On its final regular floor period of the session, the Assembly will take up legislation Speaker Robin Vos had previously held up that would extend postpartum coverage under the Medicaid program and to require supplemental screenings for breast cancer.
The final calendar also includes legislation to allow online bets in Wisconsin, bills to deal with PFAS contamination, requiring the governor to turn over the state’s food stamp rolls to the Trump administration and dozens more.
Dem lawmakers spent part of yesterday pressuring their GOP colleagues to bring the postpartum and breast cancer screening bills to the floor before the session ends.
But GOP Rep. Pat Snyder, one of the co-authors of the postpartum bill, slammed his Dem colleagues for their tactics. He said majority Republicans were close to an agreement to bring the bills to the floor and “then they threw this crap at us today and almost blew it up.”
>> WisPolitics is now on the State Affairs network. Get custom keyword notifications, bill tracking and all WisPolitics content. Get the app or access via desktop.
Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, countered Snyder has told Dems “for years” the postpartum bill would pass only to see Assembly GOP leadership refuse to bring it to the floor.
The Senate approved the postpartum bill 32-1 last year. That chamber approved it by the same margin in the 2023-024 session only to see it fail to get a committee hearing or floor vote in the Assembly.
“I’m in it for the women that need this protection. They’re in it for politics, and I think that is sickening,” Snyder said, pounding the lectern with his fist during a news conference in the Assembly parlor.
Assembly Dems yesterday threatened to introduce amendments adding the postpartum and breast cancer screening proposals to as many bills on the Assembly calendar as possible in order to force a vote on the issue.
The Assembly recessed for more than six hours for a GOP caucus before Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, announced at a 9:45 p.m. news conference that the bills would come to the floor on the chamber’s last day in session. The Assembly reconvened after 10 p.m. to finish yesterday’s calendar and then adjourned a little before midnight.
Novak said backers of the bills spent part of caucus lobbying their members and Vos to allow the legislation to get a final vote.
“It has been a long afternoon,” Novak said.
Wisconsin now covers 60 days of coverage for postpartum women under Medicaid. It is one of two states that don’t provide 12 months. Vos has repeatedly dismissed the bill as an expansion of welfare.
Meanwhile, the Senate also approved SB 264, which would eliminate out-of-pocket expenses for supplemental screenings for women with dense breast tissue, 32-1. Vos earlier this year was noncommittal about bringing the bill to the floor.
Neubauer argued the Dem tactics made a difference with both bills now headed to the floor, saying it’s the minority party’s duty to raise issues important to the people of Wisconsin and to force votes on them.
“We were going to stop at nothing to get a vote on these bills,” Neubauer said.
