Wyoming Legislature: Taking names and kicking ....

[MrTitleist]

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-an ... 002e0.html
By BEN NEARY Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 7:00 am | (5) Comments

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The Wyoming House of Representatives is taking the first steps toward possibly telling the federal government to back off on a range of states' rights issues, from gun control to endangered species management.

A few House members, however, warn that Wyoming shouldn't seek too much independence from a federal system that serves as a significant source of state income.

Rep. Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne, is the main sponsor of House Joint Resolution 2. It would call on Congress to stop enacting mandates beyond the powers granted to it in the U.S. Constitution. The resolution lists federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and federal land management statutes as failing to make that cut.

The House voted 50-8 on Tuesday to clear Illoway's resolution for introduction. It takes a two-thirds vote to introduce non-budget matters in the current legislative session.

"Maybe somebody will start to listen to see that the states' rights are being taken away," Illoway said after the House vote, adding that other states have enacted similar measures. "That's really what we tried to do, to say, 'Come on, you're taking away what the Constitution gave to us.'"

Gov. Dave Freudenthal has called on lawmakers to support a similar resolution that would call for revisions to the U.S. Constitution to strengthen states' rights and rein in the federal courts.

Freudenthal, in his State of the State address on Monday, said the federal government is regulating, "nearly everything."

"The states need to be more than empty vessels whose job it is to execute federal policy," Freudenthal said. "And the only way you're going to do that is to take it very delicately and go in and try to re-establish the balance between the federal government and the states."

The House voted to introduce the following other measures on Tuesday:

- House Bill 28, the "Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act." The bill, sponsored by Rep. David Miller, R-Riverton, would provide that firearms that are made and sold within Wyoming would be exempt from federal regulations.

Tennessee and Montana have already passed a similar laws exempting firearms made in those states from federal regulation. Other proposals are also pending in the Utah and Alaska legislatures this year.

- House Joint Resolution 5, the "Assertion of State Sovereignty." The resolution would call on Congress to stop abridging states' rights, including gun rights. Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, is the main sponsor in the House.

- House Bill 47, a bill that would direct the Wyoming Attorney General to consider legal action against the federal government over federal agency environmental review proceedings or endangered species issues including wolf management in the state. Childers is the main sponsor in the House.

"I think legislators are pretty tired about the way the federal government is doing a lot of the things," Childers said after the House votes to introduce his measures. "Not only that it looks like it's bankrupting the nation, but probably more importantly, to not sound too far-fetched, but what they're doing is not listening to us."

Rep. Pete Jorgensen, D-Jackson, voted against Childers' "state sovereignty" resolution.

"This is a budget session," said Jorgensen, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. "We've got serious issues to deal with. Our state is relatively well off, fortunately, but it's a fragile situation. And we're protesting against where we go for money.

"Highways are 80 percent funded federally. Medicaid is 50-50," Jorgensen said. "We just look like bozos when we do that, that's my opinion."

The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based group, states that Wyoming received $1.11 in federal spending for every dollar it paid in federal taxes in 2005, the most recent year for which information was listed. That year, the state received nearly $4.8 billion in federal spending and sent in $4.2 billion in federal tax payments.

Rep. James Byrd, D-Cheyenne, also voted against several of the sovereignty measures. In an interview after the votes, he noted that the federal government controls most of the land in Wyoming.

"We have to work with the federal government," Byrd said. "We have substantial mineral deposits that sit on federal lands. We have substantial roads and highways that need to be funded, and we have a small number of population. So, we have to be careful as to how we phrase things and what positions we take in opposition to the federal government."