2023 Session Retrospective: Sen. Dan Furphy of Senate District 10
Furphy fought unsuccessfully to make insurance companies pay for hearing aids, pushed for better benefits for military and state troopers, and supported Medicaid for Moms while restricting abortion.
Throughout the 2023 General Session of the Wyoming Legislature, Albany County’s Sen. Dan Furphy (SD-10) fought for military and state trooper benefits while fighting to restrict abortion rights.
Furphy was a co-sponsor on two anti-abortion bills — one banning medication used to perform early abortions and another outlawing abortion altogether. That second bill — dubbed the “Life is a Human Right Act” — passed in the House as a total ban, but was amended by the Senate to allow for exceptions such as rape, incest and ectopic pregnancies and other life-threatening circumstances.
“I am pro-life, but the bill I was key on signing off on got amended a lot — and I’m really glad about that,” Furphy said. “I wasn’t okay with it at first. There were no exclusions at all, and that’s not right.”
Furphy said the “Medicaid for Moms” bill — expanding Medicaid to cover mothers in the first year of their baby’s life — was also a crucial addition to lawmakers’ anti-abortion efforts.
“My feeling is if we're gonna pass all these abortion bills, we better take care of these young mothers and their babies,” he said.
The Medicaid for Moms bill was signed into law by Gov. Mark Gordon on March 3. The “Life is a Human Right Act” is still on the governor’s desk, awaiting his signature or veto.
Serving on the Senate Transportation, Highways & Military Affairs Committee, Furphy saw the National Guard struggling with recruitment.
“We're having difficulty attracting individuals to the National Guard,” he said. “And so we spent quite a bit of time talking about incentives for those people.”
Furphy said members of the National Guard wanted their personal education benefits to be available to spouses and children — and the Senate Transportation Committee gave them that.
The committee also addressed benefits for the Wyoming Highway Patrol, which are lower than the benefits enjoyed by town, city and county cops.
“The sheriff's departments and police departments are hiring away the state troopers,” Furphy said. “And so we've got to retain those people. So we tried to equate those two retirement benefits.
Furphy sponsored just one bill this session, a bill that would have required insurance companies to cover hearing aids for the deaf and hard of hearing. The senator said he was approached by members of the Deaf community, who described the financial burden hearing aids can represent. Furphy worked with Jen Davis, the governor’s Health and Human Services policy officer, to craft the bill. But the effort was ultimately doomed.
“That bill didn’t go anywhere because the Senate didn’t like mandating insurance companies to require hearing aids,” he said. “So, I'm going to continue to work on that program.”
Furphy said there’s plenty Wyoming can do to improve its treatment of the Deaf community. For example, Wyoming is one of the few states — if not the only state — without a State Commission for the Deaf. Furphy said he’d like to see Wyoming establish one.
In addition to the one bill he sponsored, Furphy co-sponsored 13 bills or resolutions this session. Almost all of them passed — a notable success rate given more than half of the nearly 500 bills filed this session failed.
“I don't think we need a lot of new laws on the books,” Furphy said. “And so I tried to be careful not to create bills just to create bills. I think some of the bills were silly this session and wasted a lot of our time.”
But Furphy is proud that the legislature stashed away $1.4 billion in savings, leveraging a recent boom for inevitable futures busts and perhaps paving the way to reduce the state’s dependency on fossil fuel companies.
Furphy said he was also glad to help the Senate confirm Kermit Brown for another term on the UW Board of Trustees — and confirm WyoTech President Jim Mathis for his first term as a trustee.
“I think he’s a good fit for the university trustees, to have the trades represented in our university community,” Furphy said.
Committees:
Management Audit Committee
Senate Judiciary
Senate Transportation, Highways & Military Affairs
Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology
Select Committee on Capital Financing & Investments
State Retirement Board Liaison
Bills Sponsored:
Bills Co-Sponsored:
[With governor] HB152: Life is a Human Right Act.
[With governor] SF109: Prohibiting chemical abortions.
[Passed] HB7: Underage marriage-amendments.
[Passed] SF69: Electronic records retention.
[Passed] SF108: Court reporter fees-district court discretion.
[Passed] SF122: Nonresident workers-vehicle registration extension.
[Failed] HB135: Cities and towns-abandoned and nuisance buildings.
Joint Resolutions Co-Sponsored:
[Passed] SJ5: Air Force 75th Anniversary.
[Passed] SJ7: Support for Taiwan.