Lame-duck madness pt. 1 - Ignoring voters by tying Evers and Kaul's hands

I've had an evening to digest the numerous provisions in the Wisconsin GOP's power-grab during this lame duck session, which they're trying to jam through in a matter of 4 days. There's so much crap here that it has to be split up into a few subjects, so let's start with a discussion about how these thugs are planning to handcuff Gov-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul.

In going over the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's summary of the lame duck bills, let me begin with this simple one-paragraph part, which underscores a continual theme of these bills - to allow the Legislature to micro-manage state agencies that are now going to be run by Evers and Kaul.

Rule-Making Authority for Federal Compliance Plans. Provide that a plan that is submitted to the federal government for the purpose of complying with a requirement of federal law does not confer rule-making authority and cannot be used by an agency as authority to promulgate rules. Further, provide that no agency may agree to promulgate a rule as a component of a compliance plan unless the agency has explicit statutory authority to promulgate the rule at the time the compliance plan is submitted.

In other words, if state has federal money and has to put together a plan that follows the law that the feds have to sign off (a relatively common thing across a lot of agencies), the Legislature says they get to be the ones to decide what gets sent to DC. This is absurd, and likely illegal, because most of these grants go to "Wisconsin Department of _____" and not the state itself. The transparent reason for this is to prevent the Evers Administration from doing something with its programs that might be different than the cruelty and/or corruption that the Walker Administration and WisGOP planned when the program was set up.

A similar provision allows for a legislative committee (which will be dominated by members of the gerrymandered GOP Legislature) to hold up new rules that the Evers Administration might make for new laws and policies. This is also a common part of day-to-day governance, because after a bill gets passed into law, the various agencies have to figure out how to implement those laws.

Under the lame duck bills, the Legislature is allowed to hold up these new rules as long as they want.

Joint Committee on Administrative Rules Suspension of Rules. Provide that the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCRAR) may suspend a rule multiple times.

Under current law, administrative rules that are in effect may be temporarily suspended by JCRAR. If JCRAR suspends a rule, JCRAR must introduce bills in each house of the Legislature to make the suspension permanent. If neither bill to support the suspension is ultimately enacted, the rule may remain in effect and JCRAR may not suspend the rule again.

The JCRAR wouldn't even have to come up with a reason. They could just say "Nope, come back with something else" as many times as they want. This has the goal of making these programs ineffective and confusing, and then the GOPs can blame the resulting dysfunction on the Evers Administration.

These lame duck bills try to do the same type of micromanagement to Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul. Especially this part, which basically says the gerrymandered GOP Legislature could choose a different lawyer to represent the state instead of the elected AG.

a. Notice to Legislature of Claims Relating to Constitutionality of Statutes; Legislative Intervention. Require a party that alleges that a statute is unconstitutional, or in violation of or preempted by federal law, to serve the Speaker of the Assembly, the President of the Senate, and the Senate Majority Leader with a copy of the proceeding. Also require that, in such cases, the Assembly, the Senate, and the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization (JCLO) are entitled to be heard, representing the Legislature and the state....

Provide that when a party challenges the constitutionality of a statute, facially or as applied, or challenges a statute as violating or preempted by federal law, as part of a claim or affirmative defense, the Assembly, the Senate, and JCLO have the right to intervene and participate in the action and may also retain legal counsel other than the Department of Justice (DOJ). Allow the following committees to intervene in the action, as well as obtain legal counsel, at any time: (a) Committee on Assembly Organization on behalf of the Assembly; (b) the Committee on Senate Organization on behalf of the Senate; and (c) JCLO on behalf of the state. If JCLO determines that the interests of the state will be best represented by special counsel appointed by the Legislature, JCLO must appoint special counsel to represent the state defendants and act instead of the Attorney General. Specify that under this circumstance the Attorney General may not participate in the action. In these circumstances, special counsel has the powers of the Attorney General with respect to the litigation to which special counsel has been appointed.

