What’s the story?
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon (R) vetoed Senate File (SF) 0127 on March 4, 2025. The bill was designed to create a process for legislators to disapprove of and nullify executive agency regulations.
Wyoming has a Republican trifecta.
The final version of SF127 approved by the legislature was designed to require the Wyoming Legislative Services Office (LSO) to create and distribute to each legislator a regulatory impact analysis for each major rule, defined as having either an annual economic impact of $1 million or more or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, or innovation. Under the bill, legislators could have then introduced legislation prohibiting the regulation from being implemented or enforced.
Gordon argued in his veto message that he didn’t think SF0127 instituted an effective check on bureaucracy and instead added to it. He argued that rules do not exist without the legislature first authorizing them and pointed to existing checks on agency procedure and authority in the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act.
The veto message argued, “If burdensome regulation is a concern, perhaps the Legislature should examine its own motivations. Are all the new laws absolutely necessary? Moreover, if there are questions about implementation, should the Legislature be more thorough?”
Concerning the initially introduced version of SF0127, AFP-Wyoming State Director, Tyler Lindholm, said Gov. Gordon should sign the bill: “If Wyoming is going to become the freest state in the nation, we can’t have unelected bureaucrats legislating by decree. We urge Governor Gordon to take this golden opportunity to restore limited government and reduce our state’s regulatory burden.”
What is the background?
The amended version of SF0127 would have given legislators a mechanism of oversight on agency rulemaking authority by opt-in legislative disapproval of agency regulation, similar in some ways to the resolutions of disapproval Congress can use according to the Congressional Review Act. This mechanism is one of several types of legislative oversight policies, part of a broader conflict regarding the power balance between legislators and executive agencies.
As initially introduced, the bill was a REINS-style state law, requiring the legislature to ratify any major agency rules having implementation or enforcement costs above a certain threshold before the rules could take effect. SF 0127 was amended in the Senate from a REINS-style law to an opt-in oversight mechanism allowing for legislative disapproval and nullification of major regulations.
Four states — two Republican trifectas and two divided governments — have REINS-style state laws as of 2024. Six states have introduced REINS-style legislation so far in 2025, five with Republican trifectas and one with a divided government.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a REINS-style bill in 2023 and 2024, and voters defeated a ballot measure in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election that would have enacted a REINS measure in Arizona.
What are other states doing?
Ballotpedia tracks legislation reforming the administrative state, including legislation reforming the power balance between legislatures and executive agencies.
SF0127 is one of 124 bills introduced in the 2025 legislative session regarding the legislative review of agency actions as of March 4. Forty bills were from states with Democratic trifectas, 69 from states with Republican trifectas, and 15 from states with divided governments. The status of the bills as of March 4 are as follows:
- 23 bills passed one chamber
- One bill (WY SF 0127) passed both chambers
- One bill was enacted
- Three bills died in committee
Of the 124 bills, five are federal bills from the U.S. Congress. One—the Midnight Rules Relief Act— crossed over.
Seventeen bills were enacted in 2024 that related to the legislative review of agency actions: Democratic trifectas enacted four, Republican trifectas enacted three, and divided governments enacted four. Three related bills were vetoed by two divided governments and one Republican trifecta.
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