Freedom Caucus blocks bills that save money, improve services

By Lindsay Simineo WYBHA Executive Director
Posted 1/22/25

The Wyoming Behavioral Health Alliance is deeply frustrated by last week’s actions by the Freedom Caucus-led House Judiciary Committee, which rejected two of its bills aimed at improving mental …

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Freedom Caucus blocks bills that save money, improve services

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The Wyoming Behavioral Health Alliance is deeply frustrated by last week’s actions by the Freedom Caucus-led House Judiciary Committee, which rejected two of its bills aimed at improving mental health services, saving taxpayer dollars, and streamlining government functions.

HB0048 — Department of family services-confidentiality amendments — sought to modernize confidentiality laws, allowing state agencies to communicate more effectively, erasing duplicative services for families, saving Wyoming thousands of dollars, and providing better care.

HB0049 — Treatment court-amendments — would have allowed judges to oversee the mental health treatment of certain offenders by diverting them from overcrowded jails and decreasing repeated offenses. This would have also saved Wyoming several thousand dollars in unneeded inpatient stays.

Both bills were designed to improve mental health services, while saving taxpayer dollars and streamlining government.

These committee bills received months of thorough research, and there was clear evidence of their benefits. However, Rep. Marlene Brady (R- Green River), Rep. Laurie Bratten (R-Sheridan), Rep. Tom Kelly (R-Sheridan), Rep. Jayme Lien (R-Casper), and Rep. Joe Webb (R-Lyman) — all staunch members of the Freedom Caucus — voted them down.

The baseless reasoning of “insufficient research” and “high costs” is insulting to Wyoming families who needed these services and robs the Wyoming taxpayers of the cost savings they could have received in a better streamlined government.

Their votes against these two commonsense solutions are not about protecting Wyoming — they are about prioritizing a national agenda. This committee had the opportunity to help Wyoming save money and better serve its people, but it has instead left taxpayers to pick up the tab.

As long as the Wyoming Freedom Caucus continues to prioritize caucus affiliation over the best interests of Wyoming, it will continue to force the state into incurring expenses that many have worked towards avoiding.

 

WYBHA’s mission is to promote statewide mental health policy through expertise, education, advocacy, and voter education. For more information visit https://www.wybha.org/.