Assembly lawmakers approved along party lines a bill that would put in place guidelines on how the state should handle lawsuit settlements from opioid manufacturers. The bill would require any settlements on the suit between the AG and local governments and opioid manufacturers, marketers or distributors to first be approved by JFC. It would also require 30 percent of the settlement to go to state coffers, with the remaining 70 percent split between local governments. Dem AG Josh Kaul in 2019 joined a multi-state lawsuit against opioid manufacturers alleging they’re responsible in part for the deadly opioid epidemic which has

The Assembly today passed by voice vote a bill that would define use-of-force for police policies and require officers to report colleagues who use excessive force. Lawmakers voted 60-38 to add an amendment to SB 120 that adjusted when officers are required to intervene in instances of excessive force and creates an effective date of Jan. 21, 2022. The bill originated in the Speaker’s Task Force on Racial Disparities. Task force co-chair Rep. Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, praised other task force co-chair Rep. Shelia Stubbs, D-Madison, for helping draft the bill, along with 17 other bills from the task force. “This

The Assembly voted today to send Gov. Tony Evers a bill requiring municipalities to record any broadcast of their canvassing proceedings. Rep. Kristina Shelton, D-Green Bay, raised concerns about using services like YouTube to save broadcasts for future viewing. While free, YouTube is not a viable service for saving long videos, Shelton said. “Funding and capacity is a real issue here,” Shelton said. But Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, said there are options for recording broadcasts that do not financially burden municipalities. He did not share concerns over YouTube’s viability. “This is about transparency,” Sortwell said. Under the bill, concurred

The Assembly voted today to send a bill to Gov. Tony Evers’ desk that would require indefinitely confined voters to apply for absentee ballots annually. Indefinitely confined voters can currently receive automatic absentee ballots indefinitely. State law defines an indefinitely confined voter as a person “confined because of age, physical illness or infirmity or is disabled for an indefinite period.” But the bill, concurred in 60-38, would remove indefinitely confined voters who applied for that status between March 2020 and November 2020 from the list and require them to reapply. The bill would also end a decade-long exemption to providing

The Assembly today voted 60-38 along party lines to send to Gov. Tony Evers’ a bill that would change regulations on absentee voting in nursing homes and residential care facilities. The bill would require election administrators to provide notice of the dates and times when special voting deputies will be visiting the home or facility. They would also have to provide notices to residents’ relatives upon request. The bill would also make it a Class I felony for an employee of an assisted care facility to influence a resident’s vote choices or intention to apply for an absentee ballot or

The Assembly today voted to send to Gov. Tony Evers’ desk a bill that would cut shared revenue payments to municipalities that cut funding for law enforcement. The bill, passed on a 61-37 vote, would make the reduced shared revenue the amount the municipality would receive going forward. The bill would proportionally redistribute the funds to communities that did not reduce law enforcement funding. The reductions do not apply to local governments that participate in shared law enforcement agreements with other local governments. Rep. Nick Milroy, D-South Range, was the only Dem who voted in favor of the bill. He

The Assembly along party lines has sent to Gov. Tony Evers’ desk a bill that would create new criminal penalties for election officials. The bill would make officials subject to a $10,000 fine or up to three-and-a-half years in prison if they were found to have, among other things, failed to promptly report election fraud committed by other officials. State Rep. Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire, on the floor told a story of a constituent who voted absentee before leaving to see family in California. According to Emerson, the constituent realized they forgot to fill out an address on the ballot