President-elect Donald Trump will face significant hurdles to enacting his campaign pledge to ban transgender youth from participating in school sports that align with their gender identity. (Photo by Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that, if elected back to the White House, he would pursue a ban on transgender youth participating in school sports that align with their gender identity.

As he prepares to take office in January, experts and LGBTQ+ advocates told States Newsroom the effort would face significant delays and challenges as legal pushback from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups can be expected every step of the way.

Trump’s repeated vow to “keep men out of women’s sports” reflects his broader anti-trans agenda. Administration efforts would come as an increasing number of states have passed laws banning trans students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.

The Trump-Vance transition team did not offer any concrete details when asked about specifics but shared a statement from spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt wrote. “He will deliver.”

Reversing the final rule for Title IX

The U.S. Education Department, under President Joe Biden, released updated regulations to Title IX in April that strengthen federal protections for LGBTQ+ students. The final rule does not explicitly reference trans athletes’ sports participation — a separate decision the administration put on hold.

The Education Department late Friday said it was withdrawing a proposed rule that would have allowed schools to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities while also preventing across-the-board bans.

Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law that bars schools that receive federal funding from sex-based discrimination.

The president-elect has pledged, while speaking about trans students’ sports participation, to reverse the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX on his first day back in office.

The Biden administration’s final rule was met with forceful pushback from GOP attorneys general. A series of legal challenges in states across the country have created a policy patchwork of the final rule and weakened the Biden administration’s vision for enforcement. 

But if Trump were to try to reverse the final rule, experts say the effort would take an extended period and require adherence to the rulemaking process outlined in the Administrative Procedure Act, or APA.

The APA rules how federal agencies propose and roll out regulations. That process can take months, creating a barrier for a president seeking to undo a prior administration’s rule.

Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said that while a subsequent administration can undo the current Title IX regulations, it would take “a tremendous amount of work because a regulation has the force of law … so long as the administration has complied with the APA.”

For the Trump administration to undo those regulations, it would need to start at the beginning, propose its own rules and go through the entire process.

“I think it seems fairly likely that that’s something that they’re going to pursue, but that’s not something that the president has the capability to do on day one,” she said.

Oakley noted that the updated regulations also have the force of law because they interpret a law that already exists — Title IX.

The Trump administration is “bound by Title IX, which in fact has these protections related to gender identity,” she said.

Preparing to push back

But any action from the Trump administration regarding trans athletes’ sports participation is sure to be met with legal challenges from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.

Oakley said though “we have many real reasons to be concerned” about what the Trump administration would do when it comes to Title IX protections and in general for LGBTQ+ people, “we also need to be cautious that we do not concede anything either.”

“We need to be trying to ground ourselves in the actual legal reality that the president-elect will be facing when he comes into office and be able to fight with the tools that we have and not concede anything in advance.”

Biden rule does not address athletics

The U.S. Education Department under Biden never decided on a separate rule establishing new criteria regarding trans athletes.

Shiwali Patel, a Title IX lawyer and senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center, said “we could see some sort of announcement about changing the Title IX rule to address athletics” under the Trump administration. 

“Given the rhetoric that has come out of the Trump administration and this continued focus on trans athletes, I think we very well should and could expect to see something from the Trump administration on this, which is very harmful,” Patel told States Newsroom.

The Trump administration could also try to pursue a national ban via legislation in Congress.

The U.S. House approved a bill last year that would prohibit trans athletes from competing in sports that align with their gender identity. And in July, the chamber passed a measure that would reverse Biden’s final rule for Title IX.

But Patel said she could not see how any measure in Congress could get through the U.S. Senate’s filibuster, which requires at least 60 votes to pass most legislation. There will be 45 Democratic senators in the incoming Congress, though independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont caucus with the Democrats.

Despite Washington soon entering a GOP trifecta in the U.S. House, Senate and White House, narrow margins could hinder any potential anti-trans legislation from the Trump administration. 

Broader anti-trans legislation

Across the country, 25 states have enacted a law that bans trans students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, or MAP, an independent think tank.

Logan Casey, director of policy research at MAP, said proponents of these sports bans are using them as a starting point to enact a broader anti-trans agenda.

“In many cases, these sports bans have been one of the first anti-trans laws enacted in recent years in many states, but then states that enact one of these sports bans then go on to enact additional anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ laws,” Casey told States Newsroom.

Casey described any controversy around trans people playing sports as “entirely manufactured.”

“In just five years, we’ve gone from zero states to more than half the country having one of these bans on the books, and that’s really, really fast in the policy world,” he said.

In March 2020, Idaho became the first state to enact this type of ban. 

Madison, Wisconsin high school students march on the Capitol on Friday, Dec. 20 | Photo by Daphne Cooper

It was a brilliant, snowy Friday, the last day of school before winter break, as more than 100 students from high schools across Madison converged inside the Capitol. They gathered around the 30-foot balsam fir festooned with handmade ornaments, a model train chugging around the track at the base of the tree. At first it looked like a festive scene, but as the students poured into the first floor of the rotunda, then filled the second- and third-floor balconies, their shouting drowned out a group of Christmas carolers, who retreated, their songs giving way to chants of “No more silence! End gun violence!”

The Madison teens showed up to express their grief and outrage over the deaths this week of a 14-year-old student, her teacher and a gun-wielding 15-year-old girl who opened fire Monday in a classroom at the small private Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side. It was the city’s first school shooting but, incredibly, the 323rd in the nation this year.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children and teens in the U.S. Shouting, chanting, demanding to be heard, the crowd of children came to the Capitol Friday demanding that we wake up and do something about this appalling fact. 

Our nation is an outlier, with a rate of gun violence that dwarfs other large, high-income countries. Firearm homicides here are 33 times higher than in Australia and 77 times higher than in Germany, according to a report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington medical school. Not surprisingly, firearm injuries tend to be more frequent in places where people have easy access to firearms, according to a 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

What other country in the world could live with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where 20 little children between 6 and 7 years old and six adult staff were gunned down, and respond by making no significant restrictions on firearms? 

“My parents constantly talk about how, when Sandy Hook happened, they thought that would be the end of it,” said Danny Johnson, a first-year student at Madison West High School who joined the 3-mile march to the Capitol on Friday, carrying a sign scrawled on a sheet of notebook paper that said, “Thoughts and prayers until it’s your own child.” 

“To constantly have to go through it — we shouldn’t have to be here. We should be in school not having to worry about it at all,” Johnson added.

Hanging over balconies and leaning against marble pillars, teens held up handmade signs that said; “Enough!” “You write your policies on a carpet of our dead bodies,” and “Graduations not funerals.”

In Wisconsin, the rate of gun deaths increased 45% from 2013 to 2022, compared to a 36% increase nationwide, according to the Giffords Law Center.

Every year since he was elected in 2018, Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats in the state Legislature have tried in vain to get Republican cooperation on ending the state’s current exemption from background checks for private gun sales. A proposed “red flag” law that would allow police or family members to seek an extreme risk protection order in court to take guns from gun owners who are found to be a danger to themselves or others has also gone nowhere. Both of these measures are broadly popular with voters across the political spectrum. Somehow that doesn’t seem to matter.

After this week’s school shooting. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos released a statement saying, “Today’s tragedy is shocking, senseless and heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with the students, parents and faculty who will have to live with the trauma and grief of this day for the rest of their lives.” But Vos stopped short of saying he would make any effort whatsoever to protect kids and teachers from being shot to death at school. That phrase “thoughts and prayers,” rightly derided by the students who protested at the Capitol on Friday, is a pathetic substitute for action. 

“Last year it was 12 years since Sandy Hook, 25 years since Columbine, and all our politicians can say from their cushy seats is that they’re sending out their thoughts and prayers about the leading cause of death for children in America!”  yelled Ian Malash, a senior at Vel Phillips Memorial High School in Madison, pacing around the tree in the center of the rotunda. “We’re showing them right now and we are going to continue to show them that we are done with thoughts and prayers. We will make change happen because our lives depend on it.”

Vos, apparently recovered from his heartbreak over Monday’s tragedy and back to his old snarky self by Wednesday, mounted a robust defense of the status quo on X, retweeting a post from Wisconsin Right Now that mocked Democrats who “politicize this tragedy with cheap talking points.” The post claimed that, since it’s already illegal for a 15-year-old to possess a handgun, it’s ridiculous to connect the recent shooting to any effort to change gun laws.

But, as state Sen. Kelda Roys told the crowd on Friday, “We know that states that have passed gun safety laws like background checks, like red flag laws … they see gun deaths and firearm injuries go down. We can do that here in Wisconsin, too.  We just need to change the minds or change the legislators — and the judges, too, by the way.” 

“My generation and the people in this building have let you down,” Rick Abegglen, the parent of a West High School daughter who helped organize the protest, told the crowd in the Capitol. “I am so proud of each and every one of you for standing up for yourselves. A few moments ago I saw somebody close the doors of the Senate because they did not want to hear your voices. Think about it.”

As he spoke, the students yelled louder, their voices bouncing off the marble walls, becoming harder and harder to ignore.

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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers address the Legislature in his 2024 State of the State message. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday that Wisconsin’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, which is published by the Department of Administration, recorded a $4.5 billion positive balance in the state’s general fund at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year. 

In addition to the general fund, the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund — or “rainy day” fund — ended the fiscal year at the highest level in state history with a balance of $1.9 billion. The rainy day fund has set a new record every year since Evers took office in 2019.  

“For thirty consecutive years, our state’s checking account ran at a deficit. Thanks to our efforts to pay down our state’s debt and work across the aisle to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, Wisconsin has never had a deficit since I took office,” Evers said in a statement. “This is great news for the people of Wisconsin and our state’s economy.” 

The balance in the general fund — a budget surplus — will likely be a major point of discussion next year as Evers and lawmakers begin work on the state’s next two-year budget.

Writing the state budget is a process that will take several months as Evers first gets to present his budget proposal to lawmakers, then the state’s Joint Finance Committee will write its own version. The budget bill will need to pass the Senate and Assembly before going to Evers to be signed.

