Cooper addresses legislative ‘chaos’ and the upcoming session

Senator Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep, was on the County Commissioner’s agenda first thing, Jan. 20. The county had invited legislators that have the county in their district to a commissioner meeting prior to the start of the 2026 legislative session. Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis, and Senator Dan Laursen, R-Powell, have already appeared. Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley, is scheduled for the Feb. 3 commissioner meeting. 

 Cooper addressed the room, noting that this legislative session is a budget one so it will only last four weeks. He noted he had a couple of bills that he will hold because the session is so short and the focus needs to be the budget. 

“I think we need to really concentrate on the chaos that has been created in the last two weeks,” Cooper said. 

All three commissioners were in attendance, as was County Clerk Lori Smallwood, Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Kirk, First Deputy County Assessor Cozette Winters, Emergency Management Coordinator LaRae Dobbs, County Treasurer Nicole Vigil, Clerk of District Court Serena Lipp and Kristin Fong from the Wyoming Business Council. 

 The senator said, “There are some things that have happened that I am dead set against, such as defunding the business council, the $60 million dollar cut to the University of Wyoming, the cuts they made to health care. If we were in a budget crisis, I would feel a whole lot different about it. We have $750 million that we would like to put in permanent savings.” 

SO-CALLED CUTS

Cooper continued that he thought it was important that the state does this. He stated that a lot of the so-called cuts that some legislators are touting aren’t necessarily cuts. Some were pass-throughs. 

“Like the Native American Health Care Clinic on the reservation. That is $58 million Federal dollars that is required by the treaties,” Cooper said. 

 The Federal Government is responsible for reservation health care. They must have an entity to pass the funds through. It can’t be given directly to the tribes. The entity has been the Wyoming Department of Health. 

“By saying, ‘We’re not going to accept your money,’ what does that do? Are we (Wyoming) now responsible for that $58 million? There was no cost to the state of Wyoming. They (Freedom Caucus members of the Joint Appropriations Committee) are calling that a cut. That is not a cut. That is just short-sidedness in my opinion,” Cooper said. 

 Wyoming Department of Health provided this information regarding the Native American Health Care:  “The All-Inclusive Rate (AIR) or Office of Management and Budget Rate for Tribal facilities is a per-visit reimbursement rate developed by the Indian Health Service  (IHS) for Medicaid/Medicare, Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The rate covers all costs provided for each visit and is updated annually. The AIR has been used continuously by Wyoming Medicaid as far back as 1995, and is supported by a 100% Federal Medical Assistance Percentage match for services when the provider is an IHS or Tribal 638 related entity and the member is an American Indian. In the upcoming BFY27 (i.e., our current exception request), the Department asked for $58,000,000 to ensure this budget was funded appropriately. Due to lower than expected AIR rates released for Calendar Year 2026, the Department has revised this projected Federal fund need to $41,327,307.” 

Another example Cooper gave was the $205 million for Rural Health Care. He believes over the next five years it will be closer to $1 billion and the money should be put into something like the Wildlife Trust Fund. The proceeds from the fund could be used for sustainable health care. He added that half of it could be put into the hospitals, etc., but a long-term plan is more important. 

“They are calling that a cut because it was in the Governor’s budget. That is my understanding. It wasn’t really a cut; they just pulled it and put it over here. They are taking credit for things that they aren’t really doing. Why are we doing these things? It doesn’t make a lot of sense except for grandstanding,” Cooper said.  

He added that the full legislative body will have to go through the amendments very carefully. Cooper predicted the budget presented by the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) will pass the House because the Freedom Caucus controls the House, but will not pass the Senate. The Senate will likely work on it to make it like the budget from Governor Mark Gordon. There will be some cuts from the Governor’s budget as there always is. 

“We should make these cuts with a scalpel rather than a train wreck on main street,“ Cooper said.  

Cooper expounded that cutting $40 million out of UW’s block grant is not feasible or acceptable. It is another attempt to dismantle public education. He is not willing to support the cut.  He wondered if the Senate JAC members from the Big Horn Basin will vote when the bill is in the Senate to stop “this disaster before it happens.” Those members are Senator Dan Laursen, R-Powell and Senator Tim French, R-Cody. 

He again stated that if the state was in a budget crisis he would support some of the cuts proposed by the JAC. But the state isn’t and whenever cuts need to be made, they need to be the right cuts. 

“There is fat in the budget. There always is, but there is not a billion dollars of fat,” Cooper said. Cooper noted that the some of the rhetoric is that the state needs to go back to 2019 spending. The problem with that is the inflation factor from 2019 to 2026 is 1.26%. What was nine million dollars in 2019 is 11.3-11.4 million today. The proposed spending budget will need to be adjusted for inflation. 

DARK MONEY 

For this year’s legislation, the senator is bringing forth Senate Joint Resolution 2, “A joint resolution calling upon the members of the Wyoming congressional delegation to uphold the principles of federalism.” He explained it is to address foreign election dark money. “I don’t think that anybody in this room will have an opinion that foreign dark money is a good idea in our elections. It doesn’t belong here,” Cooper said.  