This is clearly intended to keep AG-elect Kaul from following through on his promise of withdrawing from the lawsuit current AG Brad Schimel helped lead in an attempt to abolish the Affordable Care Act, and in challenging any potentially unconstitutional and/or damaging acts the Trump Administration might try to pull in the future.

It is a lawsuit waiting to happen, which will take time that could be better spent with the AG's office busting CAFOs or protecting Wisconsinites from predatory business practices. Which probably also is a side benefit in WisGOP World.

No. 1 and No. 2 in the Assembly. Small crooked men.

There are also a lot of other attempts to prevent Evers from appointing people to state jobs that the GOP-run State Senate may not like, or even having those individuals serve in the positions short-term while a replacement appointee is found.

Advice and Consent of the Senate for Appointments. Require that any individual nominated by the Governor or another state officer or agency, and with the advice and consent of the Senate appointed, to any office or position may not hold the office or position, be nominated again for the office or position, or perform any duties of the office or position during the legislative session biennium if the individual’s confirmation for the office or position is rejected by the Senate.

Yet these guys never said "Boo" to the unqualified hacks Walker appointed for 8 years.

And this culminates in the WisGOP lame-duck bills attempts to stop Evers from having much effect on the decisions made by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

Composition of WEDC Board. Under current law, WEDC has a 14-member Board, of which 12 are voting members. The Board includes six members nominated by the Governor who are appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate to serve at the pleasure of the Governor and serve staggered four-year terms. The Board also includes three members appointed by the Assembly Speaker and three members appointed by the Senate Majority Leader, each consisting of one majority member, one minority member, and one person employed in the private sector, each of whom serve at the pleasure of the Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, respectively. The Secretary of the Department of Administration (DOA) and the Secretary of the Department of Revenue (DOR) serve as nonvoting members of the Board. The Board must elect a chairperson from among its nonlegislative members.

The bill would change the composition of the Board, such that the Assembly Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader would each appoint three individuals to staggered four-year terms. The Assembly Minority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader would each appoint one member to a serve four-year term. The legislative appointees could be legislators or private citizens. The Governor would appoint four members to the Board. As a result, there would continue to be 12 voting members of the Board. A vacancy on the Board would be filled in the same manner as the original appointment to the Board, for the remainder of the unexpired term.

So this means that 6 votes on the WEDC Board are controlled by the WisGOP Legislature, and only 4 are controlled by the Dem Governor. In addition, the CEO of WEDC won't be appointed by the Governor anymore under this bill, but by the WEDC Board, which is controlled by these right-wingers.

And if you had any doubt why Robbin' Vos (who "represents" western Racine County) and Scott Fitzgerald might want to change who oversees WEDC, this next part should erase them.

Supervision of Economic Development Liaison Position. Specify that the WEDC Board would have the power to appoint and supervise the economic development liaison position that serves as the state's primary point of contact for any matters regarding Foxconn. Under 2017 Act 58, 1.00 unclassified GPR project position was provided to DOA's supervision and management general program operations appropriation for economic development liaison activities under an agreement with WEDC through December 31, 2022. Under the bill, that position would be appointed and supervised by the WEDC Board, rather than DOA.

And that person gets to "supervise" Foxconn would be appointed by right-wingers who have enough votes to control the WEDC Board. Which means it's much less likely that this person will want to draw attention to any violations of contract by Foxconn, nor will they want to claw back the incentives against Foxconn, because it'll make the GOP crooks who voted for the Fox-con look bad.

And I haven't even gotten to the costly and likely illegal election-rigging, nor am I mentioning a number of budget handcuffs put on Evers and Kaul that WISGOP was more than happy to let slide under Walker - things that would make Walker a gutless, petty hypocrite if he signed them (which means he will).

Not that I didn't think today's Wisconsin GOP was filled with arrogant small-timers who care more about extracting money and power than caring about the voters WHO PAY THEIR SALARIES AND BENEFITS, but these lame-duck bills, and the secretive, hurried way they're trying to do it, is low even by their pathetic standards.