Amateurism continues in Cheyenne

To the Editor:

We are seeing the results of amateurism in our state house. The freedom caucus has not leaned the process of legislating. We are seeing numerous bills come out which have not been thought through and then have to be repeatedly amended to make sense. They have not learned to find experienced people to talk to about their supposedly new approach to old problems and to learn the consequences of new laws. Most of the veterans have seen the issues before and debated them. It is typical for a newcomer to think he has a new solution to an old problem. There is an expression for this and it is re-plowing old ground.

The speaker of the house seems to have a problem with wanting to select certain bills and reject the ones he does not like. His main function is to maintain order and continuity, not to censor the topics. He may not agree with a bill and may speak and vote against it, but he should not be making the decision for discussion himself and this applies also to committee chairmen. They should reject bad bills which do not meet the standards of government.

It generally takes two years for a freshman to learn the system, depending on the prior experience of the person. Lawmaking is not an exact science and requires knowledge of history and tradition which are often gained by experience.