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State Senate Republicans pass package of anti-abortion bills

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Republicans in the State Senate have passed a package of abortion restrictions on party-line votes.

Among those bills are requirements for doctors to offer so-called abortion reversal treatments, a measure to prevent abortion based on a fetus’s race, gender or genetic abnormality, and a bill that would cut off clinics that provide abortions from the Medical Assistance program.

Democrat Kelda Roys says it’s a cynical ploy to rile up the Republican base. 

“This bill and a few others on the calendar, Mr. President, insert political judgment for the most personal intimate choices in people’s lives.”

Democrat Senator Chris Larson called the bills just another method of removing healthcare from women and said you don’t get these sorts of measures when it comes to male vasectomies. 

“The state does not require that that man to be patted on the head and say, ‘you go home and you think about this for 24 hours. This is a really big decision fella.'”

The only Republican to comment on the bills was Senator Chris Kapenga, who defended the bill on abortion reversal, saying it was there to provide choices for women. 

“It’s more information so that she can make a better-informed decision and she knows that she can continue the pregnancy she may continue the pregnancy if she chooses.”

All four bills will likely be vetoed by Governor Evers. 

 

Dane County judge orders Speaker Vos to turn over records from elections investigation

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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will have to turn over documents related to his investigation of the 2020 presidential election.

That’s after an open records request from Washington DC-based watchdog group American Oversight. Spokesperson Melanie Sloan says they’re looking for documents connected with Vos’ decision to hire former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman and others.

“We’ve been requesting documents for many months. We have numerous requests outstanding and basically, they’ve been refusing to provide those, and so we were left with no option but to go to court to enforce our records request. Neither Speaker Vos nor the Assembly has provided any documents related to the hiring or work product of the contractors they hired to do this audit, including any records of former Justice Gableman.”

The judge’s order said Vos has “unjustifiably withheld and refused to release the contractor records to which Petitioner is entitled.” Vos called the lawsuit frivolous. 

Senate Republicans pass “Born Alive” bill

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A Republican-authored bill that would require doctors to perform life-saving care on babies who survive late-term abortions has passed the State Senate.

Republican Senator Roger Roth says the bill ensures care for all children. 

“Many across the aisle talk about the importance to lower mortality rates for babies and for every baby to be able to get the care they need here in Wisconsin. Should that not include babies who survive abortions?”

But Democrats say the bill’s premise is just an excuse to attack abortions. Senator Kelda Roys says if Republicans really wanted to save the lives of children, they should start with the ones that have already been born, by accepting Medicaid expansion. 

“It’s one of the easiest ways, one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of women and babies, and yet time and again this body has refused to do just that.”

The bill will now head to the Assembly for a vote, before heading to Governor Evers.

Assembly Republicans pass bill banning anti-racism messages and efforts in K-12 schools

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Assembly Republicans brought a number of bills related to anti-racism education to the floor on Tuesday.

One of the bills requires that districts be more transparent about what they’re teaching their students. Republican Representative Elijah Behnke says districts would have to put their curriculum on public display on the internet. 

“It doesn’t tell you what to teach it just makes what is being taught available to the public which is I think a great idea.

The measure comes in response to complaints from conservative groups that some anti-racism messages being taught in schools are harmful to white students. Democrat LaKeisha Myers says it’s a republican strategy to divide America and quoted one of the proponents of the push. 

“‘We have de-codified the term and will re-codify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.’ So there you have it, Southern Strategy 2.0. Go back and read Nixon and go to Reagan and here we are today.”

The bill passed the Assembly and is likely to be vetoed by the Governor if it passes the Senate. 

New bill seeks to move Wisconsin Elections Commission to Wausau

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A Republican lawmaker from Green Bay is looking to move the state elections commission to Wausau.

Representative David Steffen says that the days of keeping offices in Madison for the sake of being in Madison are over. 

“It made sense 173 years ago to have everything together when a person like myself had to get on a pony, put on a powdered wig to walk over, to get over to someone else’s office, to sit by whale-oil light to make a decision but that’s no longer the situation.”

He says Wausau is a central location in the state on two major highways, and rent would be much cheaper than in Madison. 

“Their lease is expiring at the end of the year for office space that cost twice that of almost every other community in the state.”

This is not the first attempt to start moving state agencies out of Madison. There’s been an effort to move the DNR farther north for many years.

Evers vetoes 6 Republican elections bills

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At the Capitol in Madison on Tuesday, Democratic Governor Tony Evers vetoed six Republican bills which were crafted to restrict Wisconsin election laws.

“At the end of the day, these bills add unnecessary and damaging hurdles, for Wisconsinites to participate in our democracy,” Evers said.

Among the bills were efforts to cut down on the number of absentee ballot drop boxes and limits on how long people could get help voting in assisted living homes.

“Wisconsin has long been a laboratory of democracy, but in recent years we are used as a Petri dish for Republican plans to undermine that democracy,” said Evers. “Well not anymore, not today, not as long as I’m governor of the great state of Wisconsin.”

Many of the bills would have acted on complaints from former President Trump and his allies in the wake of his loss in 2020.

“The governor is making another momentous mistake with his veto pen. While he claims these bills are ‘anti-democracy,’ his actions speak louder than words. He is satisfied with the status quo and refusing to improve future elections.