“As we begin the important work of deliberating our state’s next two-year budget, we have a responsibility to keep staying well within our means while still investing in needs that have long been neglected,” Evers said. “We must continue to make the smart, strategic investments we have for the last five years to maintain our economic momentum and ensure Wisconsin’s continued stability and success.”

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, seen at an April 2022 White House event celebrating her Senate confirmation, was President Joe Biden’s sole U.S. Supreme Court nominee. The 235 federal judges confirmed during Biden’s presidency set records for racial and gender diversity. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s number of lifetime appointments to the federal bench surpassed the first Trump administration’s Friday and set records as the most diverse selection of judges by any president in U.S. history, according to federal judiciary observers.

The U.S. Senate, late in its final session of the year, confirmed what are expected to be the final two of Biden’s nominations, bringing his total number of judicial confirmations to 235, just one more than President-elect Donald Trump’s first-term total.

Senators voted along party lines to confirm Benjamin J. Cheeks to be U.S. district judge for the Southern District of California, in a vote of 49-47, and Serena Raquel Murillo to be U.S. district Judge for the Central District of California, in the same vote breakdown.

Cheeks marks the 63rd Senate-confirmed Black judge appointed by Biden, and Murillo the 150th woman.

Four senators did not vote, including Vice President-elect J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s secretary of State nominee, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, newly sworn Sen. Adam Schiff of California, and the outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Senate control will be in Republican hands after the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3, almost certainly shutting the door on any Biden nominations before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

Among Biden’s appointments, 187 were seated on district courts, 45 on federal appeals courts, and one, Ketanji Brown Jackson, on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as two to the Court of International Trade.

Biden issued a statement Friday night marking the “major milestone.”

“When I ran for President, I promised to build a bench that looks like America and reflects the promise of our nation. And I’m proud I kept my commitment to bolstering confidence in judicial decision-making and outcomes,” Biden said.

“I am proud of the legacy I will leave with our nation’s judges,” Biden said, closing out his statement.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer touted the “historic” accomplishment on the Senate floor following the vote.

“We’ve confirmed more judges than under the Trump administration, more judges than any administration in this century, more judges than any administration going back decades. One out of every four active judges on the bench has been appointed by this majority,” Schumer said.

He and members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary delivered a press conference immediately after.

Historic racial and gender diversity

Observers who monitor the demographics and professional backgrounds represented on the federal bench celebrated the “remarkable and historic progress” made under Biden, according to a Friday memo from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Biden set records for appointing the most women and more Black, Native American, Latino and Latina, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander judges than during any other presidency of any length, according to the organization’s analysis.

The Senate confirmed 15 Black judges to the federal appeals courts during Biden’s term, 13 of them women. Only eight Black women had ever served at this level of the federal judiciary, according to the analysis.

On the district court level, Biden appointed the first lifetime judges of color to four districts that had only ever been represented by white judges. They include districts in Louisiana, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia.

Biden also appointed, and the Senate confirmed, 12 openly LGBTQ judges, three of them women; the first four Muslim judges ever to reach the federal bench; and two judges currently living with disabilities.

“Our federal court system has historically failed to live up to its promise of equal justice under the law,” the Leadership Conference’s Friday memo stated. “For far too long, our judges have disproportionately been white, cisgender, heterosexual men who have possessed very narrow legal experiences as corporate attorneys or government prosecutors. Judges decide cases that impact all of our rights and freedoms, and it is vital that our judges come from more varied backgrounds both personally and professionally.”

Nearly 100 of Biden’s appointments previously worked as civil rights lawyers or public defenders, according to the leadership conference, including Jackson who was the first former public defender elevated to the Supreme Court.

Biden’s confirmed judges stood in contrast to Trump’s picks who, the American Constitution Society noted, lacked gender and racial diversity.

According to data published by the Pew Research Center at the close of Trump’s first term, the now president-elect was more likely than previous Republican presidents to nominate women but still lagged behind recent Democratic administrations.

Pew also found that Trump had appointed fewer non-white federal judges than other recent presidents.

Blocked nominee faults Islamophobia

But not everyone praised the Senate’s advice-and-consent role in evaluating federal nominees. Adeel Mangi, the first Muslim American to be nominated for the appeals court level, criticized Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for asking Islamophobic questions.

In a letter to Biden, published by the New York Times and other outlets, Mangi slammed the process as “fundamentally broken” and questioned the reasoning behind three Democratic senators who joined Republicans in opposing him.

“This is no longer a system for evaluating fitness for judicial office. It is now a channel for the raising of money based on performative McCarthyism before video cameras, and for the dissemination of dark-money-funded attacks that especially target minorities,” wrote Mangi, of New Jersey, whom Biden nominated for a position on the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Other blocked nominations included Julia M. Lipez of Maine, nominated for the First Circuit, Karla M. Campbell of Tennessee for the Sixth Circuit, and Ryan Young Park of North Carolina for the Fourth Circuit. 

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to members of the press at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 20, 2024 in Washington, D.C.  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Congress finally approved a stopgap spending bill early Saturday that will keep the government open for a few more months, after a raucous 48 hours that served as a preview of what President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in office might look like.

The short-term spending package, the third version of a bill to be released this week, will give lawmakers until mid-March to negotiate agreement on the dozen full-year government funding measures and provide about $100 billion in natural disaster assistance. 

Although it technically was passed by the Senate after the midnight deadline for a shutdown, deputy White House press secretary Emilie Simons said on X that agencies would continue normal operations. 

The House passed the bill Friday evening following a 366-34 vote with one Democrat voting “present.” The Senate voted 85-11 shortly after midnight Saturday. President Joe Biden signed the bill Saturday morning. 

The legislation did not include any language either raising or suspending the debt limit, rejecting a demand by Trump that it be addressed. Congress and Trump will have to deal with that next year when they control the House, Senate and the White House.

The 118-page bill will extend programs in the five-year farm bill through September, giving the House and Senate more time to broker a deal, even though they are already more than a year late.

The package would not block members of Congress from their first cost-of-living salary adjustment since January 2009, boosting lawmakers’ pay next year from $174,000 to a maximum of $180,600.

It does not include a provision considered earlier this week that would have allowed the year-round sale of E15 blended gasoline nationwide in what would have been a win for corn growers and biofuels.

The White House announced during the House vote that Biden supports the legislation.

“While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote. “President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans – from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans — can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes.”

Appropriators at odds

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the bill during floor debate, saying it would avoid a partial government shutdown, provide disaster aid and send economic assistance to farmers.

“Governing by continuing resolution is never ideal, but Congress has a responsibility to keep the government open and operating for the American people,” Cole said. “The alternative, a government shutdown, would be devastating to our national defense and for our constituents and would be a grave mistake.”

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, spoke against the bill and criticized GOP negotiators from walking away from the original, bipartisan version released Tuesday.

She rejected billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, seemingly calling the shots as if he were an elected lawmaker, though she ultimately voted for passage. 

“The United States Congress has been thrown into pandemonium,” DeLauro said. “It leads you to the question of who is in charge?”

Trump, Musk objections

Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement earlier this week to fund the government, provide disaster aid, extend the agriculture and nutrition programs in the farm bill, extend various health care programs and complete dozens of other items. But Trump intervened, preventing House GOP leaders from putting that bill on the floor for an up-or-down vote. 

Trump and Musk were unsupportive of some of the extraneous provisions in the original bill and Trump began pressing for lawmakers to address the debt limit now rather than during his second term.

House Republicans tried to pass their first GOP-only stopgap bill on Thursday night, but failed following a 174-235 vote, with 38 GOP lawmakers voting against the bill. That bill included a two-year debt limit suspension, but that was dropped from the version passed Friday. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said Friday before the vote that the GOP was united on its plan forward.

“We have a unified Republican Conference. There is a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward,” Johnson said following a 90-minute closed-door meeting. “I expect that we will be proceeding forward. We will not have a government shutdown. And we will meet our obligations for our farmers, for the disaster victims all over the country, and for marking sure the military and essential services and everyone who relies on the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays.”

A total of 34 House Republicans voted against the bill. No House Democrats voted against passage.

No shutdown, for now

The House and Senate not agreeing on some sort of stopgap spending bill before the Friday midnight deadline would have led to a funding lapse that would likely have led to a partial government shutdown just as the holidays begin.

During a shutdown, essential government functions that cover the protection of life and property continue, though no federal workers would have received their paychecks until after the shutdown ends. That loss of income would have extended to U.S. troops as well.

“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under “TRUMP,” the president-elect posted on social media Friday morning. “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”

In a separate post that went up just after 1 a.m. Eastern, Trump doubled down on his insistence that any short-term spending bill suspend the debt limit for another four years or eliminate the borrowing ceiling entirely.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump wrote. “Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Just days after he was thrust into the national spotlight following the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School that killed two people, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes was announced as the new chief of the Seattle Police Department. 

Barnes’ acceptance of the job in Seattle comes as the Madison police are still investigating the shooting on Monday and the motives behind the 15-year-old girl’s attack. Authorities have discovered that the girl was in contact with a 20-year-old California man who was planning his own attack on a government building. 

Since the shooting, Barnes has been an outspoken critic of hardening the defenses of community schools. At his first press conference after the shooting, he was asked if the school had metal detectors and responded that schools shouldn’t have such measures installed. 

“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors,” he said. “It’s a school. It’s a safe space.”

Prior to the shooting, Barnes had been named a finalist for the Seattle job. 

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell noted in a statement that Barnes has successfully brought crime down in Madison and promised to continue to work to combat gun violence.

“Earlier this week, under tragic circumstances, the nation received its introduction to Chief Shon Barnes. We all saw firsthand what our team has known since we began this recruitment process — that Chief Barnes possesses the impressive leadership capabilities, compassionate approach, and dedication to effective police work needed to continue moving our Police Department forward,” Harrell said. “I’ve spoken with Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway to express my condolences and support as they process this week’s tragedy and to share my continued commitment to fighting for solutions to the gun violence epidemic that impacts every corner of our country through our shared work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors.”

