Capping off a contentious week of floor sessions that saw tempers flare as lawmakers raced to adjourn for the year, the state Assembly passed two measures tied to hard-fought deals about food assistance and cleaning up PFAS.
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The Wisconsin state Assembly approved two women’s health bills Thursday, after years of failed attempts and a surprise announcement the previous evening that Republicans would allow them to move forward.
The post Wisconsin Assembly passes postpartum Medicaid expansion, breast cancer prevention bills appeared first on WPR.
Robin Vos, the powerful speaker of the state Assembly who shaped the GOP's agenda in Wisconsin for the better part of two decades, announced Thursday he won't seek reelection, marking the end of an era in state government and Republican politics.
The post Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to retire after longest tenure in state history appeared first on WPR.
Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly say they'll pass two bills related to women's health Thursday, a surprise move that comes after years of blocking the legislation.
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In his eighth and final State of the State address Tuesday night, Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday night said Republicans have chronically underfunded Wisconsin schools and blamed them for increased property taxes after negotiations for a tax cut stalled this week.
The post In final State of the State, Evers pushes for school funding, end to gerrymandering appeared first on WPR.
Time is running out for efforts to keep WisconsinEye — Wisconsin's version of C-SPAN — on the air.
The post Lawmakers at odds about funding WisconsinEye, putting its future in question appeared first on WPR.
In moves they described as efforts to make the state's higher education system more meritocratic and safe for conservative students, Assembly Republicans voted Thursday to change eligibility for certain financial aid programs, and make it easier to sue universities for free speech violations.
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Wisconsin lawmakers have introduced bills for the past 13 years to legalize marijuana. They never pass. But why?
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With just a few weeks left in Wisconsin’s legislative season, GOP leaders and Gov. Tony Evers are discussing a possible deal on lowering property taxes. But a split among GOP leadership could sink any agreement.
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Wisconsin state officials and tribal leaders filled the state Capitol on Tuesday to listen to the annual State of the Tribes address given by tribal chair Nicole Boyd of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.
The post At State of Tribes, Chippewa chair goes all in for Wisconsin sports betting bill appeared first on WPR.
As a proliferation of free and easy artificial intelligence tools transform how people learn, work and socialize, Wisconsin lawmakers heard testimony Wednesday on a proposal that seeks to regulate kids’ use of human-esque chatbots.
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Wisconsin’s version of C-SPAN is back online after going dark for about seven weeks due to a lack of funding.
In a vote tallied Monday, a state Legislature committee unanimously approved funding to the nonprofit public affairs network.
WisconsinEye’s website was back up Monday morning, including its archive of old videos of hearings and legislative sessions. The nonprofit also livestreamed a press conference in the Capitol Monday and has plans to broadcast legislative activity Tuesday.
It comes after the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Legislative Organization voted 10-0 to approve $50,000 to WisconsinEye for operations costs to resume broadcasting for the Legislature for February.
Those costs will be divided equally between the Senate and Assembly. The full Legislature does not need to vote on the funding.
WisEye went offline on Dec. 15. At the time, the network said it needed “consistent annual funding” to ensure the public doesn’t “lose the only reliable and proven source of unfiltered State Capitol news and state government proceedings.” In November, the network said it needed $887,000 in donations to cover its operation budget for one year.
During WisconsinEye’s absence, Republican state lawmakers enforced rules banning members of the public who are not credentialed media from recording legislative hearings inside the State Capitol.
In late January, leaders from both political parties announced they reached a deal to fund the public affairs network.
WisEye has created a GoFundMe with the goal of raising $250,000, or three months of its operating budget. As of Monday morning, the campaign had raised more than $56,000.
WisconsinEye CEO Jon Henkes did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday. He had previously asked the Legislature and governor to remove a matching provision for roughly $10 million in state funding for the network that was included in the most recent state budget.
While WisEye may still face long-term funding challenges, Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said it’s good news for Wisconsinites that the network is broadcasting again.
In addition to providing live coverage of legislative meetings for residents who can’t make it to Madison, Lueders said WisEye’s archive of past meetings is important for historical purposes because it provides a record of the debates and discussions that took place in state government.
“WisconsinEye has long been a tremendously important resource for Wisconsin and advances the cause of transparency in government by letting people see the process of laws being made,” he said. “It was a very sad thing that it was forced to go offline for about six weeks or so. I’m glad that they found a way to bring it back.”
