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Quotes of the week

I think it’s a fantastic idea.
– U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, on President Trump’s promise to give every American a $5,000 check if Republicans retain the House and Senate in November. 

So now it’s $5,000 bribes that Trump will never deliver to attempt to make voters forget what they are paying for gas and food. What ever happened to those promised DOGE checks?
– U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont. 

This week’s news

— Wisconsin’s House Democrats voted against a bill that will let the president impose new sanctions on Russia and Iran.

The bill, named for the late U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, targets Russian government officials, oligarch and financial institutions and goes after Russia’s energy sector by allowing President Donald Trump to impose tariffs up to 100% on countries that import Russian oil and gas. That could include India and China.

It also extends the president’s authority to impose sanctions targeting Iran’s weapons and energy sectors. 

The bill passed the House 262-159 and now goes to the president’s desk.

Two-thirds of the Democratic caucus, including U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, and Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, voted against the bill late yesterday afternoon. 

In a statement ahead of the bill’s passage, Moore said she opposed the bill because it did not actually mandate the administration sanction Russia. She noted the administration had relaxed sanctions on Russian oil after the U.S. attacked Iran earlier this year.  

“There is a better way to support our ally Ukraine that doesn’t involve emboldening a rogue President, like with the Ukraine Support Act,” Moore said. 

U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh both supported the bill when it passed the Senate by a wide margin last month. 

– Every present member of the state’s House delegation voted for a bill that presses states to adopt regulatory frameworks shielding ratepayers from energy cost increases associated with data centers.

The legislation, which passed 417-3, does not actually mandate states adopt its proposed framework to charge large energy users the full cost of new power production or energy infrastructure built to serve them, but does demand states hold a hearing on such a policy within two years of the bill’s enactment.

A companion bill is yet to receive a vote in the Senate. 

“Wisconsin families shouldn’t be stuck paying higher utility bills to subsidize massive energy demands, including from data centers,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, wrote on X after the vote yesterday evening. 

Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, did not vote on the Russia sanctions bill or the ratepayer bill: he missed the last week of votes after a plane in which he was a passenger crash-landed in Lake Wausau this weekend. 

Yesterday’s votes are expected to be the last taken by the House ahead of November’s midterms. House GOP leaders cut short the final legislative week by one day, sending lawmakers home early and avoiding votes on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and releasing more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. 

— A bill backed by U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald to help local law enforcement crack down on technologically sophisticated financial scams has passed the House. 

The Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception Act allows state, local and tribal agencies to use existing grants for training, data collection, and investigative technology to combat financial fraud schemes targeting older Americans. 

It also allows federal law enforcement to direct state and local agencies in the use of blockchain tracing tools to track illicit cryptocurrency transactions – a popular medium for scammers. 

Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, introduced the bill last year alongside Iowa Cong. Zach Nunn, a Republican, and New Jersey Cong. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat. 

“By harnessing innovative technologies like blockchain, we can stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated scams and better protect Wisconsin seniors and families,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. 

The bill passed with overwhelming support, with only seven GOP lawmakers voting against. 

– U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbulah, is reiterating the need to pass the “Cancer Drug Parity Act” even though he “doesn’t think” it will pass this session.

Grothman has long supported the passage of legislation that would require health insurance plans to bill chemotherapy pills and IV chemotherapy the same way.

“We’ve had several committee hearings dealing with healthcare on the subcommittee and on the committee as a whole, and it’s always very depressing to hear the degree to which greed drives our healthcare system,” Grothman said at a Subcommittee on Health and Financial Services hearing this week.

The bill has been introduced in both the House and the Senate. Grothman first introduced a similar version of the bill in 2023. 

Over 40 states, including Wisconsin, have some form of law that requires equal billing for oral and IV chemotherapy treatment. The legislation is meant to close the gaps for federal health plans.

— Grothman said some states are “declaring war on their own country,” during a subcommittee hearing on sanctuary policies.

Grothman went on to say immigration laws that allow for people who entered illegally to stay in the country is “no law at all.”

“It is pointless to have an immigration law if you just say we’re going to remove people who broke the law, and the other 90% of the people, or whatever 95% who come here, they get to stay,” Grothman said at a Tuesday hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement.

The representative’s comments follow another hearing last month which also involved the impact of sanctuary policies.

— A super PAC tied to President Donald Trump has laid down a seven-figure reservation in the 3rd CD to boost U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie due Chien.

Meanwhile, a second PAC linked to the president has reported spending more than $110,000 on mail to help Van Orden and U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, as they seek to ward off Dem challenges this fall.

The expenditures come as the president’s political operation has begun to ramp up efforts to help GOP candidates in key races across the country.

Read more in Wednesday’s PM Update.

— New ads this week target 1st CD Democratic candidate Mitchell Berman as a “woke radical activist,” while Derrick Van Orden’s Dem opponent knocks him for “taking millions from corporate special interests.”

Berman is running to unseat U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, in the 1st CD. An ad running in the Milwaukee media market this week claims Berman will back policies that increase gas and grocery costs and says the emergency room nurse “wants government-run healthcare.” 

The 30-second spot, which recycles footage from a Berman campaign ad released last week, comes from a  PAC bankrolled by cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.

Meanwhile, the latest ad from Democratic operative and waitress Rebecca Cooke claims Van Orden,  R-Prairie du Chien, voted to allow congressional stock trading and has taken “millions from corporate special interests.”

That 30-second spot is running in the Eau Claire and La Crosse media markets, covering the 3rd CD. 

Van Orden voted for the Stop Insider Trading Act this year.

That bill bars members of Congress and immediate family members from buying new individual stocks and requires members to provide notice when they sell stock, but allows other securities to be traded and does not require members to divest of their current holdings. 

Cooke is also out with a new ad this week in the La Crosse and Eau Claire markets where she chats with a brewery owner about her “willingness to fight.” 

— The DCCC has added Berman to its program to flip GOP-held seats in the November election as the emergency room nurse looks to beat Steil.

Those in the “Red to Blue” program receive staff resources, training and fundraising support. They earn a spot by meeting certain benchmarks, including fundraising goals.

Berman, of Raymond, had raised $712,984 for his campaign through July 22 and had $151,644 in the bank.

Steil had more than $6.3 million in the bank at the close of the last reporting period.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also added former state Revenue Secretary Peter Barca to its “Red to Blue” program in 2024 before he lost to Steil by 10 percentage points.

The Cook Political Report rates Wisconsin’s 1st CD a “likely Republican” seat.

Posts of the week

ICYMI

WPR: National Democrats add Steil challenger Berman to ‘Red to Blue’ initiative

WPR: FAA to begin investigation as plane in Tom Tiffany crash removed from Lake Wausau

Milwaukee Courier: Bryan Steil has a stake in the data center boom he supports

Fox News: Inside House Republicans’ plan to end run Dem opposition and pass Trump-backed voter ID

Fox News: Trump is the only guy who can motivate ‘low propensity voters’ at scale: GOP lawmaker

WPR: Wisconsin’s congressional delegation split over $5K ‘Trump Dividend’

AP: Wisconsin Republican leans into Trump ties as Democrats see an opening

WJFW: WJFW cancels planned 7th Congressional District debate