Barnes took over as chief in Madison in early 2021 as the city responded to an increase in violent crime and the protests against police violence that occurred across the country in 2020. During his tenure, Barnes has overseen the department’s effort to equip officers with body cameras. 

He was also named a finalist for the chief jobs in Chicago and San Jose, California, despite telling Isthmus in 2021 that he was committed to Madison “for the long haul.” 

Rhodes-Conway said in a statement that Barnes’ collaborative approach was important to the establishment of Dane County’s Public Health Violence Prevention Unit and the Madison Fire Department’s CARES program, noting that the city is “safer and more resilient” because of his work. 

“I would like to congratulate Chief Shon Barnes on his new opportunity in Seattle and thank him for his service to Madison,” Rhodes-Conway said. “The Chief has been a steady, forward-thinking leader throughout his tenure and he will be greatly missed.”

She also commended his work this week responding to the school shooting.

“The tragedy this week has been all-consuming, and we still have much healing to do as a community,” she said. “I’m grateful that the Madison Police Department responded to this unthinkable crisis with the utmost professionalism and compassion. Chief Barnes was at the center of coordinating local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies during an unprecedented moment. He did so admirably.”

The Madison Police and Fire Commission is responsible for finding Barnes’ replacement. Rhodes-Conway said in the coming weeks the commission will outline a search plan and during the recruitment process an interim chief will be named.

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The infection of a farm worker in Wisconsin with avian flu has been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Stephen Ausmus | Agricultural Research Service, USDA)

A Barron County farm worker has been confirmed to have been infected with avian influenza, the state health department reported Friday. The confirmation was made by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

With the CDC analysis in hand, “the case will now be reported as a confirmed human case” of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced. It is the first reported case of the virus in a human in Wisconsin. 

The presumed infection was first reported Wednesday in a farm worker who was one of 19 people exposed to a poultry flock in Barron County where the avian flu virus was detected. The flock has been destroyed to prevent the spread of the virus. 

The individual has been treated with antiviral drugs and is recovering, according to DHS. 

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Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) during a press conference in March 2023. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) both serve on one of the most powerful committees in the Wisconsin State Legislature, yet as members of the minority they’ve often been frustrated by the way Republicans on the committee have excluded them from conversations. The lawmakers say they hope some of this changes next year.

The 16-person Joint Finance Committee is responsible for writing the state’s two-year budget — deciding which policy priorities get funding and which don’t — and reviewing all state appropriations and revenues. Republican lawmakers will continue to hold 12 seats next session with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) serving as co-chairs.

In previous sessions, when Democrats held a smaller minority in the Senate and Assembly, the lawmakers said Republicans often excluded them from the budget negotiation process.

“The Republican party didn’t just treat us badly because we were in the minority, they treated us as though we did not exist on Joint Finance,” Johnson said. “Some of their motions we didn’t find out about until they were actually passing them out on paper. That means we had very little input.” 

Roys said it’s been “very easy for the Republicans to just go in a little room, figure out what they’re going to do, and then they come out and they all vote in lockstep.” 

“There’s no discussion, there’s no transparency, and there’s certainly no opportunity for Democrats to have our priorities reflected in the budget,” Roys said. 

Beyond budget writing discussions, Republican lawmakers on the committee have also often rejected calls from Democrats on the committee to release money that was already dedicated to certain issues.

Johnson called the practice of withholding of money a “tremendous problem.” She noted that $50 million that was meant to help support the implementation of new literacy curricula in schools across the state haven’t been released despite being included in the 2023-25 budget.

“Not only are they holding those funds up, but the cost is continuing to rise, so that $50 million that was promised in 2024 isn’t going to go as far in 2025,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen that.” 

Johnson also pointed out that funding to help expand the number of beds at Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, a facility in Madison that provides specialized treatment services for juveniles transferred from the Department of Corrections, was withheld for about six months. It was only released after the death of a youth counselor for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections at Lincoln Hills School for Boys at the hands of a 16-year-old boy. 

Other funds that have been withheld by the committee in the recent session include $10 million to support hospitals in the Chippewa Valley and $125 million to combat PFAS contamination.

“What is the purpose of us allocating these funds if the agencies can’t access them the way that they need to to make these programs work, to get what they need to get?” Johnson said. 

Johnson said she thinks that new legislative maps could help change the dynamic. Roys also said it could have an impact that the state Supreme Court found it unconstitutional for the committee to block state spending on land conservation projects after the money has been budgeted. 

“That dynamic is at play, and I wonder if it will chasten the Republicans. It doesn’t seem to have done so yet,” Roys said. 

Elections under new legislative maps increased Democrats’ presence in the state Legislature by 14 seats. In the upcoming session about 45% of the Legislature will be Democrats, but they will only make up one-quarter of the finance committee with four seats. Despite this, Democrats hope that Republicans will allow for more communication. 

Whether there is more bipartisan collaboration in JFC next session given the closer margins in the Senate and Assembly is an open question, Roys said. 

“There’s always an opportunity,” Roys said. “Our doors are open, and we are very willing to collaborate. I think we’ve shown that in previous sessions by supporting legislation that would not have passed without Democratic votes, even though Republicans had these crazy outsized majorities.”

Johnson said that she hopes that Republicans learned a lesson from the recent elections, and warned that if Republicans don’t change their ways it could hurt their election chances in two years, when Democrats will aim to flip the Senate.

Republicans in the Senate lost four members in recent elections, including two who were members of the committee — Sens. Joan Ballweg and Duey Stroebel. Three new Republican Senators are joining the committee next session —  Sen. Romaine Quinn, Julian Bradley and Rob Stafsholt — to replace the outgoing lawmakers and newly elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk).

Johnson said that, while she’s glad to have Sen.-elect. Sarah Keyeski of Lodi, who ousted Ballweg, joining the Senate Democrats, she thought Ballweg was a good lawmaker, who faced the consequences of gerrymandering.

“That’s the hard part of when maps are gerrymandered … when it’s corrected, sometimes the people that you lose are the moderates who are willing to do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing,” Johnson said. “That doesn’t mean that she never voted with her side. Of course she did. But she stepped away from that sometimes when she needed things for her community, too. She wasn’t opposed to doing the right thing.” 

Johnson said she hopes the writing is on the wall for lawmakers that want to ostracize the minority. 

“If they don’t take this as a wake-up call, then that’s better for us,” Johnson said. “Continue to operate the way that you have been operating for these last 11 years or so that I’ve been in the building, continue to do that, and it should most definitely be best for us next election cycle.” 

Priorities for the lawmakers

Johnson, who has served on the committee since 2017, says she continues to because of the opportunity it presents.

“The quickest way to help some of the people that I know that need help the most — like the working poor in Milwaukee, Milwaukee County — is through JFC,” Johnson says. “That’s where all of the important decisions are made because if you’re going to get anything passed in that building that requires one dollar amount, then that money has to be set aside through JFC to make sure that the appropriate appropriations are there.”

Johnson said lawmakers have been preparing for the next budget cycle by reading agency requests.

The Democratic senators said they want to see next year’s budget invest in a variety of priorities, including K-12 and higher education, local government funding, child care, health care and public safety. 

Johnson said that investing in some of these priorities could help bring down costs down the road. 

Johnson noted the high costs of housing youth at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools. Currently, the state budgets $463,000 annually to house each juvenile in those facilities, and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has requested that be increased to about $862,000 per year by 2026. 

investing in human needs and public education instead could help prevent children from ending up at the facility, Johnson said.

“It drives me crazy,” Johnson said. “I would much rather see my tax dollars being spent on higher educational tuition reimbursements, more housing assistance, more Foodshare, more whatever, to keep these families stable, to keep these kids in the home, than to pay [over] $860,000 for one child that may or may not correct that behavior.”

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has requested an additional $4 billion in funding, the UW System has requested an additional $855 million and the state’s technical colleges have requested an additional $45 million.

Roys mentioned increasing funding for education and local governments as some of her top priorities. 

“We’ve been asking our schools and local governments to continually do more with less under these harsh levy limits and inadequate funding from the state. That compounds over time,” Roys said. “We have got to make sure that our schools and our local governments have the money they need to continue providing the service that every single Wisconsinite deserves.” 

When it comes to K-12 education, Roys said securing a 90% special education reimbursement for public schools would be her top priority. Private schools that participate in the school choice program already receive that rate of reimbursement, while public schools currently receive about a 33% reimbursement. 

“We have a moral and a legal obligation to educate all kids, and that means meeting the needs of students with disabilities, but when the state only pays for a third of the cost of educating what that means is that school districts have to take away things for all students,” Roys said. “All kids are being harmed by the state failing to meet this unfunded mandate, failing to fund this obligation.”

Roys said investing in child care is another big priority for her. 

Wisconsin’s Child Care Counts program was launched in March 2020 using federal money and has provided funding assistance to eligible child care providers to help support operating expenses, investments in program quality, tuition relief for families, staff compensation and professional development. The program is set to end in June 2025, however, as federal funds will run out. 

“We cannot have a vibrant economy and have the workforce participation that we need for a strong economy if we don’t have affordable, accessible child care in every corner of the state,” Roys said. “The Legislature’s decision to go from, you know, $300 million Child Care Counts program that kept the doors open to $0 for child care in the last budget has had devastating consequences in every community across the state.” 

Lawmakers on what people should know

When asked about what people should know going into next year, Johnson said people need to stay aware of what the committee is doing. She pointed out that people who closely watch Wisconsin politics probably already know about the importance of JFC. 

“For those people who are not politically savvy and who don’t pay attention to those types of things, they really need to pay attention to JFC,” Johnson said. 

“JFC is where those priorities are manifested, or they go to die,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter how good a piece of legislation is, if the funding isn’t there for it and it requests dollar amounts, it’s gonna die.” 

Roys said people should make their voices and priorities known, saying that people could send emails to every member of the committee. 

“Public input tells us what’s important,” Roys said. “We can’t guarantee, obviously, what the Republicans are going to choose and be funded, but it does send a strong message. That is how we know without a shadow of a doubt that public education and affordable child care were key priorities, but Republicans chose to ignore that.”

