CHEYENNE—House Speaker Chip Neiman asked his third-ranking member to take over the helm of the lower chamber. He stepped down to a lectern on the House floor. It was close to 10:30 p.m. Neiman turned on the microphone. He had something to say.  “I’m up to this in my eyeballs. Certainly no thing I asked for,” Neiman, R-Hulett, told the chamber he leads. “But, ladies and gentlemen, from my perspective, I want this over yesterday.” It was Wednesday evening, the House’s second late night of budget deliberations in a row. The chamber was working on little sleep. The first proper snowfall of the 2026 legislative session was settling outside the Capitol. Inside, lawmakers were debating whether a House special committee should proceed with its investigation of a conservative activist who handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor on day one of the 2026 legislative session. Outside, they faced a storm of criticism over a controversy that has dominated the budget session. Minutes before, House lawmakers had adopted a rule that will ban them from knowingly accepting any campaign donations during the legislative session, as well as in the Capitol or at interim committee meetings year-round.  Over the weekend, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office also launched a criminal inquiry into the checks, which complicated matters for the House investigation. Suddenly, a predicament that lawmakers wanted resolved quickly was threatening to drag on for weeks if not months, Neiman warned. “I’ve been very tight-lipped about how I was involved in this,” Neiman told the House. “I have tried to retain any information I had.” Moments later, for the first time since the controversy began unraveling, Neiman acknowledged that he had received one of the checks in question. He said he had “hoped and wished” to first share his story with the House investigatory committee — a panel of seven lawmakers Neiman had appointed himself. He could wait no longer, he said.  “Do you think about how difficult my situation is now?” Neiman said. “It’s going to call everything into question. I took a check, evidently, according to Don Grasso. And I did. What am I gonna do? Deny it?” By the time he stepped to the mic Wednesday night, three of Neiman’s Republican colleagues had said that Rebecca Bextel, a Jackson conservative activist, handed them a campaign check from a Teton County donor. Two of those lawmakers said the money was exchanged on the House floor. The third said the exchange happened elsewhere, but declined to say when and where.  Rebecca Bextel hands a check to Rock Springs Republican Rep. Darin McCann on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, during the 68th Wyoming Legislature’s budget session in Cheyenne. (Rep. Karlee Provenza) “Media is just going crazy,” Neiman said. “I can just hear pens being broke and papers ripping and people’s typing like crazy.”  Before WyoFile and the Jackson Hole NewsGuide broke the story on Feb. 11 with a photo of a check handover, Bextel confirmed in a social media post that she had hand-delivered “lawful campaign checks” to lawmakers. She has denied wrongdoing. Two days later, Don Grasso, the Teton County donor, shared with a reporter the names of the 10 intended recipients, including Neiman.  Since then, Neiman has not responded to multiple requests for comment, with journalists seeking answers about whether he received a check, as well as when and where it happened. In his Wednesday remarks, Neiman shared those details for the first time, including that Bextel handing him a check for $1,500 in his speaker’s office a few feet from the House floor, in front of his wife on the session’s first day.  Bextel called Neiman in early January, he said, to tell him that a Teton County donor appreciated his voting record and wanted to financially support Neiman in his reelection campaign. Under the impression that an unnamed opponent planned to spend $75,000 to oust him, Neiman said he welcomed the support. He expected Bextel to mail the check, Neiman told his colleagues, but did not think much of it when she hand-delivered the donation instead.  “Now there it is,” Neiman said. “That’s the whole story. You got the motive. You got who did it. You got where I was standing. We were not on the floor. We were in my office.  “Some would say, ‘Oh, that’s worse yet,’” he continued. “Show me in the rules. Show me the law that was broken.” In his remarks that followed, Neiman denied any wrongdoing or allegation of bribery, took aim at the media, and without naming names, criticized the whistleblower lawmaker for making the information public instead of filing a private complaint with him through a formal process known as Joint Rule 22-1. At several points, many members of the House stood and applauded Neiman, a break from the usual decorum of the lower chamber. Neiman insisted neither he nor any other legislator in the House did anything improper. “I’ll go to my grave knowing I didn’t do anything wrong. Not a thing,” Neiman said. “But you can’t unring that bell now. I have tried to be the fairest speaker you can possibly imagine. I’ve gone out of my way to make sure that I was respectful of everyone and I believed I could be trusted to handle things correctly.  “But evidently, somewhere in this folks couldn’t trust me to handle this correctly,” he said. “So we went around that piece and went straight to the media.”  Some lawmakers also cast doubt on the legitimacy of the sheriff’s office investigation, accusing Sheriff Brian Kozak of launching an inquiry for both political and personal reasons.   Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, during the 2026 Wyoming Legislature budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) “In 2022, I helped the campaign that ran against this sheriff and then he’s held malice against me ever since that time,” Rep. Gary Brown said. The Cheyenne Republican is one of 10 lawmakers who was set to receive one of the checks in question. He has not responded to a request for comment as to whether he accepted the donation. Neiman interrupted Brown before he could go any further. From there, Neiman, alongside 37 other lawmakers, voted against pausing the House investigation, doing so against the advice of the chairman of the investigatory committee, which the House unanimously created. Casper Republican Rep. Art Washut, the committee’s chairman and a retired police officer, had recommended pausing the house inquiry while law enforcement conducted its investigation. He said Tuesday that the pause was needed to avoid interfering with law enforcement. Coming out of committee, all seven appointed members voted to delay the investigation, but their votes split on Wednesday night.  The House’s investigation will now proceed along with the criminal inquiry. Public proceedings could happen as soon as next week. Response Following Neiman’s remarks, Rep. Bob Wharff, R-Evanston, pledged his allegiance to the speaker.  “I will tell you this, Mr. Speaker, I’ll follow you into battle anywhere, anytime, any day,” Wharff said.  Rock Springs Republican Rep. J.T. Larson thanked Neiman for his remarks, but lamented their timing. “I appreciate you telling your story and I think that that story should have been told a lot sooner. But I appreciate you telling it now,” Larson said. “When the first accusations were made on the floor, there were members that were quick to throw that member under the bus who made the accusations rather than just standing up for the members who did receive checks and just admitting that it did happen and telling the story right on the spot.”  Larson was referring to a day exactly one week before when Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, broached the subject of the checks on the House floor. The chamber had been debating legislation to prohibit local governments from requiring developers to pay mitigation fees to fund affordable housing programs. Bextel and Rep. John Bear, the bill’s main sponsor, have said the change is needed to stop local governments from infringing on private property rights.  When the bill was up for introduction, Yin spoke in opposition, saying the measure came from “a specific person in Teton County” who wanted to revive legislation that failed last year.  “This is not an accusation. This is solely just optics for the Legislature,” Yin said. “My understanding is that that person handed out checks on the floor of the Legislature during the session.”  Bear, a Gillette Republican and former Wyoming Freedom Caucus chairman, then interrupted Yin, calling a point of order. Yin was “making accusations of an individual that cannot be substantiated,” Bear said, and “that accusation is offensive to this body.”  Neiman also objected to Yin’s comments, asking the lawmaker if he could substantiate or verify his claims. But Neiman did not reveal that he had received a check from Bextel in his office two days earlier. After Grasso identified Bear as one of the intended recipients, Bear told a reporter he accepted a check from Bextel. Bear did not receive it on the floor, he said, but declined to say where or when the exchange took place. On Thursday, he told another media outlet that he received the check Feb. 10 in the third-floor hallway of the Capitol — one day before his exchange with Yin. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, left, speaks with Rebecca Bextel, second from right, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, right, and an unidentified woman Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, on the third floor of the Wyoming Capitol during the 68th Wyoming Legislature’s budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) Besides Bear, Neiman and Brown, Grasso said he intended the checks for seven other Republicans: Reps. Marlene Brady, Green River; Christopher Knapp, Gillette; Tony Locke, Casper; Darin McCann, Rock Springs; Joe Webb, Lyman; Sen. Bob Ide, Casper; and former lawmaker, Mark Jennings of Sheridan. All 10 Republicans have a tie to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. By publication time, Bear, Neiman, McCann and Webb were the only recipients to publicly confirm they accepted checks.  