If the world ends, Wyoming’s got you covered.
The Wyoming House of Representatives advanced a bill Monday that would create a task force to study “governmental continuity in case of a disruption in federal government operations,” or what the local press has nicknamed a “doomsday” bill.
The task force would consider remedies in the event of national catastrophes, including disruptions in food or energy distribution, a constitutional crisis, or “a situation in which the federal government has no effective power or authority over the people of the United States.”
It would also consider what to do in the event that the dollar rapidly declines, and whether Wyoming should establish an “alternative currency.”
The bill would have also allowed the task force to consider whether the state should institute its own standing army and military draft, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier (in a landlocked state). But the House struck that part of the language from the bill on Monday. It will now move forward to a full House vote.
The task force, which would get $18,000 in funding, would be made up of state lawmakers, the director of the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security, the Wyoming attorney general, and others.
“Things happen quickly sometimes — look at Libya, look at Egypt, look at those situations,” said State Rep. David Miller (R), who introduced the bill. “We wouldn’t have time to meet as a Legislature or even in special session to do anything to respond.”
“I don’t represent people in Illinois or New Jersey,” Miller said, the Rapid City Journal reports. I represent people in Wyoming,” he said. “And I want them to be protected from any catastrophic events that may beset the rest of the country.”