“These bills closed loopholes, standardized procedures, established uniformity, guaranteed only the voter can correct their own ballot and protected votes of seniors in long-term care.

“I am very disappointed Governor Evers refuses to do the right thing.”

*SB 212 sought to prohibit local elections clerks from filling in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes.

*SB 210 sought to allow election observers to be no more than 3 feet from tables at which voting activities are occurring. Current law says observers must be between 3 feet and 8 feet away.

*SB 205 sought to overhaul policies for special voting deputies that assist voting in assisted care facilities.

*SB 204 would have revamped procedures for those who claim indefinitely confined status due to age, infirmary or illness. That includes a provision that sought to require those voters to provide a copy of their voter ID with their application if they have one.

*SB 203 would have explicitly authorized the use of drop boxes to collect absentee ballots, but also sought to place various restrictions on their use.

*SB 292 sought to require municipalities that broadcast canvassing proceedings live to record it and retain the recording for 22 months.

Governor Evers signs state budget with some vetoes to GOP policy items

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Wisconsin families should be seeing an average income tax cut of 800 dollars under a new state budget signed today by Governor Tony Evers.

Evers says he’s used his veto powers to target those tax cuts to families across the state. 

“I’m newly providing tax relief to more than 1.6 million Wisconsin taxpayers at a time when our economy and Working Families across our state need it the most.”

Republicans had sent the Governor a budget that was far below the spending he requested in February, but Evers says there’s still room for tax cuts for Wisconsin families, along with increases in spending. 

“When combined with prior reductions 2.4 million filers will be receiving tax relief in Wisconsin.”

The Governor also cut a number of policy decisions the GOP added to the budget, including a cut in spending for the lieutenant Governor’s security detail, as well as a proposed drug testing requirement to get unemployment insurance. 

Legislative Republicans say they should be getting credit for the tax cuts.

Joint Finance Committee co-chair Mark Born says Evers made changes that will hurt people, like not changing income tax withholding tables.

“He vetoes the updates to the tax withholding tables that takes money out of people’s paychecks and keeps it instead with the government.”

Evers also shot down a removal of the personal property tax, and Born says they’ll work to get that passed through other means in the future.

Assembly Republicans pass bill to ban trans women from high school and college women’s sports

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Republicans in the state Assembly have passed a pair of bills that restrict how trans women can take part in high school and college sports.

The bill’s author, Republican Barb Dietrich, says the bill would create a separate but equal co-ed branch of youth sports that trans women would be allowed to participate in.

“If a biological female is perfectly comfortable competing against a biological male, this legislation provides a way to do so!”

Democrat Lee Snodgrass says the move is a cynical way to attack trans athletes. “If we really truly care about women’s sports issues, we should be working on closing the pay gap in women’s sports. We should be making investments in sports and promoting equal economically opportunities for these girls and women.”

Snodgrass says trans women already have it tough competing. “They suffer from higher rates of bullying, anxiety, depression, all of which – news flash – make it more difficult to train and be competitive.”

Dietrich says that children who are trans need mental help rather than help competing in sports. “Let’s get them the care that they need on the mental health level, rather than allowing them to displace women who have worked so hard to reach this achievement level.”

Governor Evers says he’ll be vetoing the bill if it makes it to his desk.

Nekoosa lawmaker asks for 50 million dollar loan for restarting idled papermill in Wisconsin Rapids

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A bill authored by Representative Scott Krug of Nekoosa which calls for W E D C to issue a fifty million dollar loan to the co-op looking to buy the idled Verso paper mill will get a hearing Wednesday in Madison.

Krug says the plant was a vital part of business and industry in the Northwoods. 

“I honestly get more emails and phone calls from people in the Northwoods than people from Wisconsin Rapids because that’s how much of an impact this has on the upper 2/3 of the state of Wisconsin.”

Others who have signaled their support for the bill include Republicans Patrick Testin, Pat Snyder, Jim Edming, and John Spiros. 

Krug says he’s proposed the single bill to take politics out of the project, especially after Governor Evers’ comments about possibly vetoing the entire state budget:

“I don’t want Politics on this. I just want a clean bill, a yes or no vote. A day for Wisconsin Rapids to be heard in the Assembly. A day for Wisconsin Rapids to be heard in the Senate. A day for the Wisconsin Rapids area to be heard by the Governor.”

It’s unclear if the governor would sign the bill. 

State Senator Roys calls for repeal of Wisconsin’s 170 year old ban on abortions ahead of possible Roe v Wade ruling

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Two Wisconsin legislative Democrats want to pull Wisconsin’s 172 year old abortion ban off the books.

That’s in response to the US Supreme Court taking up a case that could challenge the Roe v. Wade ruling. Senator Kelda Roys says losing women’s health protections in Wisconsin will be devastating to the poor and underprivileged. 

“Women of privilege and women of means will always be able to travel elsewhere to get abortions. It’s women who don’t have privilege and families don’t have those privileges that are going to be most adversely affected.” 

Roys says the hearing and lawsuit is just another attack on women’s health by anti-choice groups. 

“Conservative anti-choice interests have been so effective at undermining access to abortion.  They’ve done it through harassment, threats, forcing clinics to close.”

Roys says she understands that it’s unlikely that the bill will pass through the Republican controlled legislature, but that women deserve the right to choose their own medical decisions.