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Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting to you from Cheyenne on Tuesday, January 10th. Today we were sworn into office by Chief Justice Hill of the Wyoming Supreme Court. The administering of our oath of office has been the most humbling experience of my life. This is the third time I have been sworn in, and it continues to put a lump in my throat. There is so much history in the institution you have allowed me to serve in, and I feel a great responsibility to serve Sublette County and Wyoming with civility and integrity. We will have great debates in the coming two months. It is imperative that we respect each other, and by doing this we will pay tribute to the institution that is the Wyoming Legislature, as well as to Wyoming itself.

The new Speaker of the House, Steve Harshman, spoke today with such humanity about Wyoming and its people that I doubt there was a dry eye in the chamber. He talked about four points. First, he spoke about the budget deficit, which I have recently talked about. Second, he talked about economic development in the State of Wyoming, and the need to create a cabinet level office to pull both administrative and legislative efforts together in one place. Third, he expressed the desire to get better cooperation out of the federal government to streamline federal mineral leasing and reauthorization of grazing permits. He hopes that sportsmen, ranchers, and mineral producers will hang together to improve their influence on the federal land management process. Finally, he spoke of the importance of Wyoming’s children, and that we must ensure a great education in Wyoming, including creating opportunities for them to remain in Wyoming. I support this effort, and hope we can move Wyoming forward in the next two years.

albert@albertsommers.com

Click on this link to listen to an audio version of this update: Albert Sommers January 10, 2017 Legislature update (1.97MB mp3 audio file, 2:06 mins)