Gov. Evers again calls Republican lawmakers into special meeting

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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Monday announced he is again calling the Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Finance—the state’s budget committee—into a special meeting to release $140 million in already-approved investments to respond to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination statewide and stabilize healthcare access in Western Wisconsin following recent hospital closures. The investments have languished in Madison for months as Republican lawmakers continue to obstruct and delay critical funding to address pressing challenges facing Wisconsin.

According to Evers, for 306 days, Republican lawmakers have refused to release $125 million in critical investments to combat PFAS contamination across the state. For 68 days, Republicans have similarly refused to release $15 million in crisis response resources to respond to hospital closures in Western Wisconsin.

“For Wisconsinites who still can’t drink the water from their tap or who are living in Western Wisconsin and need to deliver a baby or need access to other critical healthcare services, there is simply no excuse for the fact that investments that can help them are still sitting in Madison because Republicans won’t release them,” said Evers.

“Wisconsinites are sick and tired of partisan games and politics, and I am, too—this has to end,” Evers added.

“We submitted plans months ago now for how to use these funds based on Republicans’ own proposals, but Republican committee members still months later have given no timeline for releasing these funds, provided no meaningful feedback on the plans we submitted, and offered no alternative plans of their own,” Gov. Evers continued.

“So, let’s be clear, these critical investments aren’t being held up because of partisan disagreement between Republicans and Democrats—these investments are being held up because of a group of Republican lawmakers who consistently and repeatedly refuse to do the job they were elected to do,” Evers added.

“I am again urging Republican lawmakers to what’s best for the people of our state and release these critical resources so we can get them out to folks and communities who need them. Put politics aside and do the right thing for Wisconsin,” Evers concluded.

Republican lawmakers have scheduled a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance set to occur on Tues., May 7, 2024, at 1 p.m., however, neither releasing the $125 million in critical funding for efforts to address PFAS contamination nor the $15 million to stabilize healthcare access in Western Wisconsin appears on the Republican-controlled committee’s meeting agenda. Evers on Friday noticed a special meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance to occur on Tues., May 7, 2024, at 1:01 p.m. to again urge Republican lawmakers to release these investments. A list of lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Finance is available here.

The governor’s special meeting call is the latest in Evers’ continued efforts to press Republicans to release the critical investments. Evers called the Joint Committee on Finance into a special meeting on April 16, 2014, to release the $140 million to fight PFAS and respond to hospital closures, respectively, but not one of the 12 Republican lawmakers on the committee showed up for the meeting. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, many of the Republican committee members were reportedly in Washington, D.C. to attend campaign fundraisers instead, despite the special meeting coinciding with a scheduled floor period for the Wisconsin State Legislature.

“None of the Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee responded to requests for interviews about their whereabouts,” the newspaper reported Evers attended the special meeting, delivered remarks, and took questions from the press.

According to Evers, Republican lawmakers have offered virtually no meaningful justification for their ongoing refusal to release the $140 million in already-approved investments to fight PFAS contamination statewide and support Western Wisconsin, respectively, and have likewise given no apparent indication of when they plan to release the investments, if they plan to release them at all.

Evers says, Republicans’ refusal to release the funds represents a continued and troubling pattern of behavior by Republican lawmakers, whose efforts to obstruct basic government functions and operations is the subject of ongoing litigation. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Evers v. Marklein, a lawsuit brought by Gov. Evers against the Wisconsin State Legislature arguing Republican-controlled committees such as the Joint Committee on Finance are unconstitutionally and unlawfully obstructing basic government functions and operations.

$125 MILLION TO FIGHT PFAS CONTAMINATION STATEWIDE

During the 2023 State of the State address, Evers announced his plan to address contamination caused by PFAS statewide, proposing to invest more than $106 million to support municipalities in responding to local PFAS contamination, bolster staff and resources at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and increase PFAS testing, sampling, and monitoring. The governor’s plan also included implementation, allocation of funding, and policy for PFAS standards, but Republicans on the JFC removed all of these provisions from the final budget.

The final budget signed by Evers last July ultimately included a $125 million investment to address and prevent PFAS contamination statewide, one of the first real and meaningful investments by Republican legislators to address PFAS, set aside in a PFAS Trust Fund.

According to Evers, in the following months since the signing of the 2023-25 budget, Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature still have not made the funds available. Republican lawmakers instead insisted on pursuing stand-alone legislation outside of the biennial budget process to govern the distribution of the funds—something the DNR has repeatedly argued is unnecessary given the agency’s existing programs that can be utilized to get these resources to local communities and private well owners.

