- The clerk will open and call the roll.
- Allen? - Aye.
- The legislature's passage
of the COVID-19 pandemic response bill
was historic in many ways.
First, the Assembly and Senate met virtually
for the first time in state history.
In the Assembly, 57 of the 99 members appeared via Skype,
most from their homes.
- Yo.
- The remaining members were spaced out 6 feet apart
in the Chamber. - Senator Bernier?
- The Senate didn't even meet in the Senate Chamber,
opting to put two members in a hearing room
and the rest in their homes or Capitol offices.
- These are extraordinary times and these decisions
are gut wrenching as we move through them.
- The sooner we can manage the health crisis,
the sooner we can address the economic crisis.
- Assembly Bill 1038 passed 97-2,
with two Democrats from Milwaukee opposed.
The Senate concurred 32-0, and Governor Evers
signed the bill into law just a few hours later.
It deals with items ranging from education waivers
to cremation policies, all related to COVID-19.
- The two biggest elements of the bill
allow Wisconsin to capture more federal dollars.
First, the state will receive
additional federal Medicaid reimbursement dollars.
Second, laid off workers won't have to wait a week
to claim unemployment benefits,
with the federal government picking up the cost.
Wisconsin is already expecting to receive around $2.3 billion
from the federal CARES Act, most of which
Governor Evers will be able to spend at his discretion.
This bill allows the Republican-controlled
Joint Finance Committee
to transfer an additional $75 million between state agencies.
It provides some immunity from civil liability
for health care workers treating patients with COVID-19,
an important element when Doctors may soon have to
start choosing which patients get a ventilator.
The bill also includes a provision that reduces the hours
of training needed for nurses' aides,
a provision Governor Evers vetoed out of the state budget.
The Governor was not able to use his line-item veto powers
on this bill, and the response from Democrats and Republicans
was the other historic part of the passage of this bill.
- Outside, in fact, of the CNA bill and some of the bad changes
you guys just made, the worst parts of the package
are things that are not included.
- We wanted to freeze spending in the second year of
our two-year budget so we would have the ability to assess,
how are the revenues coming in, are people still able to pay
their income and sales taxes?
- This bill was negotiated in a bipartisan fashion
between leaders in both the Assembly and Senate.
- This bill is imperfect,
and it might be the first bill of a number we are going to have
to pass in the legislature.
- And both sides felt there were important things left out.
- This legislation is a first start
and I'm going to be forced to vote for it
and it's going to pass,
but there is far more,
far more that needs to be done.
- Democrats wanted to include $4 million to implement
a vote-by-mail system for the November election.
- Or maybe you guys aren't ready to do that,
and we look at other ways to ensure
we better get ballots out there, but we have time to act,
and just saying what happened last Tuesday is acceptable
is not acceptable.
We can't do that again.
- Republicans did not address the spring election,
but Speaker Vos said Democrats made a mistake
in not agreeing to a spending freeze.
- There is no doubt in my mind,
that we are going to have to come back at some point and deal
with the economic carnage that is caused
by our decision to not freeze spending
and instead increase spending in the short term,
knowing that we are going to have to come back
and cut it later
because we refused to make the hard decision today.
- The legislature is adjourned until next January,
but Senate President Roger Roth ended the session
by ordering the room should not be touched,
with the infrastructure kept in place
in case the Senate has to come back
in virtual session again.
Reporting from Madison, I'm Zac Schultz for "Here & Now."