At a meeting Tuesday morning, the committee also decided it would like to look into eminent domain issues, court security, judicial retirement and juvenile justice.

The House committee will meet with the Senate committee Thursday to solidify the interim topics, said committee chairman Rep. Jack Landon, R-Sheridan.

The only bill targeting sex offenders that is still alive in the Legislature would provide funding for a pilot program tracking registered sex offenders in Natrona County by placing Global Positioning System bracelets on their ankles. The Senate passed it, but it still has to make it through the House before Friday.

Landon suggested assigning representatives who are on the committee to be liaisons to other groups that are already studying court security, judicial retirement and juvenile justice.

Rep. George Bagby, D-Rawlins, pressed the committee to study eminent domain. He said it was an important issue to many people in the state, especially after last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that the government can take private property for economic development.

Rep. Deborah Alden, R-Wheatland, tried to convince the committee that a study of privileged communications and open records in Wyoming would be a good use of the committee's time.

But the committee didn't commit to such a study -- and the House later in the day rejected a proposal to study the issue over the interim. The House then approved a bill that would prohibit draft bills and communications between lawmakers and legislative staff, consultants and constituents from being made available to the public.

The bill then headed to a committee of both representatives and senators to review a change that was made to the legislation by a House committee.

During a hearing Monday, Dan Neal, of the Equality State Policy Center, and Marguerite Herman, of Wyoming's League of Women Voters, asked the committee to study both public-records issues in the interim.

Neal said discussions of both bills had been clouded with emotion this session and an interim study would be the best way to clearly understand all the issues involved.

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