MADISON, Wisconsin (WMTV) – The first COVID-19 bill to pass the Wisconsin legislature was dead as soon as it reached Governor Tony Evers’ desk.
The governor’s office wasted no time stating that Evers had no intention of signing the legislation. Moments after the measure, dubbed Assembly Bill 1, passed the state Senate about an hour ago, the Evers government issued a statement promising that the governor would veto it.
“Wisconsin residents know a deal when they see it, and it’s not this,” Evers said in his opening statement, noting that his administration and Senate Republicans had reached an agreement only to see him fail in the House.
Assembly President Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate majority leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) fired on the governor.
“It seems that Governor Evers is more concerned with his own power than with the people of Wisconsin,” they wrote.
The two also said that people in situations of food insecurity would be at a disadvantage with the veto.
“It is sad that Governor Evers is playing at the expense of disadvantaged people, putting $ 50 million in food assistance benefits at risk if the court eliminates the illegal public health emergency,” they said.
Within hours, Evers kept that promise. Within two hours, he issued a statement confirming the veto. In it, he specifically pointed out how the bill would have restricted the ability of the Department of Health Services to limit the length of meetings.
To win the support of the Assembly, lawmakers began adding items that Evers previously said he would oppose, including a clause that prohibited employers from requiring their workers to be vaccinated, another point that Evers cited in this veto statement.
“While [the compromise version] it did not contain all the provisions that each side would have liked, but it would have moved Wisconsin forward in addressing many issues, including flexibilities for unemployment benefits, ”wrote Evers in his veto statement.
The compromise legislation included an extension of the increase in unemployment benefits that are due to expire this weekend, with the governor’s office noting that the bill would have waived a week’s waiting period for new candidates. Before the veto was announced, Senate Leader Major Devin LeMahieu tweeted that if Evers did not sign AB1, unemployment beneficiaries would lose $ 1.3 million a week in increased unemployment benefits.
The Senate met Friday morning at an Extraordinary Session specifically to vote on the proposal after it passed the Assembly the day before. The bill did not get enough support to overturn the government’s veto.
“Unfortunately, Republicans once again chose to put politics before people, abandoned that agreement and passed a bill they knew I would not sign,” said Evers.
A spokesman for Evers’ office told NBC15 that the governor does not have the power to use his line item veto in this legislation to attack only the elements he opposes. He must allow the entire project to be approved or reject it in its entirety.
In his statement, Evers encouraged lawmakers to send the bill to his desk so that he could officially reject it.
He also criticized the legislature for taking so long to present any bill to him. Lawmakers have not passed a COVID-19 relief bill in ten months.
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