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U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La.,  look on during a menorah lighting ceremony during a Hanukkah reception at the U.S. Capitol Building on Dec. 17, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House failed to pass a Republican stopgap spending package Thursday, sharply increasing the odds a partial government shutdown will begin after the current funding bill expires Friday at midnight. 

The 174-235 House vote came less than three hours after GOP leaders released a second stopgap spending bill this week. The first version, released just two days ago, was widely rejected by President-elect Donald Trump as well as his allies on and off Capitol Hill.

A total of 38 GOP lawmakers and 197 Democrats voted against passage. Only two Democrats voted in support of the measure. One Democrat voted “present.”

House Republicans tried to approve the new measure under a process called suspension of the rules, which required at least two-thirds of lawmakers to support the legislation for passage, including Democrats. Trump endorsed this new version, which included a two-year suspension of the debt limit.

GOP leaders could next try to put the failed bill up for a vote under a rule, which requires a simple majority vote to approve, but that path takes a few more steps and isn’t a guarantee this legislation could pass.

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate the bill was necessary to avoid a shutdown and provide disaster aid to states throughout the country.

“We need to provide the necessary disaster recovery aid for states and communities as our fellow citizens rebuild and restore. The relief efforts are ongoing — it will be months, if not years, before life returns to normal,” Cole said.

No input from Democrats

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, rebuked GOP lawmakers for walking away from the deal both parties reached on the first stopgap package.

“There were things in it that Democrats liked and Republicans did not, and there were things in it that Republicans liked and Democrats would have preferred to leave out. But that is the nature of government funding bills,” DeLauro said. “They require compromise and the support of Democrats and Republicans.”

The legislation House lawmakers were about to vote on had no input from Democrats, she said.

While Republicans have a narrow majority in the House, Democrats control the Senate and the White House, making bipartisan agreement on legislation essential to it becoming law.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote in a statement released Thursday just before the vote that the GOP was “doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans.”

“Republicans are breaking their word to support a bipartisan agreement that would lower prescription drug costs and make it harder to offshore jobs to China — and instead putting forward a bill that paves the way for tax breaks for billionaires while cutting critical programs working families count on, from Social Security to Head Start,” she wrote. “President Biden supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, help communities recovering from disasters, and lower costs — not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour.”

Trump calls new bill ‘a very good deal’

The stopgap spending package that failed Thursday night would have kept the government funded through mid-March while boosting disaster aid by about $100 billion.

The legislation would have suspended the nation’s debt limit for an additional two years through January 2027 and given Congress until September to finish the much overdue farm bill.

Trump cheered the new version of the stopgap spending bill before the vote after rejecting the first version released just two days ago.

“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People,” Trump wrote on social media. “The newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes.”

“A VERY important piece, VITAL to the America First Agenda, was added as well – The date of the very unnecessary Debt Ceiling will be pushed out two years, to January 30, 2027,” Trump added. “Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish.”

Two days of tension

The second stopgap bill came after a dramatic 48 hours that began with the Tuesday night release of a different stopgap spending package before Trump’s ally Elon Musk called on GOP lawmakers to reject the bill their leadership team on Capitol Hill had negotiated over weeks.

Trump then told Republicans to address the debt limit in the package or get rid of it entirely, throwing another complex issue into the mix at the last minute.

The core elements of the stopgap spending package House Republicans released Thursday afternoon were similar to the Tuesday night package, though it dropped dozens of measures, including a provision allowing the nationwide sale of 15% ethanol blended gasoline year round.

The new package, same as the old package, doesn’t include a long-standing provision that prevents members of Congress from receiving a cost of living adjustment. Unless that’s changed, lawmakers would receive a 3.8% raise next year increasing their annual salary from $174,000 to $180,600.

“It removed key provisions to limit the power of pharmaceutical companies, and abandons our bipartisan efforts to ensure American dollars and intellectual property are reinvested in American businesses and workers; instead of fueling the Chinese Communist Party’s technology and capabilities,” DeLauro said during debate.

The new 116-page stopgap spending bill was considerably shorter than the 1,547-page version released Tuesday.

Several new deadlines

The spending package would have given Congress until March 14 to complete work on the dozen annual government funding bills that were supposed to become law by the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

It would have given the House and Senate until Sept. 30, 2025, to reach agreement on the five-year farm bill, which lawmakers were supposed to negotiate a new version of more than a year ago.

The legislation would suspend the debt limit through Jan. 30, 2027.

The bill includes tens of billions in emergency spending to help communities throughout the country recover from various natural disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes.

A summary of the bill, released by House Democrats on Tuesday, showed the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Agriculture would receive the bulk of the natural disaster recovery funding. House Republicans didn’t appear to have altered any of the original funding levels for disaster aid in the updated Thursday version.

The USDA would get $33.5 billion in funding, with $21 billion of that designated for disaster assistance and another $10 billion for economic assistance to farmers and producers.

Other agriculture assistance funding would go toward the Agriculture Research Service, Emergency Watershed Protection Program, Emergency Forest Restoration Program and Rural Development Disaster Assistance Fund, among several others.

The Department of Homeland Security would receive $30.8 billion in funding, with $29 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund.

An additional $1.5 billion would go to the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon Fire fund “to continue efforts to support families who suffered damages due to the April 2022 wildfire,” according to the summary. 

The wildfire was the largest in New Mexico’s history and caused about $5.14 billion in damages, according to a report released this week.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program for disaster recovery would receive $12 billion in additional funding.

Another $8 billion would go to the Transportation Department to “reimburse states and territories for damage from natural disasters to roads and bridges in the National Highway System, including 100 percent of costs associated with rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore,” according to Democrats’ summary.

The Forest Service would get $6.4 billion for ongoing recovery efforts from natural disasters that took place in 2022, 2023 and this year. The National Park Service would receive $2.3 billion as part of the Department of the Interior’s $3 billion total.

The Defense Department would get $3.4 billion to repair damages related to natural disasters. The Army Corps of Engineers would receive $1.5 billion for repairs and to increase resiliency.

The Small Business Administration would receive $2.25 billion for disaster loans.

Filibuster threat

Shortly before House GOP leaders announced their second stopgap package, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham committed to holding a talking filibuster to delay passage of any stopgap funding measures if that bill doesn’t include substantial disaster aid.

The two, along with North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, all of whom are Republicans, held a press conference Thursday afternoon to urge GOP leaders in the House to keep the roughly $100 billion in emergency disaster aid in any short-term spending package.

They also rejected calls from some members of their own party to find ways to pay for the new emergency spending, saying that’s not how disaster aid packages have traditionally been handled.

“When you’re in the middle of a crisis, I don’t think anybody’s going to want to hear somebody come to the floor and talk about the fiscal responsibility of giving these people a home again, or giving them an opportunity to open up a business again and employ people,” Tillis said. “So, no I don’t think $10 billion or $20 billion, and ‘I promise we’ll do something more in March’ is an acceptable solution. We know what the need is today. It was negotiated in a package and it needs to be in a package to get my support to get out of here.” 

Graham sought to explain the realities of divided government and pointed out that even when Republicans control the House and Senate next year, they’ll still need Democratic support on spending bills.

“We need 60 votes to get it done in the Senate,” Graham said, referring to the chamber’s legislative filibuster, which requires at least 60 lawmakers vote to advance bills toward final passage.

“Mike Johnson is going to have to pick up a handful, at least, of Democrats, because there’s some Republicans who will never vote for anything,” Graham added.

Tillis was unable to answer a question about whether a partial government shutdown beginning Saturday at 12:01 a.m. would affect the federal government’s ongoing natural disaster response in his home state.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation and numerous federal departments would be required to follow their shutdown guidance if Congress doesn’t fund the government on time.

Those departments and agencies divide up their staffs into excepted employees, whose jobs address the protection of life or property, and non-excepted employees, who don’t.

Neither category of federal employee gets paid until after the shutdown ends.

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley released a written statement Thursday that a shutdown would harm federal workers who “inspect our food, protect our borders, ensure safe travel during the holidays, and provide relief to disaster victims.”

“Over 642,000 of them are veterans of our armed services,” Kelley wrote. “Allowing them to go without a paycheck over the holidays is unacceptable.”

Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and state Treasurer John Lieber present a large check to educators to represent the $70 million disbursement from the Common School Fund to public school libraries across state. (Courtesy of Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski)

Wisconsin school libraries and media resources will receive a record $70 million in funding from the Board of Commissioners of Public Land, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski announced Thursday. 

The agency’s contribution from the Common School Fund breaks the record for largest ever provided, which was set last year when the BCPL provided $65 million from the fund. 

“I’m proud of our record-breaking distribution. It comes at a time when schools are being asked to do more with less, and our strategic investments and collaborative efforts are making a difference to ensure that every student—no matter where they live—has access to the books, technology, and tools they need to succeed,” Godlewski said in a statement.

The BCPL manages state trust funds created as Wisconsin sold off millions of acres of land granted to the state government in the 19th century. The agency also manages timber sales for 77,000 acres of land still under state control. 

The Common School Fund is the “only dedicated funding source for many of Wisconsin’s public school libraries,” according to a news release. The amount of funds provided to school libraries through the fund has substantially increased in recent years. In 2020, libraries received $38.2 million through the fund. 

“Today’s milestone reflects the dedication of our team and the strategic investments we’ve made to ensure the fund continues to grow for future generations,” Godlewski said. “We’ve diversified hundreds of millions of dollars to include Wisconsin-based venture funds that support new and growing businesses. This is a win-win for our state: the Common School Fund bolsters Wisconsin’s economy, and the financial returns directly support our schools and libraries, reinforcing our commitment to educational excellence and opportunity.”

At an event in Brown Deer Thursday afternoon, Godlewski, state Treasurer John Leiber and educators celebrated the learning resources the money will be able to provide. 

“Without the support from the common school funds, many school libraries would not have the necessary resources to stay up-to-date and provide the digital resources necessary for our students’ continued learning. The BCPL work ensures that these schools are not left behind, and that all students in Wisconsin, no matter their background, have access to the educational opportunities they deserve,” said Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association President Jennifer Griffith.

