Name: Wisconsin Senate votes to end Gov. Tony Evers' statewide face mask mandate
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Wisconsin Senate votes to end Gov. Tony Evers' statewide face mask mandate

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Milwaukee Journal SentinelMADISON - The&nbsp;state Senate on Tuesday voted to&nbsp;end the statewide mandate to wear face masks — one of the most effective protections against the virus for the vast majority of&nbsp;Wisconsin residents&nbsp;who are not yet vaccinated.&nbsp; &nbsp;The move could put Wisconsin in a minority of states without such a statewide requirement and has drawn opposition from organizations representing hospital leaders, churches, doctors, emergency medical workers, pharmacists, small-business owners&nbsp;and concert venues.&nbsp;"Other than vaccines, mask-wearing is one of the few tools we have in our arsenal to help prevent spreading COVID-19 even further than it already has,"&nbsp;Wisconsin Medical Society CEO Bud Chumbley&nbsp;said in a statement this week urging lawmakers to vote against the proposal.The would end the requirement to wear masks in public, indoor settings&nbsp;on the grounds that Gov. Tony Evers is issuing emergency orders, which include the mask requirement, unconstitutionally."It is not OK or normal or inevitable or necessary&nbsp;to indefinitely suspend the lawmaking process," Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, said Tuesday. "There is no such thing as a perpetual emergency."It passed the Senate 18-13, with Republican Sens. Rob Cowles of Allouez&nbsp;and Dale Kooyenga of Brookfield joining Democrats in opposing the measure. The&nbsp;state Assembly plans to take up the measure Thursday.&nbsp;If the resolution is passed by the Assembly, it would be the first measure related to the pandemic that the state Legislature has passed since April."This is a basic test of what government is supposed to do," Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said about enacting requirements to prevent deaths."Are we going to start saying that seatbelts, taking off your seat belt, is a sign of independence? And therefore flying through a windshield when you get in an accident is the utmost way to exercise your liberty?" he said.&nbsp;Republicans who control the Legislature never agreed to extend the emergency declaration, which automatically expired after 60 days under state law, so Evers issued subsequent ones.Evers has argued he can issue multiple emergency declarations because the threat of the pandemic changes over time, much as a river may flood multiple times in one season. Republicans argue he cannot do so legally because it's the same health threat.&nbsp;State law allows the Legislature to end a governor's health emergency with a majority vote. The governor can't veto the measure.Kooyenga, who represents Brookfield and Wauwatosa, said he agrees Evers has acted illegally but opposed the resolution because it could keep schools closed longer.&nbsp;"I have to balance out some priorities here and right now my priority is to open our schools," he said.&nbsp;The two houses went most of a year without taking action to respond to the effects of the pandemic on the state and so far this year&nbsp;have disagreed on what to include in a bill aimed at providing new relief.The state Senate struck a deal with Evers and passed a compromise piece of legislation. But the Assembly criticized Republican senators for negotiating with Evers and removing provisions they want, like bans on employers from requiring vaccinations and closing churches to keep COVID-19 from spreading.The Assembly on Tuesday passed a third version of the bill that includes the measures that were previously removed by the Senate, but it's unclear if the Senate, or Evers, are on board.&nbsp;A spokeswoman for Evers did not respond to questions about whether the governor would veto the new version of the bill or whether he will issue a new health emergency declaration if the current one is ended by the state Legislature.&nbsp;Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, recently filmed an ad with Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan encouraging people to wear masks, but he said Tuesday he did not think ending the mask requirement would undercut the message of that spot. He said people would continue to wear masks by choice and argued Evers had overstepped his authority.“I don’t think the Constitution envisioned a single person being able to make rules forever by himself,” he said. “I’m going to say people should still wear a mask, especially if you’re in a group of people that you don’t know.”Vos spoke to a reporter after meeting privately for a couple of hours with dozens of Republican lawmakers. Most of them were wearing masks as the meeting broke up, but Vos and several others were not. Vos put on a mask just before he talked to a reporter.“I don’t think it’s the job for the governor, or the government in general, to mandate this forever,” Vos said.The potential move would eliminate&nbsp;the only statewide effort to control the spread of the virus, which has killed nearly 5,700 Wisconsinites since March.Cowles, the Republican from Allouez&nbsp;who voted against the measure, said he feared more people would stop wearing masks because of the lawmakers’ action, leading to more illnesses.“I think it’s the wrong message,” he said after the vote. “I’m coming from the science point of view and from the health care point of view and I can’t imagine making it worse for the people who have worked their butts off to try to make this better in the health care community.”If lawmakers revoke the statewide mask requirement, local officials can maintain their own. That would create a patchwork of policies, with some parts of the states enforcing mask requirements and others forgoing them.Forty-one states have a statewide face mask mandate in place, and 49 states have an emergency order in place, .