Madison – From banning cellphones in class, to stopping dangerous fires, to cutting taxes, the 2025-26 legislative session is one of the most successful for Wisconsin residents. Representative Joel Kitchens says it was a very successful session for our area.

“I’m proud of the many bi-partisan bills we passed today,” Kitchens said, “I’ve always tried to work on bills that solve real problems people in our state face. This session, my colleagues and I were able to work together to tackle real issues and find solutions.”

Bills authored by Representative Kitchens that passed the Senate this week:

  • DACA – Wisconsin has more than 5,000 people in the Deferred Action Childhood Act (DACA) who are allowed to work, but not obtain state licenses to start careers. This bi-partisan bill allows, if all other qualifications for the professional license are met, DACA recipients would be able to obtain these licenses and be a solution to our workforce shortage. Nineteen other states allow DACA recipients to access professional licenses.
  • Battery Recovery and Fire Prevention Act – The senate passed two bills which will establish a battery stewardship program requiring battery makers to join or create battery stewardship organizations, responsible for collecting and recycling batteries sold in Wisconsin. Beginning in 2027, producers may not sell covered batteries or products containing them unless they are part of a DNR-approved stewardship plan. The goal is to mitigate these types of fires, improve recycling, and reduce landfill disposal. 
  • Wisconsin GI Bill – This bill will help Wisconsin veterans and their families attend UW-System schools and Technical Colleges. Current law makes it more difficult for veterans to use the GI Bill in our state because of the long residency requirement of five years for non-residents. Lowering the requirement to three years will make sure veterans don’t have their education interrupted and will encourage more veterans to enroll in Wisconsin schools. We need more workers in our state and veterans are often model employees.
  • Drone Ban over Schools – Representative Kitchens was contacted by constituents about a situation in which a drone repeatedly flew over a Brown County elementary school during recess and was taking photos of children. School officials contacted police, but were told there wasn’t anything they could do about it. This bill bans flying a drone over a school without prior authorization from the school board or governing body with jurisdiction over the school. 

In addition, a bill coauthored by Representative Kitchens that will help combat PFAs, known as “forever chemicals,” will invest $132 million and:

  • Protect innocent property owners—including farmers, homeowners, and local governments – who didn’t create PFAs or cause contamination
  • Provide additional exemptions for businesses and industry that meet specific criteria
  • Create PFAs standards applicable in permits for spreading biosolids
  • Create a Community Grant Program and Airport PFAs Grant Program, and extend eligibility under the Well Compensation Grant Program to include certain wells contaminated with PFAs
  • Encourage voluntary testing by reducing liability fears
  • Support PFAs research and innovation, including disposal methods, remediation, and mapping contamination sites

“While the danger of PFAs is serious, it wasn’t very long ago that they were considered life-saving chemicals used to put out fires and protect people,” Kitchens said, “It was important in creating our program that we did not go after those who contributed to the contamination without even knowing it. It can easily end up in manure spread on farm fields without the farmer being aware of what happened.”

Representative Kitchens represents Door, Kewaunee, and parts of Brown County.