Funds disbursed through the BCPL have been criticized in recent years because the land provided to the state by the federal government in the 1800s was taken from the state’s Native American tribes. 

In February, data collected by the non-profit media outlet Grist showed that funds disbursed through the BCPL’s Normal School Fund to the state’s public universities came from profits made from land taken largely from the Ojibwe tribe, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.

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Eric Lee Peterson, of Kansas City, Missouri, pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In this Department of Justice photo, he is shown during the U.S. Capitol attack. (Photo from U.S. Department of Justice court filing)

WASHINGTON — A Kansas City, Missouri, man who pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and expects a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump will be allowed to attend Trump’s inauguration, a federal judge ordered Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presided over Trump’s election subversion case in the District of Columbia, granted Eric Lee Peterson’s request to attend the president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., as well as a request to expand his local travel restrictions while on bond.

Peterson’s attorney Michael Bullotta argued in a motion filed Tuesday that his client deserved the exceptions because he does not have a criminal record and “(h)is offense was entering and remaining in the Capitol for about 8 minutes without proper authorization.”

“Apart from being reasonable on their face, these two modification requests are even more appropriate in light of the incoming Trump administration’s confirmations that President Trump will fully pardon those in Mr. Peterson’s position on his first day in office on January 20, 2025. Thus, his scheduled sentencing hearing before this Court on January 27, 2025 will likely be rendered moot,” Bullotta wrote.

Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, whom he exalted as “patriots,” “warriors” and “hostages.”

The president-elect said during a Dec. 8 interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” that he’s “going to be acting very quickly” to pardon the defendants on day one — though he indicated he might make exceptions “if somebody was radical, crazy.”

During that interview, Trump also threatened imprisonment for former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and current Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who together oversaw the congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Peterson pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, for which he faces up to one year in prison, plus a fine.

As part of the plea, he agreed to pay $500 in restitution toward the estimated $2.8 million in damages to the Capitol, according to court filings. Peterson also agreed to hand over to authorities access to all of his social media communication on and around the date of the riot.

Approximately 1,572 people faced federal charges following the attack on the Capitol that stopped Congress for hours from certifying the 2020 presidential election victory for Joe Biden.

Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence evacuated to secured locations within the Capitol as rioters assaulted roughly 140 police officers and vandalized several parts of the building, including lawmakers’ offices.

Peterson is among the 996 defendants who pleaded guilty to charges, according to the latest Department of Justice data.

Peterson appeared on both surveillance video from inside the Capitol and publicly available third-party video taken outside the building during the riot, according to a statement of offense signed by Peterson on Oct. 29.

Peterson, in a pink t-shirt over a dark hooded sweatshirt, stood among the crowd of rioters outside the locked Rotunda doors “as the building alarm audibly blared from within the Capitol building,” according to the statement.

Further, the court filing states Peterson entered the building at 3:03 p.m. Eastern and “walked right by a police officer posted at the doors.”

While inside the Rotunda, where several U.S. Capitol Police were present, Peterson took cell phone photos. He exited the building at 3:11 p.m., but remained on the Capitol’s restricted Upper West Terrace afterward, according to the statement.

Peterson was arrested in early August and originally faced a total of four charges that included disorderly conduct and parading, picketing and demonstrating inside the Capitol.

Gov. Tony Evers signs legislation in March 2024 funding a new UW-Madison engineering building. On Wednesday, the State Building Commission divided on party lines, blocking a plan to transfer unspent money for other projects, including the engineering building. (Screenshot via @GovEvers Twitter page)

The on-again, off-again plan for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has hit a new roadblock, with Republican lawmakers questioning how the state was constructing its building project bids and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers accusing  them of last-minute political gamesmanship.

The four Republicans on the eight-member commission voted against a proposal Wedmesday that would have provided $29 million for the UW-Madison engineering building from unspent funds.

The engineering building has been a political football over the last two years since Republican lawmakers sought to use the project as leverage to force the UW system to reduce or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

After the Republican majority excluded the engineering building funding from the 2023-25 state budget, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos pressured the University of Wisconsin Regents to accept an agreement that reframed diversity initiatives. In return, the Legislature passed and Evers signed in March legislation transferring $423 million to the state’s capital improvement fund for UW projects, including $197 million for the engineering building.

At Wednesday’s State Building Commission meeting, the Evers administration proposed taking $70 million from projects at the UW Eau Claire for which bids came in under budget. The proposal called for redirecting the unspent funds to other projects already approved by the building commission.

In addition to the $29 million for the engineering building, the redirected funds were proposed to go to projects at UW-Whitewater ($10.5 million), UW-Stout ($5.4 million) and assorted university repair and maintenance projects ($25 million).

While blocking the transfer, the commission approved $81 million in projects across the state.

In a statement issued after the commission votes, Evers called the approved projects “critical to our communities” and condemned the vote blocking the transfer, calling it “partisan obstruction” to the UW.

“I am deeply disappointed that Republican lawmakers are once again pulling the rug out from under UW in the eleventh hour and putting politics ahead of doing what’s best for our kids, our workforce and economy, and our state,” Evers said.

In statements released after they voted against the transfer, GOP lawmakers on the commission complained that, among other things, the engineering building project’s design had been expanded beyond what had been previously proposed.

“I have advocated for the Engineering Building, it is important to UW-Madison but the scope of this project has drastically changed and we were not made aware all the changes until it was time for the vote,” said state Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Racine).

Sen. Andre Jacque (R-DePere) cited a news report that the UW-Madison planned to add an additional floor to proposed engineering building and criticized the university for not consulting the Legislature or the building commission about the change. Jacque also questioned why the original estimate for the Eau Claire projects had exceeded the costs based on the final bids.

The commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting is in February, but Evers said his administration will bring the transfer proposal back to the body in January.

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Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born, who will continue to serve as co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee in 2025, during a press conference in May 2023. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Assembly leaders have announced their appointments to the influential Joint Finance Committee for next session. The 16-member committee is responsible for writing the state’s two-year budget and reviewing state appropriations and revenues. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) announced last week that Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) will continue to serve as co-chair of the committee alongside Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green). Born has served as a co-chair since 2019.

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) is replacing outgoing Rep. Terry Katsma (R-Oostburg), who decided to retire this year, as vice-chair of the committee. 

“I am confident that together, Reps. Born and Kurtz will work with their colleagues on the Joint Finance Committee to always put taxpayers first,” Vos said in a statement. 

Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) will join the committee next session.

“I look forward to the task of balancing the state budget and ensuring our state’s finances remain strong,” Hurd said in a statement. “We will work to strengthen Wisconsin’s economy.”

Reps. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake), Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) and Shannon Zimmerman (R-River Falls) will all return to the committee next session. 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) announced Thursday that Reps. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) and Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) will continue to serve on the committee next session. 

“Both legislators have proven themselves as powerful communicators and effective leaders, and I am sure they will both serve their communities and our state well on the legislature’s most powerful committee,” Neubauer said in a statement. “Next year, Assembly Democrats will fight for a visionary budget that moves our state forward, and I am confident that Rep. McGuire and Rep. Andraca are ready to advocate for what’s best for our state on the Joint Finance Committee.” 

McGuire has served on the committee since January 2023, and Andraca was first appointed to the committee in August 2023 to fill a vacancy left by Rep. Evan Goyke.

McGuire said in a statement that his top priority on the committee will be ensuring “working families in Wisconsin can thrive.” 

“That means fighting for affordability in housing and healthcare, quality public education, and a strong economy that grows the middle class and ensures hard-working people can get ahead,” McGuire said. 

Other members of the committee include: 

• Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), who will serve as the Senate co-chair
• Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto)
• Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin)
• Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron)
• Sen. Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond)
• Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee)
• Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison)

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Some kind of spending bill must become law before Friday at midnight, otherwise a partial government shutdown would begin. Shown is the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 26, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats released details early Thursday on how much federal disaster aid each state would lose if Republicans drop it from a stopgap spending bill that’s been rejected by their own members as well as President-elect Donald Trump.

The state-by-state breakdown of roughly $100 billion came just hours after Trump and many of his closest allies, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, urged GOP leaders in Congress to walk away from a bipartisan year-end spending package.

That short-term spending bill, or some version of it, must become law before Friday at midnight, otherwise a partial government shutdown would begin. A partial shutdown would halt paychecks to federal employees and U.S. troops just ahead of the holiday season.

The breakdown shows states battered by hurricanes and other natural disasters such as California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia would miss out on more than $2 billion each, though the figures for the larger states go above $10 billion.

Misinformation over pay raise

The stalemate over the short-term spending bill began shortly after congressional leaders released the 1,547-page package on Tuesday evening.

Speaker Mike Johnson defended some of the extraneous measures during a press conference Tuesday before it was publicly released and during a Fox News interview Wednesday morning.

The Louisiana Republican reinforced the need for disaster aid and economic assistance to farmers, though the spending package includes dozens of unrelated items, including a provision that would allow the nationwide sale of 15% ethanol blended gasoline year round.

The bill also dropped a long-standing provision that blocked members of Congress from getting an annual cost of living adjustment salary increase.

There was considerable misinformation Wednesday around how much of a boost in pay lawmakers would stand to receive next Congress, riling up people who didn’t have access to the correct figures.

The incorrect numbers were spread by many online, but received special attention from Musk, who advocated shutting down the government before Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance weighed in later Wednesday.

Lawmakers would receive a maximum 3.8% salary increase, boosting their annual pay from $174,000 to $180,600, according to a report released in September by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Lawmakers haven’t received a COLA increase since January 2009.

Sudden debt limit demand

The full package, which congressional leaders and committees spent weeks negotiating, would have given Congress until March 14 to negotiate a bicameral agreement on the dozen annual government funding bills that were supposed to become law by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Republicans wanted to hold over the full-year spending bills until they have unified control of government next year.

The package would have given lawmakers until Sept. 30 to work out a deal on the five-year farm bill, which they should have completed work on well over a year ago.

