Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) issued the following statement in regard to the status of Covid-19 recovery legislation in the legislature:
“For months, I have been communicating to Senate leadership that any Covid-19 recovery legislation needed to prioritize solutions to issues raised by the people of this state, not the special interests. Based on the input of my constituents, I notified Senate leadership on December 21, 2020, that I could not support a Covid-19 recovery bill that didn’t include provisions addressing the following circumstances:
-Reopen state government.
-Prioritize K-12 state funding to schools providing in-person classes for students at all grade levels.
-Require districts that have been mostly virtual since September 2020 to compensate parents.
-Empower parents over teachers’ unions by dramatically expanding all school choice programs for both public and private K-12 schools.
-Prohibit the excessive powers of both state and local public health bureaucrats to control every aspect of our daily lives.
To date, I have not seen a version, including 2021 Assembly Bill 1 (AB 1), that effectively resolves these issues. In fact, AB 1 has language on the powers of local public health officials that will have the unintended consequence of actually encouraging the shutdown of businesses for a minimum of 14-days without any justification. It also fails to prevent local public health officials from improperly controlling private residences in terms of visitors and activities.
We should not rush to pass a feel-good bill for politicians or special interests. Instead, we should continue working to get a bill that meets the needs of families and protects the civil liberties of our constituents.”
