Gordon vetoes bills, Rep. Heiner criticizes

On March 15, Governor Mark Gordon vetoed two bills: Senate File 103 (Wyoming PRIME Act) and Senate File 13 (Federal land use plans- legal action authorized). 

Representative Scott Heiner, who represents portions of Sweetwater County, criticized the Governor’s veto of both bills, which he supported “as each provided a way for Wyoming to regulate itself and choose its own destiny.”

Rep. Heiner continued: “Senate File 103 would have allowed for the sale of meat from producers directly to consumers without the government getting in the way and further strengthened Wyoming’s Food Freedom Act. 

“Senate File 13 was more personal to me, though. This bill was inspired by the Federal Bureau of Land Management’s “Proposed Alternative B” revealed last summer in the agency’s Resource Management Plan for the southwest corner of Wyoming. 

“The BLM’s plan runs afoul of settled principles of land management – and if implemented, would violate a plethora of federal land management laws and cause irreparable harm to Wyoming. 

“Senate File 13 would have allowed the Wyoming Legislature to initiate legal action against the Biden Administration for federal land use plans that threaten our ability to produce energy and food, upon which our state’s economy depends. 

“Governor Gordon’s veto sends a message to Biden’s BLM that they can feel comfortable destroying Wyoming’s way of life through illegal and unethical land use plans. 

“It also sends a message to the people of southwest Wyoming– your elected representatives and senators will remain powerless to take the Biden Administration to court after this veto.”

Governor Gordon said that Senate File 13 would have duplicated funding for legal actions by the State and have been unconstitutional, and added that it wasn’t fiscally conservative. In his veto letter he lambasted the bill as a “clear attempt to cross, blur and trample the line of separation between our equal, but separate, branches of government.” 

Regarding Senate File 103, the Governor said he is supportive of food freedom legislation, but “the Wyoming PRIME Act could create confusion among consumers, meat processors and livestock producers.”