MADISON, WI – This morning, State Senators Dianne Hesselbein (SD-27), Jeff Smith (SD-31), and Jamie Wall (SD-30) held a press conference calling out Republican lawmakers for failing Wisconsin veterans, for allowing two Veterans Housing and Recovery Program facilities to close their doors, and for refusing to support Senator Wall and Senator Smith’s legislation that would keep the facilities open.
These housing and recovery facilities, one in Chippewa Falls and one in Green Bay, are scheduled to close at the end of September. These closings will deprive Wisconsin vets from across the state of the crucial housing and addiction recovery services they depend on, and Republicans have refused to fund them at every turn. Howard Marklein and the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee removed funding for these facilities from the Governor’s budget, and then Republicans voted against supporting our veterans a second time when Democrats offered an amendment to reinstate the critical funding. Now, Senators Wall and Smith have introduced a standalone bill to save the facilities while Senate Republicans have closed shop for the rest of the month ahead of the September 30th deadline.
Regardless of the political games and lies coming from Republicans across the state, the fact of the matter is that the blame for these closures fall squarely at the feet of Leader LeMahieu, Speaker Vos, and their Republican allies.
Read below for more on Senators Smith, Wall, and Hesselbein calling out legislative Republicans and failing to fight for Wisconsin vets:
“So, to Robin Vos, Howard Marklein, Devin LeMahieu, Eric Wimberger and Jesse James, you have a real choice to make: Stop paying lip service to our veterans’ community. It’s time, actually way past time, to take action to keep these facilities open so they can continue to provide services, respite, and hope to our homeless veterans,” said Senator Dianne Hesselbein. “And to Wisconsin’s veterans let me say this: When Democrats have the power of the majority – which is coming in less than two years – we will always have your backs, just as you have had ours.”
“We had the opportunity to fix it a couple months ago. We came to the floor once they [Republicans] stripped it out of the budget, they voted again: no. They did not want to do that. Then we proposed a stand alone bill, just for these two halls and they have ignored our pleas,” said Senator Jeff Smith. “As far as we know, we’re not going to see these bills on the floor this month…This is when it ends, no hope for the veterans that they [Republicans] like to pretend they care about… This is no way to govern.”
“I’ve heard a lot of pretty words about how much we value and how much we appreciate our veterans,” said Senator Jamie Wall. “But one thing I’ve also learned in my time here is that what we do in the building matters a lot more than what we say. So it’s long past time for us to do the right thing for our veterans and to continue this successful program both in Northeast and Northwest Wisconsin, and take care of the veterans who have helped to take care of us all.”
