GOP Lawmakers Blasted for Racial Disparities Task Force Comments
Email from Majority Leader Jim Steineke to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos showed little expectation of producing actual legislation. //end headline wrapper ?>Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
Pre-Assembly news conference, Majority Leader Jim Steineke and Speaker Robin Vos, 11/12/19. Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Examiner.
Assembly Minority Leader
Jim Steineke’s statements regarding the Speaker’s Task Force on Racial Disparities “offensive and appalling.”
On Wednesday, an email that Steineke sent to Speaker
Robin Vos in August, suggesting that Vos set up the group and appoint him to lead it, was reported by Up North News. The email had been sent using personal accounts of Steineke and Vos, but because Vos forwarded it to a legislative employee; it subsequently turned up in an open records request by the outlet.
MADISON, Wis. Democrats in the Wisconsin State Legislature are introducing a bill that would create a statewide mask mandate through the legislative process.
Citing Republican arguments on the floor of the Assembly Thursday saying their attempts to throw out Gov. Tony Evers’ emergency order was about the governor’s powers and not about the mask mandate, Democrats Friday announced their plans to introduce a bill that would put a statewide mask order in place for the remainder of the pandemic, until President Joe Biden declares the national coronavirus emergency over.
“The Republicans who voted to overturn Wisconsin’s mask order have sworn up and down that it ‘isn’t about masks,’ and there was bipartisan opposition in both houses to overturning it, so I look forward to strong bipartisan support for this bill,” Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz said in a statement announcing the proposal.
Wisconsin s mask mandate remains in place and the push to repeal it is on hold. Continuing Coverage: Coronavirus in WisconsinThe state Assembly delayed its vote to end the mandate, saying new information had come to light. I hate being caught by surprise. We usually don t have that happen, Assembly speaker Robin Vos said. After delaying Thursday s session by more than four hours, Vos announced the Republican-led Assembly would postpone its scheduled vote to repeal Gov. Tony Evers emergency health order and mask mandate.The reason? The lawmakers were caught off guard by news from Legislative Fiscal Bureau that by ending the emergency health order, Wisconsin would lose nearly $50 million a month in Federal Emergency Foodshare funding, impacting nearly 250,000 families in need. It s not about masks, it s about money, Hunger Task Force Executive Director Sherri Tussler said.Tussler was the first to warn that lawmakers may be overlooking the fallout from ending the health order
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The Republican-led Wisconsin state assembly halted a vote Thursday that would have repealed the state’s mask requirement because of concerns the move would jeopardize nearly $50 million in food assistance to low-income people.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the assembly was “hitting the pause button” on the vote and would likely return to the issue as soon as next week, according to the Star Tribune.
“We don’t want to rush into anything,” Vos said, according to the report. Vos reportedly wasn’t aware that rescinding the mask mandate could strip the state of $49 million in federal aid until he read reports about it.
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