All right, good morning, everybody.
Another good day on the assembly today.
We have a number of important bills that we're going to talk about, especially focusing
on not only the issues of the day, but things that we know are really important for Wisconsin
to set the standard for.
So first up, we're going to talk about the debate times and the resolution we are doing
to support the good people of Israel.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the Speaker said, we've got another great day here in the State Assembly.
We're going to start out this morning.
We have two hometown heroes, Representative Roser.
We'll be hosting one as well as Representatives Palmarian Shrah.
We'll then take up Assembly Resolution 15, honoring the life and public service of Representative
Mike Ensley, Representative Ensley's family is here today to join us in honoring his public
service.
And then we will bring up a resolution that is going to be introduced this morning, was
circulated for co-sponsorship yesterday by Representative Subek's office.
It was my honor to work with Representative Subek, Representative Dan Reimer, and Speaker
Voss on the resolution condemning the atrocities committed by Hamas in their terrorist activity
in Israel and making clear that the Wisconsin State Assembly and the State of Wisconsin
stands with our friends in Israel during this unprecedented and just terrible, terrible
time that the people of Israel are going through based on these terrorist acts.
Then we have a full calendar today, got 60 minutes of debate on a Senate Bill 378, 75
minutes on a Senate Bill 377 and 150 minutes on a Senate Bill 465.
We'll take those bills out in order once we finish our work with the resolution.
So to talk about one of the other resolutions that we have up on the calendar today, I'll
turn things over to Representative Buco.
Thank you.
Good morning.
I'm sure everyone's aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
We're ever supported in that effort by a lot of our friends around the country.
As you know, the NFL wears a lot of pink in the month of October.
Unfortunately, here in the Midwest, we have a higher rate of breast cancer per person
than we do across the nation and don't understand why.
So it's important we bring attention to this matter.
Early detection is a cure and it's something that you look at your friends, you look at
your neighbors, you look at your sisters, you say, if you all been to your doctor,
if you had your mammogram, the sooner we detect it, the sooner we can hear you and move on.
It's a disease we'd like to put behind us and we have a bipartisan resolution today.
And unfortunately, I think almost every member of our caucus has been infected one way or
another by this terrible disease.
So it's a good time to remind everybody to get preventative care and hopefully we can
put this disease behind us.
Thank you very much and I'd like to now introduce Representative Murphy.
Thank you Representative Duko, Representative Dave Murphy, and we're bringing the resolution
today to highlight hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
And I'm sure the Chief Clerk is going to be happy with me today when he has to recite
that number of times, but the reason that this is important is HCM causes the heart
muscle to increase in thickness and many patients go undiagnosed and 85% of individuals
with this are undiagnosed right now.
There currently is no viable medication to thin that heart muscle, so the only thing
that can be done is surgery because there is no medication to thin that heart muscle.
The longer the patient goes without being diagnosed, the worse the problem will be.
And this problem can be genetic and for that reason, the more people that get tested, the
more chance we have of notifying those families that they may be at risk.
So I think important piece of medical information here that we need to get out for the public.
So with that, next up, talking about women in sports is Representative Duko.
Thank you Representative Murphy and thank you all for being here today.
This isn't new legislation.
You all saw this last session, but I will tell you, a lot has happened in two years.
This problem has only grown more challenging and so listen for that on the floor today.
Some things that have happened since this legislation was last introduced.
To remind you, I originally brought up this legislation because I had a constituent come
to me who was seeing this sort of thing occur.
It was remote at the time.
And since that time, people became aware of Leah Thomas and Riley Gaines and a number
of other things have happened.
So have your ears tuned to some of the different things that have happened in this challenge
in the past two years.
And I look forward to this being a pro-woman day in the legislature.
Next up, we'll have Representative Allen.
Good morning.
We're all intimately familiar with how difficult, pre-adolescent and adolescent ears can be
because we've all gone through it.
And we know that today the pressures facing our youth are perhaps more and higher and
more challenging than they've ever been before with social media and everything else.
AB 465 is the help not harm bill.
The bill was written to help not harm minors struggling with gender dysphoria.
Too many stories we've heard from D-transitioners who were rushed into making a hasty, harmful,
and irreversible choice.
Things like sterility, bone density loss, heart issues are several issues that puberty
suppressants and cross-sex hormones can create these changes that are undergone cannot be
reversed.
What this bill does is it grants minors the time for their minds to develop in order to
make the right choice for them at the appropriate developmental age.
I want to make clear that this bill does not prohibit social transitioning and it does
not affect adults.
It allows minors the chance to hit the pause button before making a significant choice.
The bill has been based on significant medical research and long-term clinical studies that
question the rushed medical gender transition for minors.
I'm thankful for all those who came to the hearing for testimony and I'm hopeful that
once the bill passes it will pass in the Senate and that Governor Evers will do the right
thing and protect minors hearing Wisconsin.
I'll turn this back over to the speaker box.
Today's effort, I know I have read some media reports where people say, why are you bringing
bills forward when Governor Evers has already said he's going to veto them?