This story was originally published by WPR.
WisconsinEye resumes coverage at the State Capitol is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
In a bid to capitalize on recent bipartisan pushes to regulate the state's hemp industry, Wisconsin Democrats have introduced a bill to fully legalize marijuana. But the plan is doomed in the Republican-led Legislature.
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Wisconsin’s version of C-SPAN is back online after going dark for about seven weeks due to a lack of funding.
The post Wisconsin’s version of C-SPAN resumes coverage at the state Capitol appeared first on WPR.
Assembly Republicans have proposed a Wisconsin match to a federal program that would create investment funds for newborns.
The post Assembly Republicans propose Wisconsin match for federal Trump Accounts appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsin lawmakers, journalists and members of the public returned to the Capitol last week for a packed slate of committee hearings and executive sessions but for the first time in nearly 20 years, WisconsinEye was not broadcasting daily legislative proceedings. Wisconsin State Capitol on a snowy day. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
After WisconsinEye, the state’s version of C-Span, went off the air in December, Republican lawmakers rediscovered rules that bar members of the public from making video and audio recordings of committee hearings and decided to start enforcing them.
Wisconsin lawmakers, journalists and members of the public returned to the Capitol last week for a packed slate of committee hearings and executive sessions but for the first time in nearly 20 years, WisconsinEye was not broadcasting daily legislative proceedings.
A notice passed around Assembly committees listed two rules. Assembly rule 11, related to committee procedures, states that “insofar as applicable, the rules of the Assembly apply to the procedures of standing committees and special committees.”
Assembly rule 26, which relates to members of the public observing from visitor galleries in the Assembly chambers, states that they “may not use any audio or video device to record, photograph, film, videotape, or in any way depict the proceedings on or about the Assembly floor.”
Senate rule 11 also states that “no persons other than members of the chief clerk’s staff, members of the staff of the sergeant at arms, members of a senator’s staff, and accredited correspondents of the news media may engage in any audio or video recording of the proceedings of the Senate or any committee without permission of the committee on Senate organization.” According to the Senate Chief Clerk Cyrus Anderson, the rule was first adopted in 2005.
Wisconsin’s open meetings law expressly states that governmental bodies “shall make a reasonable effort to accommodate any person desiring to record, film or photograph the meeting,” but the law includes a provision that says that “no provision of this subchapter which conflicts with a rule of the senate or assembly or joint rule of the legislature shall apply to a meeting conducted in compliance with such rule.”
Rep. Jerry O’Connor (R-Fond Du Lac) told the Wisconsin Examiner that the rules were reviewed in caucus at the start of the year.
“Many of [the members], like me, I didn’t know there was a rule,” O’Connor said. “So it was a reminder.”
Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard), who has served in the Assembly since 2015, said he couldn’t remember looking at the rule in the last decade.
“How many times have I just kind of breezed past it? I guess I never really thought of it, primarily because I’ve always had WisconsinEye to rely on to assist with that coverage, as well as present media and in-person public,” Steffen said.
Steffen said lawmakers, seeking to understand their options in the absences of WisconsinEye, looked over the Assembly rules.
“One of the things that immediately became apparent is that under our Assembly rules, we already have some things that are readily available — for example, credentialed media — but we also have things that have always been prohibited,” Steffen said. “It remains the rule of the day, so this isn’t a new rule… In terms of the enforcement, I think it’s more of an awareness campaign than anything.”
The rule enforcement caused some confusion throughout last week.
Notices related to the rules were passed around and posted outside committee rooms. Committee chairs issued directions at the start of meetings. Reporters in committees were asked to show their credentials as they set up cameras and stood to take photos, and others, including staff members and members of the public without credentials, were stopped from doing so.
Rep. Clinton Anderson (D-Beloit), seeking to help fill the gap left by the absence of WisconsinEye, livestreamed on Facebook the meeting of the Assembly Local Government Committee on Wednesday, writing that “we have to step up and do what we can.” Anderson said on Thursday that he sought to do the same in the Assembly Agriculture Committee but was stopped from doing so as Rep. Travis Tranel (R-Cuba City) reminded the room of the rules related to recording.