Trump pressed Wednesday for lawmakers to add the debt limit to negotiations, with just about two days left before the shutdown deadline. Working out a bipartisan agreement to raise or suspend the nation’s borrowing authority typically takes months of talks.

Trump said he didn’t want to have to deal with the debt limit debate once his second administration begins on Jan. 20 and would rather have had it on President Joe Biden’s record.

Trump told NBC News on Thursday morning that he wanted Congress to eliminate the debt limit entirely, marking a substantial shift in how Republicans have approached the cap on borrowing.

The GOP typically leverages the debt ceiling debate to push for spending cuts, though not always successfully.

Democratic leaders in Congress maintain they are not going to renegotiate with Republicans, which would prevent any Republican-only bill from becoming law before the deadline. While the GOP controls the House, Democrats right now run the Senate and hold the White House.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Thursday morning in a floor speech that GOP infighting over the bipartisan bill was risking an unnecessary government shutdown.

“Unfortunately, it seems Republicans are in shambles over in the House,” Schumer said. “But as they try to piece things together, they should remember one thing — the only way to get things done is through bipartisanship.”

Jeffries urges vote on stopgap

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on didn’t entirely rule out lawmakers from his party voting for a slimmed-down stopgap spending bill, but urged GOP leaders to stick with the version they spent weeks negotiating.

“This reckless Republican-driven shutdown can be avoided if House Republicans will simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated,” Jeffries said at a Thursday press conference.

Trump’s insistence that the package address the debt limit in some way was “premature at best,” he said.

Jeffries also said Democrats would not give Johnson extra votes to secure the speaker’s gavel in January, should several of his GOP colleagues refuse to vote for him during a floor vote.

Numerous far-right Republicans have hinted or said directly that they might not support Johnson continuing on as speaker due to their grievances over provisions in the stopgap spending bill.

Republicans will have an extremely narrow House majority next year, meaning Johnson can only lose a few votes before the GOP would begin the third prolonged speaker race in just two years.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy began this session of Congress in January 2023 going through 15 floor votes before he was able to secure the votes needed to become speaker.

Republicans voting to oust him a little over a year ago led to several GOP speaker nominees, who were unable to get the 218 votes needed to become speaker on a floor vote or who opted to not even try.

Republicans nominated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Minnesota’s Tom Emmer before landing on Johnson, who was able to win a floor vote.

Musk for speaker?

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tried but failed to oust Johnson as speaker in May, has been leading the charge to select someone else, possibly Musk. The Constitution is silent on the question of whether the speaker must be a member of the House.

“The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday,” Greene wrote on social media. “This could be the way.”

This report has been updated with state-by-state numbers revised by U.S. House Democrats later Thursday morning.

 

A marker for a segment of Enbridge Line 6 in northern Wisconsin. A leak in the line in Jefferson County is now under investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (Photo | Frank Zufall)

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is investigating a major leak from a pipeline managed by the Canadian oil giant Enbridge. Last weekend environmental groups sounded the alarm after learning that Enbridge’s Line 6 pipeline had spilled the equivalent of 1,650 barrels — more than  69,000 gallons — of crude oil  in the town of Oakland in Jefferson County. 

The DNR issued a statement saying that a report of a two-gallon spill was sent to the state agency on Nov. 11. Notifications were sent by Enbridge to the DNR, the National Response Center (NRC), and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The DNR then visited the site on Nov. 11 and 12, with additional follow-up on Dec. 6, according to the agency. On Nov. 14, the spill quantity was updated to 126 gallons (or 2-3 barrels). On Dec. 13, Enbridge again revised the spill estimation to 1,650 barrels (or 69,300 gallons) of crude oil. 

“Under Wisconsin law, entities that cause environmental contamination are responsible for reporting and remediating the contamination,” the DNR states. “Enbridge is providing weekly updates to the DNR regarding the investigation and cleanup process. As investigation and cleanup is an iterative process, the DNR continues to evaluate appropriate next steps, including any potential enforcement actions such as a corrective action order.”

Using the GPS coordinates from the accident report and Google Maps, Wisconsin Examiner found that the spill occurred near a roadway running through a grassy, wooded area. The spill occurred near a waterway that flows into Lake Ripley, close to  a grouping of nature preserves and campgrounds. The accident report noted that the pipeline’s leak detection systems did not notify anyone of the leak. 

The Line 6 leak occurred during the same week that environmental and tribal groups filed new legal challenges against Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 pipeline reroute. Opponents of Line 5 are concerned  that the pipeline, which currently runs through the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation, will still present environmental hazards even if it is  rerouted around tribal lands. The Bad River Band argues that the pipeline poses a risk to the health of the Bad River, which the tribe relies on for food, medicine, and important cultural practices. Environmental groups echo those concerns, and feel state and federal agencies have failed to adequately evaluate the environmental risks posed by  Enbridge Line 5. 

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Green Bay Correctional Institution | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Amidst a staffing crisis that worsened living conditions in Wisconsin prisons, the state gave corrections officers a large raise.  

The number of vacant positions for correctional officers and sergeants across adult institutions has declined over 20% from a peak of 35%. But there’s still a struggle with working conditions, former correctional officer Joe Verdegan said. 

“By its nature, with the clientele you have there, it’s a very toxic environment,” said Verdegan, who worked at Green Bay Correctional Institution from 1994 to 2020. “The toxic part of it will never change, but the problem is, you need veteran staff that can deal with it.” 

Wisconsin’s Act 10, passed in 2011, excluded many government workers from collective bargaining for anything other than inflationary increases to base wages. The law led to an exodus of veteran staff concerned about what might happen to their pensions, Verdegan wrote in a 2020 book about GBCI.

Act 10 grouped some workers together as public safety employees and others as general employees. Public safety employees’ collective bargaining rights were largely unchanged, while those of general employees were severely curtailed. 

Dane County Judge Jacob Frost struck down the law’s collective bargaining restriction, ruling that the Wisconsin Legislature didn’t have a defensible reason for excluding some public safety workers from the public safety group. 

On Wednesday, Frost put his order on hold, granting a temporary stay on his Dec 2 ruling while he considers written arguments that he should keep the ruling on hold while the Wisconsin Legislature appeals it.

Frost’s December 2 decision essentially confirmed a previous ruling released in July, in which he wrote that Act 10 violated the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin Constitution. Previous legal challenges failed to overturn the law. 

Opponents of the law celebrated what the decision might mean for employees’ power in the workplace, while supporters said Act 10 saved billions of dollars. Former Gov. Scott Walker, who signed Act 10 into law, called the decision “brazen political activism” and “an early Christmas present for the big government special interests.”

The law’s effect on retirement contributions led to an increased cost for public employees and government savings. Since employees were responsible for a larger share of pension contributions, state and local governments saved nearly $5.2 billion over the seven-year period from 2011 to 2017, according to a 2020 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

The judge didn’t strike down Act 10 provisions that changed the rules for employees’ retirement contributions and health insurance premiums, an attorney representing unions in the case told Wisconsin Watch. Those provisions don’t rely on the distinction between the public safety and general employee groups, he said. 

Frost’s ruling has been appealed, and it’s expected to go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Its fate might depend on an upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election and whether any justices recuse themselves. 

Frost didn’t find a legal problem with the Legislature treating the public safety group differently than the general employees group — for example, by providing them with benefits that would attract quality employees to jobs important for public safety. If teachers, administration or sanitation workers face labor unrest, their absence from work probably wouldn’t cause death or great harm, he wrote in the July ruling. 

Instead, Frost took issue with the Legislature’s decision to not include certain workers in the public safety group, including the Capitol Police, conservation wardens and correctional officers. 

Specifically referring to correctional officers, Frost wrote, “What greater threat is there to public safety than the escape of the persons that those in the public safety group arrested and brought to justice?” 

Wisconsin prisons have seen a staffing crisis, allegations of harassment 

After Act 10, GBCI staff had to contribute more to their pensions and paid higher health insurance premiums, Verdegan wrote in his book. 

“People were fleeing the prison to go drive truck, be bartenders, work in cheese factories, or even bag groceries at Woodman’s,” Verdegan wrote. 

Corrections officers were asked to put in more overtime around 2011 or 2012, former GBCI officer Jeff Hoffman told the Examiner in July. 

“From that time forward, it never got any better,” said Hoffman, who left GBCI in early 2023 after almost 23 years. “If you were there, you were going to work 16-hour shifts.” 

Staffing vacancies for correctional officers and sergeants have declined substantially from a peak of 35% in August 2023 to the current 12.9% vacancy rate.

In the DOC’s 2022 Climate and Engagement survey, over half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the idea that their pay was fair relative to the duties they performed. Over half said that if they left DOC, it would be because of their salary and/or benefits. 

These responses were given before Wisconsin implemented a large pay raise for corrections officers. Under the pay increases, correctional officers’ wages increased from $20.29 an hour to over $30 an hour, with more pay for officers in higher-security and understaffed prisons. Wages had received a $4 boost from federal pandemic relief funds prior to the increase, the Associated Press reported. 

Verdegan wrote in his book that some supervisors would try to harass or intimidate staff. Sean Daley of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 32 made a similar remark to the Examiner in 2022. 

“It’s a tough enough job as it is,” Daley told the Examiner in 2022. “Add in that a lot of the supervisors think they’re ‘top-cops’ and spend their time tirelessly harassing staff with weak investigations and it just adds to the vacancy rates.”

Nearly half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “My supervisor cares about my interests” and “Employees are treated fairly in my work unit.” 

About 1 in 10 strongly disagreed with the statement “My supervisor treats me with dignity and respect,” with about a quarter expressing at least some disagreement. About three-quarters at least somewhat agreed that they have positive relationships with their colleagues. 

Close to 40% of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “Work rule violations are not tolerated” and “I can disclose a suspected violation of a rule, law, or regulation without fear or reprisal” in the 2022 survey.  

Some individual facilities have vacancy rates for correctional officers and sergeants that are higher than the overall number for adult facilities, including  20.5% at Waupun Correctional Institution. Waupun has seen several prisoner deaths and staff charged with crimes. 