&nbsp;The resolution was authored and co-sponsored by some GOP lawmakers who .&nbsp;Since the Legislature resumed activity in January, some&nbsp;of the sponsors of the bill have participated in hearings and floor sessions maskless.&nbsp;Track COVID-19 in Wisconsin:The Republican legislative caucuses also experienced COVID-19 outbreaks among their members and staff in recent months but did not disclose the infections publicly or to others who work in the state Capitol. The director of the Legislature's human resources office said the office manages "internal contact tracing" and notifies people who have potentially been exposed.&nbsp;GOP Sen. Kathy Bernier of Lake Hallie said she believed wearing masks is a good idea but that Evers was extending the mask mandate to make Republicans look bad.&nbsp;“It’s a gotcha thing,” she said. “The governor wants to put it out as a mandate in order to get the reaction out of the Republican Legislature to be anti-maskers. In fact, it’s not about the mask mandate, it’s about his authority to pass a mask mandate and to re-create an emergency … when in fact he knows he can’t do that.”Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, told reporters during a virtual news conference ahead of the Senate vote&nbsp;that the move would lead to more infections and deaths.“Apparently the only thing that Republican legislators in both houses can agree upon is that they want the death rates to climb in this pandemic. They want to prolong the economic devastation. Those are the two guaranteed outcomes of trying to undermine mask wearing,” she said.&nbsp;A showed in counties that had face mask mandates, new COVID-19 cases decreased by 6% between one week in July and one week in August. In counties without mandates, new cases increased by 100%.&nbsp;Twenty-four organizations registered against the resolution including the powerful Wisconsin Hospital Association and Wisconsin Medical Society, a&nbsp;children's hospital, organizations representing doctors, assisted living facilities,&nbsp;health care departments, people with disabilities&nbsp;and a state organization of churches.No groups have registered in favor of the proposal.&nbsp;The lawmakers, many of whom are members of the Legislature's health committees,&nbsp;are seeking to end the only mitigation measure in place to control the spread of COVID-19 at a time when to protect Wisconsinites from the virus.Before the Nov. 3 election, Republican leaders of the Legislature fended off calls from some of their members to end the mandate in order to keep more vulnerable lawmakers from being on record opposing the requirement&nbsp;that is supported by a majority of Wisconsinites, according to 2020 polling.&nbsp;Resolution author Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, who has been calling for months to take a floor vote to end the governor's emergency declarations, said Evers "has repeatedly abused the powers granted to him" in state law by issuing repeated emergency declarations since the virus began spreading in Wisconsin in March.&nbsp;The resolution is co-sponsored by several members of the Legislature's health committees, including Senate Health Committee Chairman Patrick Testin. Assembly health committee members Chuck Wichgers, Ken Skowronski, Gae Magnafici, Barb Dittrich, Clint Moses&nbsp;and&nbsp;Rachael Cabral-Guevara also co-sponsored the resolution.&nbsp;The resolution argues Evers overstepped his authority by issuing a new public health emergency this week because the state Legislature never voted to extend the original health emergency he declared in March when the coronavirus pandemic spread to Wisconsin.&nbsp;A St. Croix County judge upheld Evers' ability to issue consecutive orders, saying the governor has broad discretion during health emergencies.&nbsp;A case at the state Supreme Court&nbsp;makes a similar argument to the lawmakers' resolution.The suit alleges Evers no longer has the power to issue emergency orders because the initial emergency declaration he made in response to the pandemic has expired.Legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic remains stalled because Assembly Republicans and Senate Republicans can’t agree on what to do. Assembly Republicans on&nbsp;Tuesday made changes to the bill that has been bouncing between the two houses, but Senate leaders have not agreed to accept them.“I feel very good about where we have been. I don’t know where they are,” Vos said of his counterparts in the Senate.The bill would put $100 million toward fighting the pandemic and shield businesses, schools and local governments from COVID-related lawsuits.The amendments the Assembly passed would ban employers from requiring their workers to get vaccinated; bar health officials from closing churches and other places of worship because of COVID-19; and give lawmakers a say in how federal coronavirus aid is spent. Now, Evers can spend that federal money without consulting the Legislature.Evers supported the version of the bill the Senate recently passed, but changing it raises the possibility of a veto.Contact Molly Beck&nbsp;at . Follow her on Twitter at .

Milwaukee Journal SentinelMADISON - The&nbsp;state Senate on Tuesday voted to&nbsp;end the statewide mandate to wear face masks — one of the most effective protections against the virus for the vast majority of&nbsp;Wisconsin residents&nbsp;who are not yet vaccinated.&nbsp; &nbsp;The move could put Wisconsin in a minority of states without such a statewide requirement and has drawn opposition from organizations representing hospital leaders, churches, doctors, emergency medical workers, pharmacists, small-business owners&nbsp;and concert venues.&nbsp;"Other than vaccines, mask-wearing is...

Wisconsin Senate votes to end Gov. Tony Evers' statewide face mask mandate

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