Well, number one, the answer is pretty simple.
We think they're the right thing to do for Wisconsin.
We think they're the right thing to do for Wisconsin families.
You know, it's interesting that so many times we have heard people, especially on the left,
talk about what they consider to be settled science.
And it's interesting that if you go back in history, the way to treat mental illness
50 to 100 years ago was a lobotomy and at the time that was settled science.
That's just the way it was supposed to be.
We can go back to example after example after example where the human mind has been open
to say there are different ways of doing things that shouldn't necessarily be a one-size-fits-all
solution because we have settled science.
So I think we are now seeing around the world that other countries have begun to look and
say what science said should be done to minors clearly is wrong and other countries are beginning
to transition to a way that is a much more affirmative care model that is not focused
on trying to do things that are potentially harmful in the long run, but do things that
are potentially helpful to deal with the underlying issues, not the simplistic solutions that
sometimes are offered.
So hopefully that Governor Evers has a change of heart and we have the ability to send these
bills to be at the forefront of the effort that's happening around our country, mirroring
what's occurring across the world.
So with that happy answer a few questions.
Is impeachment a protestant able to say what's off the table?
No, absolutely not.
So what I would say is I have listened to the folks that have reached out to me and that
I have sought their advice.
And what they have said, if you listen to the words that they talk about, especially
in David Prosser's memo that he released, we want to focus on what is occurring in office.
That is the reason that even though we all agree that recusal shouldn't have happened,
it would have provided a lot more confidence in the decisions of the judiciary.
I think just as per the same, which made a mistake in not recusing, but she has said
she can be an independent jurist.
If we see that the contributions that the Democratic Party made to her expecting a result
result in that, that will certainly be something that we have to keep on the table because
she will not live up to her oath.
So hopefully she does the right thing and follows a lot because obviously the most important
part, I'm not a lawyer, but the most important thing in our legal system is the ability to
have stare at the sizes where a court makes a decision every time a new person enters
the court, you don't upset everything just because you have new people on the court.
So if they follow the very common practice of stare at the sizes, they won't decide
any different than the last Supreme Court did and the US Supreme Court's already found.
We know ultimately that if they decide to inject their own political bias inside the
process and not follow the law, we have the ability to go at the Supreme Court and we
also have the ability to hold her accountable to the voters of Wisconsin.
Mr. Speaker, do you plan to move forward with any impeachment moves today?
No.
Okay.
So do you make any announcement later today that you might do that?
I think I just did.
Well, I am not speaking, so it's not going to be something as late as I think it has.
I think it's super unlikely.
Sir, are you saying that if she rules against your match, you're going to move for impeachment?
We don't know that yet.
I want to see how she goes through the process.
She said she's going to follow the law.
The most important aspect of the law is following past precedent.
And if we follow past precedent, the laws are constitutional.
We've seen two different Supreme Courts find that they are.
So Liz hopes she sticks to her word, which she said at her recusal, ruling that there's
no need for her to recuse because she's going to follow them.
We'll say she didn't.
What about the different resolution for Mary Woolf?
So I know there's been an effort from some of my colleagues to have impeachment.
I have sensed no groundswell whatsoever from my colleagues in the assembly.
There are, of course, two ways to remove somebody under the Constitution.
One is rule for address, basically, where someone doesn't do the job of the person
in the office.
I clearly think that out of the six million people in Wisconsin, there is more than one
person who can run elections in our state.
So I wish Megan Woolf would do the honorable thing, and that's leave her position.
She clearly doesn't have the confidence that the legislature was required under the Constitution
through the confirmation process.
The fact that she's trying to hold out is wrong.
I think we should go through the legal process we have.
She is not there legally today.
We have an opportunity through the process set out in statute where GCOL has the ability
to appoint a new person once we've gotten past that date.
I think that's a much preferable option than doing something where we are impeaching somebody
who's already illegally in the office.
On the bills today, is there any chance that you have the votes to override a veto?
Have you had any of those conversations with any Democrats or is what's being done today
down on the rival?
Well, there's always an opportunity to override if people listen to their constituents.
I mean, we know if you look at public polling on these topics, they are overwhelmingly popular.
Most parents do not support the mutilation of young children beyond their ability to consent.
When in Wisconsin, we require parental consent and don't even allow kids to meet tattoo
and things like that.
It certainly seems to me that something that is more life-changing than even getting a
tattoo should not be allowed unless we have an over-processed, so hopefully we have Democrats
join us where Governor Evers actually listens to the people, like he says he often does,
and does the right thing.
What are the studies of road and sex recommendation that you are impeaching?
You have to ask her?
Speaker Ross, what are we going to see the Brewers deal on the Assembly Board?
The Assembly, hopefully we'll take it up next week, Tuesday.
The committee is going to be voting on the bill later today, I think it is today or this
week, so hopefully we'll have a good strong bipartisan support, and it gets the Assembly
through the same way.
Thank you.
Everybody, have a good day.