Waupun has seen an influx of staff since September, when the vacancy rate was 42%. Sarah Cooper, administrator of the DOC’s division of adult institutions, said at a public meeting in September that other staff were sent to assist Waupun. For example, Waupun also had 40 supplemental staff per pay period, she said. 

Correctional officers and sergeants are far from the only staff in Wisconsin prisons. The Department of Corrections has varying levels of vacancies of other staff. Some of the highest vacancy rates are 22% for social services and 21% for psychological services. 

Prison Policy Initiative argues for addressing staffing issues through decarceration

While Wisconsin’s large pay raises have garnered credit for bringing in new staff, the state hasn’t yet seen whether current efforts will fully staff Wisconsin prisons. A briefing published last week by the Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative challenged the idea that the U.S. can solve prison staffing problems through recruitment. 

The research and advocacy group argued that decarceration would be more effective in addressing understaffing than pay raises, lowering employment requirements, offering staff wellness programs or constructing new facilities. 

The group promoted reducing the prison populations through parole, other forms of release and taking steps to decrease the number of people admitted to prison. 

As of Dec. 6, Wisconsin’s adult prisons held over 23,000 people, more than 5,000 people higher than design capacity. The adult prison population has risen over 2,500 from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2024. 

Incarcerated people face the worst harms of understaffing, the PPI argued, but they noted health risks that employees face, including injury, exposure to infectious diseases and high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. 

“Unfortunately, there’s only so much that a pay raise can do to ameliorate that,” said Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative. 

A 2018 survey of Washington State Department of Corrections employees found that prison employees experience PTSD at a rate equivalent to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and higher than police officers. These jobs take a lot out of people, Bertram said. 

In Wisconsin’s adult prisons, 452 assaults on staff took place in fiscal year 2024, according to Department of Corrections data. The incident rate was 19.6 assaults per 1,000 incarcerated people, which is the highest it’s been since at least 2013, the earliest year available. These numbers are for adult institutions and many of the assaults involve prisoners spitting or throwing bodily substances (fewer than half involve battery, physical injury or sexual assault).

How long new staff stay in corrections also matters, and Bertram pointed to challenging turnover rates found in a 2020-2021 survey. The job isn’t for everyone, said Hoffman, the former GBCI correctional officer. 

“Historically speaking, from the time that I started there to the time that I left… if 10 new people would start at one point, usually half would quit,” Hoffman said. “Because they didn’t want to work in that environment.” 

Former officers’ thoughts on Act 10

Former correctional officer Denis O’Neill has had complicated feelings about Act 10. He said he would’ve liked to have more money in his pocket, but he said the act was for the greater good of Wisconsin and saved billions for taxpayers. 

In Verdegan’s book, O’Neill recounts the story of a fight in 2015 with an incarcerated man who was attacking a staff member. Verdegan wrote that there was “no question O’Neill was fighting for his life.” 

O’Neill left GBCI with a medical termination and had physical, cognitive and speech therapy, Verdegan wrote. He had at least four documented concussions while working at GBCI. O’Neill told the Examiner that he had to go back to doctors he was seeing and get new paperwork after the state said they didn’t receive the original documents. 

“It’s their job to make it as hard as possible as they can for you so that you get sick and tired of doing everything and you forget about it,” O’Neill said. “That’s the game I felt that was being played.”

O’Neill said he received his benefits after a state senator stepped in. He thinks the union could have taken care of the issue for him if it had not been disempowered under Act 10.

“I could’ve just continued to work on my recovery,” he said. 

Kimberly Verdegan, a former GBCI correctional officer who is married to Joe Verdegan, thinks prison jobs are less desirable than teaching jobs and that the passage of Act 10 didn’t take this into account. 

“Not to say that a teacher’s job isn’t important,” Kimberly Verdegan said. “But they have their holidays off, they go home at night. They don’t get forced to stay another shift.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, and AFSCME Council 32 did not respond to requests for comment. 

Update: This story has been updated with the most recent data on staff vacancies and prison assaults.

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Bird flu was found in a Kenosha flock of chickens and ducks, which will be destroyed to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus. (Photo by Stephen Ausmus | Animal Research Services, USDA)

A farm worker in Barron County has tested positive for avian influenza after being exposed to a poultry flock infected with the virus, Wisconsin health officials said Wednesday. The woman is the first person identified with the infection in Wisconsin.

At the other end of the state, a case of the highly contagious disease has turned up in a Kenosha County poultry flock, according to the state agriculture department. The flock has been isolated and will be destroyed.

The risk of illness for the general public remains low, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), while people working with infected animals or who might be otherwise exposed to them are at higher risk.

Also Wednesday, the federal government reported the first severe case of bird flu in a patient in Louisiana. That was believed to be associated with wild birds, not domestic poultry. 

The infected woman in Barron County was identified through a test at the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene. The diagnosis is pending confirmation at federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

She was exposed to the Barron County poultry flock where the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) identified an infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) last week. The flock was destroyed.

After the infected flock was identified, DHS and Barron County Health and Human Services began monitoring farm workers who may have been exposed to the birds, said Thomas Haupt, a DHS research scientist and epidemiologist, in an online news conference Wednesday.

The woman who tested positive was one of two people tested. 

“She had relatively mild symptoms but symptoms that would be consistent with influenza, including sore throat, slight fever, some fatigue, some eye discharge,” said Haupt. He said she was improving after being treated with an antiviral medication and was expected to make a full recovery.

Public health officials are monitoring another 17 people who were exposed.

State public health veterinarian Dr. Angie Maxted said when people are infected with a communicable disease, public health agencies contact family and other household members to test them for the illness and inform them about preventive measures.

The Kenosha flock where an H5N1 infection was reported Wednesday is a “backyard flock” — one that is raised for a family’s own use, with limited, local sales of eggs or other products, said Dr. Darlene Konkle, DATCP state veterinarian. The flock consisted of 88 chickens and five ducks.

Haupt said the Kenosha County residents who might have been exposed are being tested for the virus. There are no concerns that members of the general public were at risk, however. Maxted said that it appears only the flock’s owners were exposed to the birds.

According to DATCP, the birds from the flock where the infection was reported will not enter the food supply.

In addition, poultry within a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) area of the Kenosha flock will be restricted from being moved on or off any premises, said DATCP, which establishes a control area around any premises where an infection is found.  

DATCP has a mapping tool that poultry producers and owners can consult to learn whether their poultry are in an active control area or surveillance zone.

Concern about the virus has been heightened for the last three years, with reports of infections in both wild and domestic birds in North America since December 2021.

Konkle said DATCP has been sending information to dairy, poultry and other livestock producers all year, encouraging them to improve biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of disease and protect their birds and animals.

The H5N1 HPAI virus is highly contagious and can be fatal to domestic poultry. The severity of the illness varies depending on its strain and on which species of animal it affects, according to DATCP.

The virus spreads by contact with infected birds, commingling with wild birds or their droppings, and through clothing or equipment used by people working with infected birds or animals.

DHS has a web page with guidance for Protective Actions for People. The department can provide a limited amount of surplus personal protective equipment for farm workers, businesses and processors from the department’s medical stockpile through its Office of Preparedness and Emergency Health Care.  

State law requires all Wisconsin livestock owners to register where their animals are kept, which helps health officials alert flock and herd owners.

Avian flu in domestic birds tends to increase late in the year, likely due to weather conditions and the flow of migrating birds through Wisconsin. “There’s more opportunity, when it’s circulating in these wild birds” for the virus to spread, Konkle said.

People who have contact with livestock and animals are at higher risk for exposure to the H5N1 avian flu virus and should avoid contact with sick or ill animals, said Maxted.

When they must be in contact, people should follow “common sense” precautions, washing their hands frequently and wearing protective clothing including gloves, respiratory protection and eye protection, she said, and clothing exposed to animals should be cleaned and disinfected.

Haupt said the DHS bureau of environmental and occupational health has been working with farmers and farm workers to inform them about the risks of avian influenza and precautions to protect themselves from the virus. The agency urges people who do get sick to take time off.

“If someone is sick, if you don’t have to work — don’t work,” Haupt said. “Stay home, give yourself time to heal.”

This report has been updated to correct the number of people in Barron County being monitored after avian flu exposure.

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U.S. House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., left, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., take part in a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 17, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Efforts to prevent a partial government shutdown from starting this weekend fell apart Wednesday when numerous Republicans, on and off Capitol Hill, expressed their frustration with the many extraneous provisions added to a short-term funding package.

Complicating the situation, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance posted on social media that he and President-elect Donald Trump believe Republicans should leverage the two days left before a shutdown to get Democrats to raise or suspend the debt limit.

The catch-all, year-end spending legislation released Tuesday would not only fund the government through March 14, but provide an extension of the agriculture and nutrition programs in the farm bill through Sept. 30. The 1,547-page package also holds tens of billions in emergency aid for communities recovering from natural disasters.

But it includes several sections that have angered far-right members of the Republican Party as well as Trump and his allies. They argue the extra provisions that don’t relate to essential programs should be scrapped, throwing a wrench in weeks of negotiations between the Republican House and Democratic Senate.

How a shutdown works

Congress must pass a short-term spending bill before midnight on Friday when the current stopgap spending bill expires, otherwise every single federal department and agency would be required to shut down.

That would mean federal employees categorized as exempt would have to work without pay and employees categorized as non-exempt would be furloughed.

Unlike the 35-day partial government shutdown that took place during Trump’s first administration, this shutdown would affect larger swaths of the federal government.

Congress had approved several of the full-year appropriations bills ahead of the 2018-2019 shutdown insulating the departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor and Veterans Affairs.

Lawmakers had also approved the Legislative Branch spending bill, ensuring members of Congress and their staff were paid throughout the shutdown.

This time around, failing to pass some sort of stopgap spending bill ahead of the Friday midnight deadline would mean cutting off U.S. troops from pay, not to mention dozens of other national security agencies like Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It could also wreak havoc on the numerous federal departments and agencies assisting communities with response and recovery efforts stemming from natural disasters, including hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Agriculture and Small Business Administration would all be affected by a funding lapse, as would anyone who receives funding from those programs.