He explained the Supreme Court Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission court case from 2010. The group challenged campaign finance rules. The court ruled in a 5-4 vote that Citizens United was within its First Amendment rights to spend money distributing an unfavorable film about Hillary Clinton. She was running for president at the time. The court struck down the rule that prohibited unions, corporations, etc. from spending “independent” money, i.e., money that doesn’t go directly to a candidate or a party. 

Cooper said that ruling prevents people knowing where the money is coming from. He continued that the only way to fix the problem is with a new Supreme Court ruling or a U.S. Constitutional Amendment.  Neither are likely to happen. 

“The purpose of the resolution is to bring the discussion forward and to make people aware of what is going on with this dark money and where it is coming from,” Cooper said.

 He mentioned all the mailers that went out in Wyoming last election. A lot were paid for by out-of-state or foreign groups.  Cooper said that most of the mailers were false, blatant lies or distortions of the truth.  He sent out two mailers himself during the election, one of which noted that if a mailer comes saying it is from him, it really is. The cost of the mailers runs over $4,000 each. There were around 21 sent out against him. He wondered who would spend around $100,000 on his election alone. Why and who is trying to buy the elections in Wyoming? 

Two years ago, he introduced a resolution that addressed just out-of-state dark money. The resolution passed the Senate easily. When it got to the House it was put in a drawer by House Speaker Chip Neiman. Cooper believes the only reason to hide a bill or resolution is if a person or associates are recipients of the money. He added that the bill was brought out after there was pushback, but it was too late. 

Cooper said he went to Washington, D.C. recently and met with the Republican House Caucus. He shared the resolution with them. It was well-received. It is an issue that needs to be addressed nationwide. 

ENERGY GROWTH 

In December, Cooper went to Mississippi for an Energy Council Meeting. Governor Tate Reeves, R-MS, spoke. Cooper explained that two things from the meeting really stuck in his mind. The Governor said, “There are two types of States: Those with energy growth and losers.” 

Cooper said in his opinion, right now, Wyoming is a loser. “We’ve told industry that we are closed for business. That is not where we need to be.”  

The second thing Reeves said that Cooper agrees with is that when it comes to energy growth, the answer should always be yes. Cooper shared, “There are going to be barriers. There are going to be roadblocks. There are going to be speed bumps. We can work our way around them. We can work our way through them and figure out what the right answer is.” 

He went on to discuss that he fought very hard for the Radiant Energy Group, a manufacturing facility that was to be built in Casper/Bar Nunn, to come to Wyoming. Radiant manufactures nuclear microreactors, small transportable fission reactors for remote or demanding locations and carbon-free power for military bases. The group has a contract to manufacture 150 for the U.S. Air Force. The purpose is to replace fuel convoys. Cooper noted that 53% of the causalities in the Middle East were from fuel convoy attacks. Cooper said the Freedom Caucus legislators are claiming a victory because they stopped the manufacturing of microreactors. “They didn’t. They only stopped them from being manufactured in Wyoming,” he said. Radiant chose Tennessee. 

Cooper shared that two years ago, Wyoming was considered in the top four of the nation for potential of nuclear development. Today, Wyoming isn’t in the top 10. Closed for business is the message. 

WYOMING BUSINESS COUNCIL 

A bill was introduced by the JAC to dismantle the WBC. Cooper said if the bill passes, Wyoming will be the only state in the nation without a business development entity.  

“I can’t imagine why we would do that. We spent the 30 years building a business environment in the state of Wyoming…to attract these big manufacturing businesses. Here we had one handed to us and we said nah, we don’t like you. That was wrong,” Cooper said.   

The Senator pointed out that the Wyoming Business Council has provided $70 million in business development in Park and Big Horn County. One of his priorities this session is to fight to keep the WBC. 

Moving back to the topic of the microreactor manufacturing, Cooper explained that there was concern from some people about the spent fuel storage. He noted this was a fair question because there is not a policy in the United States for spent fuel storage. The rest of the world does. He has a bill drafted regarding this, but it is doubtful he will bring it forward this year because it is a budget year, a shorter session, and is no longer pressing since Radiant is going to Tennessee. The purpose of the bill is to allow the state of Wyoming to move forward with an interim storage site for the spent fuel in Wyoming, only for Wyoming based fuel. This would allow companies like Radiant to send their fuel to the site. There are five-six nuclear projects in discussion right now. All the fuel on a nuclear generation site must be stored on their own site. He intends to bring it to the mineral committee and really vet the bill. He doesn’t want Wyoming to have spent fuel sites all over the state like other states do. One site makes more sense. 

The 2026 legislative session starts Feb. 9. Sen. Cooper’s main focus this session will be to pass a fair and balanced budget that best serves the people of Wyoming.  He may be reached at Ed.Cooper@wyoleg.gov