Feyen Addresses Lame-Duck Legislation Moves

The Wisconsin state
legislature is working to make some last-minute changes before the change of
guard officially comes next month. Democrats accuse Republicans lawmakers of
trying to stifle the power of the incoming governor and attorney general. Republican State Senator Dan Feyen, who represents Fond du Lac and the surrounding area, tells us things can still be done during
lame-duck sessions. 

Feyen explains that “during that
period of time, we are still the duly elected legislators and governor of the
state. If there’s business to be done, it can be done. And it has been done in
the past and will probably happen in the future in some ways, shapes and forms.”

He also says while some bills are controversial – most of the
legislation being addressed is fairly simple. 

Feyen says “basically,
right now, laws that have been passed by the legislature over the last 5,6,7,8
years – when you pass a law there’s rules put into place, and what we’re doing
is taking these rules and actually making them statutes. So that they’re laws
that can’t be changed just at the whim of changing a rule. Rule changes are
simpler than changing laws – we just want to make sure that the rules we’ve
been living under and the laws we’ve been living under stay exactly the same.”

There is also the legislation that Democrats are staunchly opposing – which Feyen wants to see changes to before he says he could vote for them. 

Feyen tells us “there are
some things in this proposed legislation that are looking to give the
legislative branch a little more co-authority and things like that. There’s a
lot of things in there that I just don’t 100-percent agree with yet, so they’re
working through them in Joint Finance and hopefully they can come to some kind
of agreements where we can all get on board and support them. But I don’t
support all of this in the form that it sits right now.”

The Joint Finance Committee met to discuss the lame-duck legislation on Monday.