can do that. (4:21) And also it changes vaccinations.

(4:23) You can get a vaccination at the pharmacy now, (4:25) as you well know, (4:25) but that changes the age level from seven to three. (4:30) And let me emphasize, (4:32) it is completely optional to the patient (4:34) and to the pharmacist. (4:35) The pharmacist doesn’t have to do it (4:37) if he or she does not want to.

(4:39) But that’ll be a big change. (4:41) That has passed the Senate and is now in the House. (4:46) And another one that I’ve been actually tasked to work with (4:50) on a subcommittee that I serve on (4:53) dealing with federal natural resources, (4:55) we have essentially are going after (4:59) what’s called the good neighbor authority (5:01) of federal amendments, (5:02) where we find two more people at the state level (5:05) to help process these timber settles across the state.

(5:10) And this actually picked up and gained a lot of traction (5:15) coming through the summer, (5:17) worked on it through the summer. (5:18) And then we put together the subcommittee bill (5:21) and moved it through the committee process, (5:24) moved it on the Senate floor. (5:25) I was asked to carry that bill all the way through.

(5:29) And it has passed the Senate, (5:32) provides two more FTEs or full-time employees (5:36) just simply to process timber production. (5:40) Now, what happens with that? (5:41) If we got more timber production, (5:43) we generate another $6 million. (5:45) I got that through the House yesterday, (5:48) which was a little, (5:49) I got a phone call at 10 o’clock at night saying, (5:52) by the way, would you present that bill in the House? (5:54) Morning, so I had to wake up (5:56) and get after it first thing in the House.

(5:58) That has passed. (6:00) What does that do? (6:01) That helps things like the work (6:03) of the Grays River Collaborative in Star Valley. (6:05) It helps with other things like the timber sales (6:08) that are processed.

(6:10) Our South Lincoln Bridger-Teton area (6:13) has several timber sales that are available. (6:17) They need to be processed and that this opens the door (6:20) for them as well as other timber sales across the state. (6:23) But first and foremost, (6:24) sales we have ready are on the west side of the state (6:27) in the Bridger-Teton, (6:28) more closely associated with the Star Valley, (6:31) Jackson, Kemmer area, specifically the Kemmer area.

(6:34) That’s where we’re at Duke, that’s kind of an update. (6:38) I’m getting ready to go into corporations committee now (6:40) and jump right into a committee work this morning. (6:43) And we’re going to not only hear bills, (6:45) but this is the time of year (6:47) when the Senate starts to confirm the nominations.

(6:50) The governor makes appointments (6:51) to different positions around the state (6:55) and then it’s up to the Senate to confirm these. (6:58) And as part of that process, (7:00) we bring people into our committees (7:02) to interview them. (7:05) And the confirmation interview process (7:06) for the governor appointee for Chris Boswell (7:09) of the Public Service Commission (7:10) will take place in the corporation Senate committee.

(7:14) And I’ll be part of that this morning. (7:15) That’s going on this morning. (7:17) Excellent.

(7:17) We have a Duke. (7:18) Okay, Senator, thank you so much for your time. (7:20) We appreciate the update.

(7:21) Thank you very much.