Suicide hotline bill narrowly passes out of Senate Labor Committee

CHEYENNE — A bill that would permanently establish the 988 suicide hotline in Wyoming narrowly cleared the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee on Monday.
 
House Bill 65 was sponsored by the Joint Revenue Committee, and passed through the House after multiple significant debates in the first half of the general session. Lawmakers discussed whether the original $40 million trust fund for the hotline was necessary and questioned the impact the program had on the state’s high suicide rate.
 
On Jan. 25, it passed 38-23-1 on third reading after a compromise was made with amendments. 
 
The $40 million appropriation from the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account for the trust fund was removed, along with $6 million for a reserve account.
 
Although the trust fund was kept empty, it was still created as the bill went to the next chamber before the crossover point. 
 
Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, introduced and referred the bill to committee Feb. 2, and it was considered Monday morning.
 
Members of the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee voted 3-2 to place the legislation on general file, but doubts followed the bill from the House to the Senate.
 
Cheyenne Republican Sens. Lynn Hutchings and Anthony Bouchard voted against HB 65, and Hutchings questioned supporters of the bill directly during public testimony Monday morning. She asked health care officials if there was any evidence the hotline supported residents in need and asked the Wyoming School Boards Association what is the number one cause for suicidal ideation among students.
 
WSBA representative Boyd Brown came before the committee to voice his support for HB 65. 
 
He said the largest number of calls coming in to Safe2Tell were reports of self-harm or suicide, and there is no person on the other end with a behavioral health background to automatically respond. Brown said he believes the hotline is an opportunity to get students struggling the help they need quickly, but he said he didn’t have information as to the root of their mental health crisis. 
 
Hutchings said they should have the data available when they come to testify and reflected on her own reasoning for suicide among Wyoming youth.
 
She said when she observed society today, what schools were teaching and “affirming in children” may not be best for them. Hutchings said when they start “lying to kids in education and affirmation, then you’re putting them in a position.”
 
“You’re putting them in a position where they have no hope,” she said to Brown, who previously served as superintendent of Laramie County School District 1. “What are you teaching in the schools that would provide hope, instead of the lies that we’re teaching the kids today?”
 
Brown said he believed teachers were instilling a lot of lessons in their students, from having grit and being able to bounce back to understanding success isn’t always guaranteed on the first try.
This wasn’t the only interaction between Hutchings and those who testified during consideration of the suicide hotline bill. 
 
She asked Wyoming Department of Health Director Stefan Johansson and Wyoming Business Alliance President Cindy DeLancey why they weren’t in support of a bill that would authorize providers to prescribe medication for off-label purpose, but advocated for the suicide hotline.
 
DeLancey had not testified at all on the off-label bill, and the WDH director said the agency had no position on the bill — it only had pointed out the unintended consequence for Medicaid. Bouchard added that the Wyoming Business Council put out social media posts during the COVID-19 special session supporting individuals who opposed similar off-label purpose bills.
 
“If the committee would please form questions,” interrupted Labor Committee Chairman Sen. Fred Baldwin, R-Kemmerer. “We’re not here to debate the witnesses, we’re here to ask questions and get testimony.”
They moved forward, but advocates made it clear why they hoped to see HB 65 pass through the committee.
 
“In Wyoming and the business community, our people are our most important asset, and anything that we can do to try to help our people be at their best and really move Wyoming out of that number one position is something that we strongly stand in support of,” DeLancey said. “Because, unfortunately, that is not the number one that Wyoming wants.”
 
This story was published on Feb. 14, 2023.