Debt limit

The debt limit was not part of the spending negotiations until Wednesday when Vance insisted it be included in any type of stopgap spending bill.

The current suspension of the debt limit is set to expire Jan. 1, but lawmakers will likely have a few months where the Treasury Department can use accounting maneuvers called extraordinary measures before the country would default.

Vance, however, doesn’t seem inclined to deal with the country’s borrowing authority next year.

“The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025,” Vance wrote in his social media post. “It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.”

Vance wrote that addressing “the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch.”

“If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Vance wrote. “Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”

Elon Musk, a billionaire whom Trump has tasked with trying to make the federal government more efficient through steep spending cuts, wrote on social media that no legislation should move through Congress until Jan. 20, after Trump’s inauguration.

That would create havoc for hundreds of government programs, including the agriculture and nutrition assistance programs within the farm bill.

“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!,” Musk wrote.

While every member of the House who chooses to run for reelection will campaign during the 2026 midterm elections, just one-third of the Senate will be up for reelection since they are elected to six-year terms. 

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis posted on social media that any short-term spending bill, sometimes called a continuing resolution or CR, must carry disaster aid to help his home state recover from a devastating hurricane.

“If Congressional leaders intend to leave DC before the holidays without passing disaster recovery, they should be prepared to spend Christmas in the Capitol,” Tillis wrote. “I’ll use every tool available to block a CR that fails Western North Carolina communities in need of long-term certainty.”

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said during a brief interview she wants to see disaster aid remain in a stopgap spending bill.

“I went down and saw the Asheville disaster,” she said “I think we need to get the disaster aid to those affected areas, some of which are in West Virginia, believe it or not.”

White House reaction

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a written statement Wednesday evening saying that “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country.”

“President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government and they are threatening to do just that—while undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers,” she wrote. “Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families who are gathering to meet with their loved ones and endanger the basic services Americans from veterans to Social Security recipients rely on. A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday a Louisiana resident is believed to have been infected with a severe case of bird flu through sick or dead birds on their property that were not part of a commercial poultry flock. In this photo, a seagull flies against a coastal backdrop. (Photo by Adrijan Mosesku/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A Louisiana resident has contracted the country’s first severe case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a human, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.

The unidentified person is believed to have been infected with the virus through sick or dead birds on their property that were not part of a commercial poultry flock, though federal public health officials declined to provide more details on a call with reporters, citing patient confidentiality. The virus is also called bird flu, or H5N1.

“Previously, the majority of cases of H5N1 in the United States presented with mild illness, such as conjunctivitis and mild respiratory symptoms, and fully recovered,” Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said during the call.

“Over the 20-plus years of global experience with this virus, H5 infection has previously been associated with severe illness in other countries, including illnesses that resulted in death in up to 50% of cases,” Daskalakis said. “The demonstrated potential for this virus to cause severe illness in people continues to highlight the importance of the joint, coordinated U.S. federal response, the One Health response, to address the current animal outbreaks in dairy cows and poultry and limit the potential of transmission of this virus to humans through animal contact.”

Despite the Louisiana case, Daskalakis said on the call, the CDC believes the threat to the general public remains low.

The Louisiana Department of Health wrote in a press release posted Friday that the person lives in the southwestern region of the state and was hospitalized, but didn’t provide additional information.

Emma Herrock, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Health, told States Newsroom in an email Wednesday the “patient is experiencing severe respiratory illness related to H5N1 infection and is currently hospitalized in critical condition.”

The patient, she said, “is reported to have underlying medical conditions and is over the age of 65.”

61 confirmed cases in humans

The CDC has confirmed 61 human cases of H5N1 throughout nine states this year, but the Louisiana patient is the first severe case of bird flu in someone within the United States. 

Daskalakis declined to say during the call why the Louisiana case is considered severe when a Missouri resident who was hospitalized due to bird flu was not classified the same way.

The Missouri patient, who was admitted to a hospital in August, had significant underlying medical conditions, according to public health officials. That person experienced “acute symptoms of chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and weakness,” according to the CDC.

The CDC declined to say Wednesday what symptoms the Louisiana patient was experiencing, citing privacy concerns.

Bird flu has affected wild birds and poultry flocks throughout the United States for years, but it wasn’t until March that dairy cattle began becoming infected with the virus.

The dairy outbreak has affected 865 herds through 16 states this year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There have been 315 new cases in dairy cattle during the last month, with the vast majority of those diagnoses in California, while one herd each tested positive in Nevada and Texas.

Bird flu has affected nearly 124 million poultry throughout 49 states, according to USDA.

Milk testing

Eric Deeble, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at USDA, said on the call the nationwide milk testing strategy launched earlier this month has expanded to several states.

The program requires anyone responsible for a dairy farm — such as a bulk milk transporter, bulk milk transfer station, or dairy processing facility — to share unpasteurized or raw milk samples when requested.

California, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington are the 13 states currently enrolled in the program, he said.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday proclaimed a state of emergency “to further enhance the state’s preparedness & accelerate the ongoing cross-agency response efforts,” the governor’s press office said. 

“These states represent a geographically conversant list of states, some of which have been affected by H5N1 in dairy cows, and some of which have never detected the disease,” Deeble said. “Additionally, these first two groups of states represent eight of the top 15 dairy-producing states in the country, accounting for nearly 50% of U.S. dairy production. We anticipate continuing to enroll additional states in the coming weeks.”

The USDA also continues to have a voluntary bulk milk testing program for any farms planning to ship dairy cattle across state lines to provide an easier pathway to establishing the herd is negative for H5N1, instead of having to test each cow individually.  

The Pentagon is seen during a military flyover on May 2, 2020. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday cleared the annual defense authorization bill. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Ned T. Johnston/Released)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday cleared a national defense authorization bill celebrated for troop pay raises but condemned by Democrats for targeting transgender children in military families, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Senators voted 85-14, with one, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, not voting, to approve the $884.9 billion National Defense Authorization Act that received bipartisan praise for the pay bump, upgrades to military housing and investments in artificial intelligence and other advanced technology.

But the annual legislation drew ire this year from Democrats for a provision banning the military’s health program from covering certain treatments for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, defined by doctors as the mismatch between a person’s sex assigned at birth and the gender they experience in everyday life.

The U.S. House passed the defense package Dec. 11 with a bipartisan 241-180 vote.

The White House has not released its position on the bill, as it generally does with legislation ready for the president’s signature.

Wednesday’s Senate vote marks the 64th year in a row Congress has passed the defense package, a historically bipartisan process.

This year’s vote breakdown did not stray far from the Senate tallies for the defense legislation over the last five years.

The bill does not release funding for the Pentagon, but rather it outlines how any defense money will be spent. Congress will need to approve allocation of dollars in separate appropriations legislation.

Gender care

A short section tucked in the 1,800-page policy roadmap for 2025 bans military TRICARE health insurance coverage for service members’ children who seek “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization.”

Democrats maintain the ban will affect thousands of military families, though the Pentagon has declined to comment on any figures. The Pentagon also did not respond to a second inquiry from States Newsroom about whether the Defense Department tracks numbers of service members’ transgender children.

Treatment for gender dysphoria can include mental health measures, hormone therapy and surgery.

The provision comes as more than 20 states have banned or limited gender-affirming care for transgender minors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The UCLA School of Law Williams Institute found that 113,900 youths aged 13 to 17 live in states that ban such treatments.

While the bill does not specifically delineate the types of interventions it intends to prohibit, a publicly available summary from the GOP-led House Armed Services Committee named “hormones and puberty blockers.” The summary, titled “Restoring the Focus of Our Military on Lethality,” also highlighted language in the legislation to ban certain race-related education in Defense institutions and a freeze on any Pentagon diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, hiring.

Sen. Jack Reed, chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, said he shared his Democratic colleagues’ frustrations and characterized the ban on care coverage for transgender youth, which he voted against during the committee process, as “misguided.”

“Ultimately, though, we have before us a very strong National Defense Authorization Act. I am confident it will provide the Department of Defense and our military men and women with the resources they need to meet and defeat the national security threats we face now,” Reed, of Rhode Island, said on the floor ahead of the vote.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the committee’s ranking member, praised the “immense accomplishments” in the defense package, including the 4.5% pay bump for all service members, plus an extra 10% raise for the most junior enlisted troops.

“We made investments in Junior ROTC and recruitment capabilities, both of which will help solve the military’s manpower crisis. This bill stops the Department of Defense from paying for puberty blockers and hormone therapies for children. We blocked the teaching of critical race theory in military programming, and we froze diversity equity and inclusion hiring,” the Mississippi Republican said before voting commenced.

‘Cheap political points’

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Senate, said on the floor Tuesday that for the first time in her 12 years in the Senate, she would oppose the annual defense bill.

The Wisconsin Democrat, who voted against the bill Wednesday, said the commitment to the historically bipartisan exercise was “broken because some Republicans decided that gutting the rights of our service members to score cheap political points was more worthy.”

“Some folks estimate that this will impact between 6,000 and 7,000 families in the military. I, for one, trust these service members and their families to make their own decisions about health care without politicians butting in,” she continued.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked to withdraw Baldwin’s amendment to strip the language from the legislation. The request was approved immediately before Wednesday’s vote without a challenge. The leader’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the withdrawn amendment.

Twenty Democratic senators initially co-sponsored the amendment. They include Alex Padilla of California, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith of Minnesota, Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Patty Murray of Washington.

Kim, a former U.S. representative who was sworn in as a senator on Dec. 9, said House Speaker Mike Johnson’s insistence on the transgender provision in the bill “undermines trust in negotiations and sets a dangerous precedent for what is widely considered the last true space of traditional bipartisan legislation.”

“We are putting politics into a bill where it simply does not belong,” Kim said on the floor Tuesday.

Kim ultimately voted in support of the bill.

The chair of the GOP-led House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, told Capitol Hill reporters last week that Johnson did not consult him before keeping the language in the final version.