What You Need to Know About the WI GOP Lame Duck Session

Governor-Elect Tony Evers hasn’t even been inaugurated, and Republicans are already trying to weaken his ability to govern and override the results of November’s election. The  lame-duck Session involves five sweeping pieces of legislation that propose to strip away constitutional powers from the Governor and Attorney General, limit early voting, and change a spring election date to favor a conservative State Supreme Court candidate.

The contents of the bills are so extensive that it is impossible to provide a full analysis of them in this post.  However, if passed, these bills will have significant ramifications for many policies that are important to women’s health, including whether Governor-Elect Evers will have discretion over Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, whether Attorney General-Elect Kaul will be allowed to withdraw Wisconsin from a federal lawsuit that is trying to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and remove discretion from state agencies that would allow them to more effectively implement the ACA.

To learn more about these proposals, see the following articles:

• Capitol Notes: WI GOP Considering “Monumental” Changes In How State Government Operates
  
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tony Evers says he will 'take any steps possible' to prevent GOP plan to take away his power
• WSJ Op-Ed: Lame-duck session snubs state voters
• ​The Guardian: Wisconsin Republicans seek to hobble Democrats in lame-duck session