Wyoming Legislative Leaders Polling Lawmakers On Special Session

The leaders of the Wyoming House and Senate have begun formally polling members of both houses of the legislature on whether to hold a special session to push back against President Biden's vaccine mandate.

The president has issued an executive order mandating that employees of large companies, people working in healthcare, and federal government employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or get tested weekly for the virus. Basically, any company with 100 or more employees would be obligated to follow the order.

As of yet the mandate has not been implemented because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been in the process of writing workplace regulations implementing the president's order.

Wyoming House Speaker Eric Barlow and Senate President Dan Dockstader on Tuesday morning released the following statement:

“Today we have fulfilled our duty under the rules of the Wyoming Senate and House of Representative by sending a poll to all legislators to determine whether the Wyoming Legislature will call itself into special session to address COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Members have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 14 to vote in the special session poll. If a special session is approved by a majority vote of the members elected to both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the session would likely start on Oct. 26. In the meantime, we understand that Gov. Gordon continues to seek solutions to these issues. As we stated jointly with Governor Gordon on Sept. 15, we support any resolution to the issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which ultimately benefit the people of Wyoming, however those resolutions can be achieved.”

Governor Gordon has said that while he thinks people should be vaccinated against COVID-19, he is opposed to the presidential mandate.

Last week, Rep. Landon Brown [R-Laramie County] told Townsquare Media that legislative leaders were already informally polling lawmakers on whether there was support for a special session on vaccine mandates.

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