MADISON – Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) refused to join Assembly Democratic Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) and Senate Democratic Leader Janet Bewley (D-Mason) in signing on to a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Peter T. Gaynor. This letter urged the agency to rescind newly announced limitations on the use of federal relief funds. These new restrictions, if implemented, would negatively impact Wisconsin’s COVID-19 response and the limit state’s ability to purchase much needed personal protective equipment.
On Monday, Senator Fitzgerald and Speaker Vos joined a letter to United States Senate Leadership and Judiciary Committee members urging them to approve Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the US Supreme Court.
“I find it troubling that Senator Fitzgerald and Speaker Vos refused to sign on to this effort to protect public health here in Wisconsin, yet they are quick to join a letter about a Federal Supreme Court confirmation process that the State Legislature has nothing to do with,” said Bewley. “This is just another example of a majority party that would rather play politics than respond to the many challenges we face as a state.”
“At a time when we are seeing a record number of COVID-19 infections across the state, our focus should be here in Wisconsin not in Washington, D.C. I am continuously disappointed by the lack of urgency and absence of action on the part of Legislative Republicans,” said Rep. Hintz. “It’s unfortunate that my Republican colleagues saw no need to join us in this common-sense request,”
On September 1st, 2020 the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued updated guidance with respect to the COVID-19 disaster incident. This guidance restricts funding for personal protective equipment only to healthcare workers, patients, first responders, and those performing otherwise eligible emergency work; allows the purchase of only a 60-day supply; and limits disinfection costs to facilities where emergency work is being performed.