“We’re now hearing that this will become standard practice across committees. If that’s the direction Republican leadership is heading, it represents a clear move to restrict public access,” Anderson said in a statement. “After WisconsinEye went dark, the response should have been to expand transparency, not quietly close another door on the public. I am disappointed to see the Assembly GOP go after the public’s First Amendment rights.”
Testimony from two Republican lawmakers on a bill to exempt overtime from income taxes was interrupted during an Assembly Ways and Means committee meeting on Thursday afternoon by a point of order relating to video recording.
“I don’t have a problem, video all you want,” said Rep. Mike Bare (D-Verona), the committee’s ranking member, to someone who was holding up a cellphone “You’ve got nothing to hide. These guys have nothing to hide, but if we’re going to have a rule…”
“I know that there was staff taking a photo, yes, and I gotta challenge that if you’re videoing… if you’re doing a video that you’re not allowed in the committee area,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor told the Examiner after the meeting that he is fine with photos being taken in his committee and he believes committee chairs can use their discretion on whether to allow photos. He said video is different because of its potential use for political purposes.
“If it’s staff taking photos of their rep, I don’t have a big problem of it,” O’Connor said. “You could have somebody, an outsider, come and testify, and their best friend is sitting in this seat and wants to take a picture, that’s not the issue.”
“Trying to capture video, quite frankly, it gets down to it can be used politically,” he added. “So WisconsinEye tapes this, you cannot use a WisconsinEye clip in political campaigns. That’s why the rules originated, and I get that… I don’t want either side to violate that or benefit from it adversely.”
Bare said he wanted to ensure that the rules were being applied evenly if they were going to be enforced.
“We have a long, rich tradition in Wisconsin of open government, open access to government, and we shouldn’t have be limiting that access to members of the public to staff to members and to the media in any way,” Bare said, adding that the enforcement of the rules is “clearly a response to WisconsinEye being offline, being dark, which seems like a preventable problem.”
“There’s plenty of states in the country who provide funding for broadcasting… We shouldn’t be in the situation where we members or our staff have to livestream onto social media,” Bare said. “We’ve got decades now of precedent of these things being broadcast out to the public.”
WisconsinEye halted its coverage in December due to a lack of funding after failing to raise sufficient funds to meet a matching requirement for the release of $10 million in state funds. WisconsinEye leadership has been in discussions with lawmakers about a potential solution, including releasing part of the $10 million that is intended to build an endowment.
“We’re only going to be in session for maybe eight to 10 more weeks, and if we’re unable to get WisconsinEye back up and running in that timeframe, I’m hopeful the public isn’t going to be impacted any more than they already have been,” Steffen said.
Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, told the Examiner that the enforcement of the rule is a bad idea.
“Regardless of the law, denying the public the ability to record and film legislative meetings, especially in the absence of a functioning WisconsinEye, is deeply undemocratic and, in my opinion, foolhardy. Nothing that goes on in these meetings is anywhere near as insidious as what people will assume is happening if the ability to film and record it is being curtailed,” Lueders said.
Lueders said the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (WFIC) doesn’t support anything that treats the media differently from ordinary citizens.
“Although they may legally be able to pass their own rule and enforce their own rule to deny people an opportunity, it doesn’t make it any less of a good idea,” Lueders said.
Steffen said he would be open to having options for the public to record and photograph meetings as long as they are not obstructing the activity of a committee. “I think that this situation, this hopefully short-term downtime, has created an opportunity to discuss some of those rules that have been on the books for some time, and perhaps there’s some that need to be modified.”
In the meantime, Steffen said lawmakers are focused on finding a solution to make up for the loss of WisconsinEye and options for the public are limited to attending in person and consuming coverage by journalists in the Capitol.
Steffen called on local reporters to “fill the gap” in a press release on Friday.
“All of them have the ability to record, maybe sometimes just audio, but they all have the ability to record a proceeding and put that on their website,” Steffen said. “That at least would provide some opportunity for transparency during this interim.”
Lueders said local media “absolutely does not have the resources to film as many legislative hearings and sessions as WisconsinEye was doing; it just doesn’t have that capacity. Cameras can come and show up for part of a hearing, but they’re not there filming entire meetings on a daily basis, and that’s not a function that can be replicated… It’s more important than ever that ordinary citizens who attend these meetings are able to film and record it.”
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