Evers said, despite months of negotiation between his office and the Republican bill authors to reach bipartisan consensus, Senate Bill (SB) 312 was advanced through the legislative process with controversial “poison pill” provisions designed to benefit polluters that could have functionally given polluters a free pass from cleaning up their own spills and contamination that Gov. Evers and the DNR had insisted was a non-starter from the beginning. SB 312 also would not have released the $125 million as approved through the biennial budget to fight PFAS contamination statewide.

In December, after nearly six months of Republican inaction, the governor directed the DNR to submit a Wis. Stat. s. 13.10 request to release the $125 million in approved state funding to ensure impacted communities could work to address contamination and reduce their exposure to PFAS. Unfortunately, Republicans on the JFC still refused to schedule a meeting for the request.

Additionally, at that time, Evers said he sent a letter to Sens. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) and Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay), the authors of SB 312, urging the lawmakers to sponsor legislation to provide an exemption to the REINS Act, which would empower the DNR to continue their work to create standards for PFAS contamination in groundwater through the rulemaking process. The governor expressed this would be critical to earning his support of their bill, stating “SB 312, as currently drafted, weakens the DNR’s existing authority to protect the public from these substances without having these standards in place, which is counterintuitive to the important steps my administration has taken to address PFAS contamination over the past five years.” Later writing, “As we discussed in our November 8 meeting, without these standards set, having gone completely through the rulemaking process, the current language in SB 312 is not workable. It is my sincere hope that you will move forward quickly with this draft legislation to enable the DNR to continue this important rulemaking.” Despite the governor expressly warning them of the fate of their bill without important amendments, Republicans advanced SB 312 without the necessary changes.

In February, Republicans passed SB 312, absent key provisions that would release the $125 million previously secured through the biennial budget process. Further, SB 312 still contained “poison pill” provisions designed to benefit polluters—provisions the governor had made clear in conversations with Republican bill authors, stakeholders, and local community leaders would result in the bill being vetoed.

Evers noted he consequently directed the DNR to submit a new, compromise Wis. Stat. s. 13.10 request, which he urged the Republican-controlled JFC to support. Aimed at reaching bipartisan compromise and consensus, the latest request submitted by the Evers Administration that was functionally identical to SB 312 as amended and passed by Republicans in the Legislature, including provisions protecting innocent landowners but without the controversial “poison pill” provisions from the Republican-backed proposal.  Again, Republican lawmakers declined to act, he said.

Evers, joined by conservation groups and water quality advocates from communities impacted by PFAS contamination, vetoed SB 312 as previously promised. Importantly, the governor’s veto of SB 312 has no effect on the $125 million already approved through the biennial budget or whether the $125 million to combat PFAS remains available or will be released by the Republican-controlled JFC.

Notwithstanding the governor’s veto, Republican members of the JFC may release the $125 million secured through the biennial budget to fight PFAS statewide at any time—as has been the case for the last 306 days.

$15 MILLION TO STABILIZE HEALTHCARE ACCESS IN WESTERN WISCONSIN

In January, HSHS and Prevea Health announced their decision to close several locations across Western Wisconsin. The Evers Administration swiftly got to work to launch rapid response and other efforts to support local workers and community members affected by the announcement.

In February, Evers approved SB 1015, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 97, securing $15 million in crisis response resources to support healthcare access in Western Wisconsin in the wake of the recent announcement of HSHS and Prevea Health’s decision to close several locations. Gov. Evers approved Act 97 with improvements through line-item vetoes to provide additional flexibility for the $15 million in crisis response resources, enabling the investments to be used to fund any hospital services meeting the area’s pressing healthcare needs, including urgent care services, OB-GYN services, inpatient psychiatry services, and mental health substance use services, among others. Without the governor’s vetoes, these services would not have been eligible under SB 1015.

SB 1015, as passed by the Legislature, included unnecessary restrictions on the $15 million crisis response funding, limiting the funds to be used only for hospital emergency department services exclusively. The governor’s partial vetoes improved the bill significantly, broadening the scope of the grants available under the bill and allowing the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) to make the crisis response funds available for any hospital services that meet the needs of the region.

In addition to severely impacting healthcare access in the area, according to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the closures have been estimated to impact approximately 1,400 workers, among others, in the surrounding region. At the time he signed the bill, Gov. Evers directed DHS to submit an official request to the JFC to immediately release the $15 million provided for under Act 97. A copy of the request submitted by DHS to JFC is available here.

In March, nearly three weeks after signing Act 97, Gov. Evers visited healthcare providers in Western Wisconsin to, again, call on Republicans to release the funds and blasted the committee members for their continued delays in releasing these funds. The governor’s visit came on the heels of HSHS announcing its plans to close HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls approximately a month earlier than had previously been announced.

According to Evers, more than two months after he signed into law the $15 million in crisis response resources to stabilize the healthcare industry in Western Wisconsin, Republican members of the JFC are still refusing to release the funds.