After Yin first raised questions, Cody Republican Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, chair of the Freedom Caucus, accused him of making “a defamatory statement.” If checks were distributed on the House floor, Rodriguez-Williams said, that “essentially would be bribery and unethical.”  None of the check recipients spoke up at the time to offer any clarifying details, including Rep. McCann, who told a reporter that morning that he had received a check from Bextel on the floor. A photograph, taken by Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, showed the exchange.  Attacking the press  McCann criticized the press in his remarks Wednesday night.  “You guys in the moderate side have no idea what it’s like to have a aggressive and malice press against you. You have no clue,” he said, before Rep. Julie Jarvis, R-Casper, called a point of order.  “Can you call a point of order on this? Because I believe there’s a woman up there daily that does that and not a single one of you say anything,” Jarvis exclaimed.  Jeanette Ward, who Jarvis defeated in 2024 in the race for House District 57, is regularly seen in the House gallery taking photos and videos of Jarvis whenever the lawmaker speaks. Records indicate that Ward is neither a credentialed member of the media nor a registered lobbyist.  “I stand corrected,” McCann said. “I have seen the malice against this particular representative and it’s not right and I apologize to you for that.” “I have seen that and it’s gross,” he said.  Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, during the 2026 Wyoming Legislature budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) Before Neiman’s remarks, Rep. Locke also criticized the media and encouraged the body to shift its focus elsewhere. More specifically, he asked why lawmakers did not use the formal, confidential process in Joint Rules, known as 22-1, to file an ethics complaint.  “I’d like to understand why that is the case,” Locke said, adding that “when you look at 22-1, there are ways to approach this.”  The Open Range Record, the media outlet Bextel co-owns with David Iverson, has focused on the same point.  “I am angry at the fact that this got to this point because I really do believe we missed a step,” Neiman said in his own remarks. “As long as I’ve been in leadership, if there was a complaint, it was brought to leadership and they were asked to investigate. We’ll look into it. If there’s something wrong, then we’ll get on to it. It didn’t go [to] the media first.” Provenza did not address her decision to go public. Instead, she said she would only speak to the Wyoming Constitution and how those who might become subjects of the criminal investigation could still be compelled to testify in front of the investigative committee. Their legislative testimony could not be used against them if criminal charges were pursued, unless they lied under oath, Provenza said. Rules Before the debate about the investigation began, lawmakers spent around 45 minutes discussing two rule changes.  The first banning campaign contributions mirrored a rule recently passed by the Senate.  After discovering that legislators were handed campaign checks on the floor, and at least one senator at the time had received a check in the Capitol, the upper chamber’s leaders acted quickly. The top five senators, from both sides of the aisle, spent the last week in Rules Committee discussing the language later introduced in the House. The Senate passed the Rule 31-0 with no debate on Tuesday. The House adopted its rule 59-0, with three lawmakers excused, late Wednesday night. The rule was brought by Rep. Mike Yin.  The three-part rule bans any person from knowingly soliciting, offering, delivering or accepting “by affirmative action” a campaign contribution in the Capitol or any area under control of the House Speaker, like a committee meeting across the state. It bars representatives from soliciting or accepting a contribution “by affirmative act” while the Wyoming Legislature is in regular or special session, even outside of the Capitol. Additionally, representatives will now be barred from knowingly accepting checks in person in the Capitol at any time of the year.  The rule specifies that the ban will not apply when a legislator receives a campaign contribution without knowing about it. For example, the Senate discussed how the rules would allow a check that arrives in a legislator’s mailbox without them soliciting it or knowing it was coming. The Wyoming Capitol during the 2026 legislative budget session. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) “It’s about honoring the space where we all work and also the period of time that the session takes place, where we have a lot of legislation in front of us,” Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, said on the floor. “I’m just really cognizant of the fact that campaign contributions really need to be divorced from the legislative process.”  There were questions about the rule, such as how far the speaker’s authority reached, if gifts like food or flowers count and whether online campaign contributions could be accepted. Yin and other lawmakers tried their best to explain the change.  “We’re at a little bit of a disadvantage, right?” Yin said. “Because they [the Senate] actually debated their rule very thoroughly through multiple rules committee meetings.” Others didn’t think the rule went far enough. Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, wanted the Legislature to consider “blackouts,” where lawmakers couldn’t take any campaign checks throughout certain periods of the year — like the week before the Appropriations Committee starts its work. He said the House could suspend its rules, introduce the bill and “easily pass that.” However, he wanted the rule for now. “We’ve got to get this fixed,” he said. “We’re in a new world, and this thing’s bigger than all of us.”  The rule won’t make campaign contributions at the Capitol or in leadership’s purview illegal, but it will make it clear they’re not permitted. A person who gives a donation could receive a complaint or be kicked out of the Legislature, and a lawmaker could face an ethical complaint, censure or even expulsion.  Majority Floor Leader Scott Heiner, R-Green River, agreed that it would “help with this perception that we have right now.” The second rule — which the Senate didn’t consider — was brought next by Rep. Ann Lucas, R-Cheyenne, a Wyoming Freedom Caucus member.  The first part of Lucas’ rule bans any registered lobbyist or person “who is attempting to influence legislation” from entering the legislative lounge room or from soliciting or accepting office supplies or any other goods “purchased using” state funds “by or for the use of the House of Representatives.”  It also would have banned the same people from offering or delivering gifts, food, beverages or any item of any value, or of any amount, within the “area under control of the Speaker.”  Rep. Ann Lucas, R-Cheyenne, during the 2026 Wyoming Legislature budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) “This rule does not silence anyone,” she said. “Lobbyists may still meet with members, provide research, testify and advocate. What they may not do — inside House-controlled spaces — offer items of value. This is not an anti-lobbyist. This is pro-institution.” “Ambiguity leads to public suspicion, media controversy, criminal inquiry and institutional strain,” she added.  The House was less convinced, with even other members of the Freedom Caucus wary of intended consequences, like being unable to accept Bibles or attend breakfasts hosted by advocates. The rule would have also only applied to the House and not the Senate. “What we don’t want to do is create a rule that then creates a gotcha game for lobbyists or legislators,” Speaker Pro Tempore Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, said. “Where they thought, ‘Well, we’ve done this forever and now all of the sudden we can’t do this.’”  Yin recommended taking a look at the Legislature’s Ethics and Disclosure Act and letting the Management Council do its work in the interim. There are many aspects to the law, including that legislators are required to disclose gifts, but food, beverage, travel and hospitality are excluded. The first part of her rule failed in a 42-17 vote. Lucas withdrew the second half. The Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council plans to take an even deeper dive into campaign contributions and other ethical matters during the interim. The floor After Wednesday night’s vote to move the House investigation forward, Yin asked to make remarks.  One of the consequences of raising questions, Yin said, was “there are definitely people who will not speak to me on this anymore.” Another consequence, he said, was the accusation that he defamed someone.  “You should see the malice that I get as the minority party leader,” he said. “I get a lot of it.” Yin also said he wished that the sheriff had never opened an investigation.  “I think that created a real problem for everyone involved,” Yin said. “We could have had a swift committee move very swiftly, and I know the chairman of the committee really wanted to move swiftly. I’m not sure what he does now.”  Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, during the 2026 Wyoming Legislature budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) Lastly, Yin asked that Wednesday’s discussion be the last of its kind on the House floor.  “It’s tough to keep having this debate over and over on the House floor,” Yin said. “So I guess what I would ask of all the members is that we make this the last time that we do an airing of grievances as you do in a Festivus.” “I do wish it all could have been avoided,” Yin said. “And frankly, I think that campaign politics and legislative politics shouldn’t mix. And I’m glad that we did enact a rule to deal with that. And hopefully it makes very clear what the bright line looks like in the future.” For the second time Wednesday night, Neiman rose from the speaker’s chair and stepped down from his desk. He approached the lectern where he had spoken minutes before. He raised his hand to shake Yin’s. Lawmakers began to clap.  “I don’t want any applause. Please do not applause,” Yin said. “We’re on the House floor.” For more legislative coverage, click here. 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