Rachel Rodriguez-Williams

Recently, legislative leaders have taken to the pages of Wyoming newspapers to brag about the size of the state’s savings account. During a time of unprecedented inflation and out of control property taxes in our state, it seems to me to be in poor taste. The state’s coffers are growing while the people’s are shrinking.

While families all over our state have to dip into their savings accounts for back to school shopping or to fix their car, the state government is flush with cash and wants you to applaud.

Meanwhile, the Biden regime’s radical Bureau of Land Management(BLM) is looking to further destroy Wyoming’s economy by blocking agriculture, energy, and even recreational activity in the southwest corner of the state.

We’ve seen it all before: When the federal government attempts to control the state of Wyoming, our leaders roll over and let them have their way. Whether it’s mask and vaccine mandates, boys in girls’ bathrooms, males in female prison cells, or the forced use of preferred pronouns, political leaders in Wyoming have not demonstrated a willingness to push back against the federal government.

Now, as the BLM is unafraid to admit the devastating consequences of its plans, legislative leaders want you to know that the state has a lot of money saved up.

All the money in the world means nothing when our ability to extract and create energy has been taken from us. Billions of dollars in savings cannot even be used to feed one needy person when our ability to grow it has been stripped of us.

Legislative leaders, the governor, and every Wyomingite must take the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan seriously. If the BLM even gets half of what it wants, our state will be devastated. With the amount of land owned by the federal government within Wyoming and the Biden administration‘s goal to block human access from 30% of the nation’s land by the year 2030, we cannot let them take an inch. If we do, they’ll take another million acres.

To the reader, I have three requests.

1. Review the BLM plan for yourself and submit a comment to the agency objecting to their plans to tie up the Rock Springs Management Area. Information on the plan, and the public comment portal can be found at this link: eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/13853/510

2. Ask that your legislators do the same.

3. Contact Gov. Mark Gordon’s office and ask him to protect our state from Biden’s land grab.

(Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams serves House District 50 in Park County. She serves as vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. She is a member of the House Republican Caucus, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, and the National Pro-Life Women’s Caucus.)