Assembly Republicans have voted in favor of ending Governor Tony Evers mask order and health emergency.
That resolution will go into effect on Friday. The removal of the health emergency will mean Wisconsin is no longer eligible for 50 million dollars a month in food stamp funding.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says this isn’t about masks, though, it’s about executive overreach. “What we’ve seen, unfortunately, is that rather than working with the legislature Governor Evers has done everything he can to work around us.”
Vos says plans are on the table to allow for a more limited mask order. “Some of those places would be hospitals, public schools, state government buildings, universities, nursing homes, those are areas that we should be able to have a broad general consensus around.”
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz says Vos and Republicans haven’t done a thing to make the state safer from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
“You know, on September 16th, at a Wispolitics event, [Vos] said that ‘The world is beginning to return to normal, and is doing so safely.’ Well, since then more than 4,500 people in our state have died.”
Beloit Democrat Mark Spritzer says that nothing that’s happening on Thursday or Friday will in any way protect Wisconsin from losing food stamp funding.
“They’re playing chicken with the governor, they’re playing chicken with us, and they are doing it at the expense of food on people’s tables.”
Republicans have added a limited emergency order provision to their COVID-19 relief plan, but to get that Governor Evers would also have to sign away other powers, including control over how the state handles COVID-19 funding from the federal government.