24-02-2025
Noncitizen ID bill passes House, fails concurrence vote
CHEYENNE — A bill to include text denoting that someone is not a U.S. citizen on state identification cards has passed the Wyoming House of Representatives, but changes made in that chamber were rejected by the Senate.
On Thursday, the House voted on third and final reading to pass Senate File 33, 'Noncitizen driver's license and ID card-revisions.' During committee of the whole debate on Tuesday, the House adopted an amendment to the bill that would change language from 'not a U.S.' to 'not a U.S. citizen,' as recommended by the House Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee.
Currently, Wyoming state IDs and driver's licenses for noncitizens say 'NR,' which stands for 'nonresident.' Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has said that is a 'tenuous' description that could be unclear to election judges, who have to determine voter eligibility at the polls.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation has testified in committee about the amount of space on the card, saying there wasn't room for an entire line of text reading 'not a U.S. citizen' on the state-issued ID card.
After passing on third reading in the House Thursday morning, SF 33 failed a concurrence vote in the Senate, meaning it will be sent to a joint conference committee to reconcile differences. Sen. Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, told his fellow senators that adding the word 'citizen' to the line of text on the identification cards would 'ignore the request of (WYDOT) to keep it short.'
Sen. Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne (2025)
Sen. Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne
'I have polled my committee, and we all agree we should honor the wishes of the department, so that down the line when we want to add another thing, we will have some real estate there,' Pappas said.
Neither body has allocated any funding for the change. On Wednesday, Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, proposed a second-reading amendment to allocate $67,000 to WYDOT for the cost of printing.
'In order to enact the changes that we are requesting the department to do, I thought allocating some fiscal resources would be a smart move,' Sherwood said, continuing that lawmakers often discuss tight budgets at WYDOT.
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Laramie, added that WYDOT is in 'maintenance mode for all of our roads.'
'If it is $67,000 to pay for this bill, that means $67,000 that isn't going to take care of roads in your neck of the woods,' Yin said.
However, Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, said he did not support any additional funding for WYDOT after the Legislature appropriated $69 million in general fund money for the agency.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette (2025)
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette
'There is a new influx of funds, so these minor expenditures that come along should be well taken care of,' Bear said.
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, pushed back, saying that he supported the appropriation. 'Unfunded mandates' are exactly why WYDOT is stretched so thin, he said.
'What we've been doing for the past 14 years is doing these unfunded mandates, placing another burden on them and saying, 'Well, you guys have money. Go figure it out'.'
Sherwood's amendment failed.
