MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The first COVID-19 bill passed by the Wisconsin legislature was dead on its arrival as soon as it hit the government desk Tony Evers.
The governor’s office wasted no time in saying that Evers did not intend to sign the legislation. Just moments after the measure, called Assembly Bill 1, cleared the state senate about an hour later, the Evers administration issued a statement promising that the governor would veto it.
“Wisconsinites know a compromise when they see one, and it’s not,” Evers said in his initial statement, pointing out that his Senate government and Republicans had earlier reached an agreement to see it in the House. fail.
The chairman of the meeting, Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and the majority leader of the Senate Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) shot back at the governor.
“It appears that Governor Evers cares more about his own power than about the people of Wisconsin,” they wrote.
The two also said that people experiencing food insecurity would be disadvantaged because of the veto.
“It is sad that Government Evers is playing games at the expense of the underprivileged by jeopardizing $ 50 million in food aid benefits if the court eliminates the illegal public health emergency,” they said.
Within hours, Evers kept his promise. Within two hours, he issued a statement confirming the veto. In it, he specifically focused on how the bill would limit the ability of the health services department to limit the size of gatherings.
In support of the Assembly, lawmakers began adding articles Evers had earlier said he would oppose, including a provision banning employers from requiring their workers to be vaccinated, another point Evers mentions in this veto.
‘While [the compromise version] “does not contain every provision that every party would have liked, it would nevertheless move Wisconsin forward to address many issues, including the flexibility for unemployment benefits,” Evers wrote in his veto.
The compromise legislation included the extension of increased unemployment benefits that will expire this weekend, while the governors’ office pointed out that the compromise bill would abandon the one-week waiting period for new applicants. Prior to the announced veto, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu tweeted that if Evers did not sign the recipients of AB1 unemployment, he would miss out on $ 1.3 million a week in increased unemployment benefits.
The Senate convened an extraordinary session on Friday morning to vote specifically on the proposal after it was passed by the Assembly the previous day. The bill did not receive enough support to dominate a government’s veto.
“Unfortunately, Republicans once again put politics before people, abandoned the compromise and passed a bill they knew I would not sign,” Evers said.
A spokesman for Evers’ office told NBC15 that the governor did not have the power to use his line point veto on this legislation to hit only the elements he opposed. He must pass the whole bill or reject it in its entirety.
In his statement, Evers urged lawmakers to send the bill to his desk so 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 bill in ten months.
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