Democratic lawmakers gathered with a handful of veterans after the meeting to criticize the delay and call for Republican lawmakers to advance the bill. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

A bill that would provide funding to a program that helps identify the remains of missing-in-action service members is in limbo after an Assembly committee put off a vote Wednesday due to concerns by Republican lawmakers that Gov. Tony Evers would use his partial veto on the measure.

The University of Wisconsin Missing-In-Action (MIA) Recovery and Identification project, which was started in 2015 at the state’s flagship campus, works to further the recovery and identification of missing-in-action American service members. Those working on the project include researchers, students, veterans, alumni and volunteers who conduct research, recovery and biological identification. The program is partnered with the federal Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) on the work and has acted as a model for DPAA, which now partners with more than 50 other academic and nonprofit institutions to work on MIA identifications. 

AB 641, coauthored by Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), would appropriate $500,000 in each year of the 2025-27 fiscal biennium for the UW MIA Recovery Project. The purpose of the funds would be to allow the program to prioritize recovering and identifying service members from Wisconsin, according to written testimony from Hesselbein. 

According to the program, there are around 82,000 missing-in-action American service members with 1,500 of those coming from Wisconsin. According to the UW MIA program, of those from Wisconsin, approximately 1,300 were lost during World War II, over 160 were lost in the Korean War, 26 are missing from the Vietnam War and one service member is missing as the result of other Cold War-era operations.

The Assembly Veterans and Military Affairs committee was scheduled to vote Wednesday on the bill, setting it up for a vote on the Assembly floor. However, committee chair Rep. William Penterman (R-Hustisford) announced at the start of the committee that it had been removed from the calendar.

Sinicki thanked Penterman for his efforts but said she was disappointed with the entire Assembly Republican caucus because the bill is not being taken up.

“Many of you on this committee have come to me praising this program and tell me it’s got to get done, but once again that is so disingenuous — you are showing these military families just how disingenuous your support of this bill is,” Sinicki said during the committee meeting.

Sinicki said lawmakers were choosing once again to not “give these families the closure that they’re so desperately seeking” and that the “money requested is a drop in the bucket compared to the return that these families are going to get.” Wisconsin currently has a projected budget surplus of over $2 billion.

Penterman told the Wisconsin Examiner after the meeting the bill “just wasn’t ready for primetime” and said there are concerns in the Assembly Republican caucus related to what would happen if it makes it to Gov. Tony Evers’ desk.

“I mean, it spends money, so it gives the governor the option to line-item veto things, so he’s shown time to time again that he’s willing to take that to the extreme, so there’s concerns there,” Penterman said. 

Penterman said the pause on the vote Wednesday “doesn’t mean it’s not going anywhere for the rest of the session.”

Penterman also brushed off Sinicki’s accusation that the bill was removed from the calendar at the request of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester).

“There’s been concerns. My job as chair is to listen to concerns of members on both sides… I’d rather give it more time than rush it,” Penterman said.

Republican lawmakers have worked hard to try to get around Evers’ partial veto powers for the last several years, taking additional steps to try to prevent such action including passing bills without funding attached during the budget cycle. Under Wisconsin state law, the executive partial veto power, which is one of the strongest in the nation, can only be used on appropriation bills. 

Evers proposed dedicating the same amount to the program that is specified in the current bill in his 2025-27 state budget, but Republican lawmakers rejected that proposal.

Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in an email to the Examiner that there is “virtually no basis for such a concern” and it’s “an absolutely bogus excuse.” She noted Evers’ previous support for the effort as well as email exchanges between Penterman’s office and Evers’ office, which were shared with the Examiner.

On Jan. 29, the day the bill received a public hearing, Penterman emailed Evers’ office asking for assurances that Evers would not use his partial veto power on the bill before he would schedule a committee vote.

On Feb. 2, two days before the committee was to vote, Zach Madden, Evers’ legislative affairs director, confirmed in an email to Penterman that Evers would not use his partial veto power on the bill as long as it remained in its original form.

“As you may recall, the Governor has been extremely supportive of the program and has proposed funding the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project in the last three of his biennial budgets,” Madden wrote. “It has been your Republican colleagues on the Joint Committee on Finance that have removed it each time. We would need to review any amendments to the bill to extend this same commitment if there were to be any changes from what was originally proposed.”

Cudaback said on Wednesday that “it seems Republicans simply don’t want to fund a program that helps identify and recover the remains of Wisconsin veterans who are missing in action, and that’s no one’s fault but their own.”

Democratic lawmakers gathered with a handful of veterans after the meeting to criticize the delay and call for Republican lawmakers to advance the bill. They stood in front of the POW/MIA Chair of Honor, a permanently empty, dedicated seat to represent service members who never returned, in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Sinicki said at the press conference that Vos is to blame for the bill being pulled from the calendar. She called for people who live in districts represented by Republicans to call their legislators and “tell them to stand up to Robin Vos.”

“[Vos] is the one and only person holding up this bill, and it’s because of his crazy hatred for our UW system. That is the only reason why he’s holding this bill,” Sinicki said. “It is time for him to put that hatred aside and do what’s right for our military families.”

Republican lawmakers have criticized the UW system for an array of reasons, including its spending, and sought to cut the UW budget in recent years. Vos, the state’s longest-serving Assembly speaker, has also been at the center of a number of bipartisan bills being blocked this session, including one to provide Medicaid coverage to postpartum mothers and to expand health insurance coverage of breast cancer screenings for at-risk women. His office did not respond to a request for comment from the Examiner by the time of publication.

Rep. Maureen McCarville (D-DeForest) spoke about her late uncle who died serving in the south Pacific in World War II. She said his remains were identified and returned seven decades after his death.

“I can’t say enough how much this project means to families out there… We need to fund this so that every other family can have that same closure,” McCarville said. “There are no words to express how disappointed I am sitting on the vets committee knowing that the chair of that committee, who is also an active service member, allowed this to be pulled from his agenda.”

Wisconsin VFW Adjutant Adam Wallace quoted the Soldier’s Creed, which says “never leave a fallen comrade,” and said the bill would help ensure this promise is kept. 

“We as a state have the opportunity to advance this piece of legislation, but unfortunately, petty politics and backroom politics has led to this being off the floor, and we are tired of the games,” Wallace said. “These games have real consequences. Every day, every year, every legislative session this does not pass is one next of kin or family member who can’t bring that closure.” 

Sinicki told the Examiner that the concerns about a partial veto are “an excuse they’re using to cover their butts.” She said barring some change, she thinks this is likely the end of the line for the bill this session. 

“I would find it hard to believe that they would do anything at this point,” she said.