Senate Votes to Kill State Mask Mandate
State Assembly will likely vote on repeal later this week.
Republican state senators voted Tuesday to repeal Gov. Tony Evers‘ statewide mask mandate, a move that would strike down one of the governor’s remaining tools aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.
If the repeal passes the Assembly later this week, it will end a mandate that has been in place since last summer and when a more contagious variant of the virus is beginning to spread throughout the country.
“This is about repeatedly issuing emergency orders contrary to what the law allows,” said state Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater. “He never came to the Legislature and asked for an extension of any of those emergency orders.”
Democrats argued that Evers had no choice but to issue the mask mandates himself when Republican legislators had shown no willingness to work with the governor. They also said repealing the mask mandate would hurt Wisconsin residents who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.
“How can we possibly justify that when peoples’ lives are going to be lost?” said state Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee. “This will cause the prolonging of the pandemic.”
During debate, Nass and several other GOP senators who met in the Senate chamber wore no masks while Democrats all wore face coverings. Many Democrats met virtually from their Senate offices.
The resolution passed on an 18-13 vote. Republican state Sens. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield and Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, joined Democrats in voting against the GOP plan.
Evers issued his first mask mandate on July 30 using a law that gives Wisconsin governors the power to order 60-day public health emergencies. It’s different from the law his administration used last year to issue its “Safer at Home” order, which was struck down in May by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Evers extended the mandate on Sept. 22, citing a surge in COVID-19 cases as students returned to in-person instruction on college campuses.
Evers extended the mask mandate for a fourth time on Jan. 19, this time noting the new variant of COVID-19 that’s considered to be significantly more contagious.
The law that gives governors the power to issue emergency orders also gives the Legislature the power to take them away with a simple majority vote in both houses, although up to this point, that’s a step GOP leaders have been reluctant to take.
Polling from Marquette University in October found the statewide mask mandate was popular, with 72 percent of Wisconsin voters in favor compared to 26 percent who were opposed.
With the election now behind them, Senate Republicans moved quickly to repeal Evers’ latest order, introducing a joint resolution to repeal the order two days after the governor issued it. A total of 29 GOP lawmakers signed on as co-sponsors.
At the same time, a wide range of health groups have come out against the plan, including the Wisconsin Hospital Association, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Medical Society.
“Studies show that wearing masks helps slow the spread of viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and that government requirements to wear masks correlates to reduced COVID-19 spread than in locations without such orders,” said Wisconsin Medical Society CEO Bud Chumbley in a statement released Monday. “We need to do all we can to prevent more deaths and help our economy return to normal.”
As of Tuesday, 24 groups had registered as lobbying against the plan. No groups had registered in favor.
Health care workers joined Democratic lawmakers at an online press conference before the vote urging members of the public to fight the GOP proposal.
State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said the Senate’s vote would hamper Wisconsin’s ability to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“If the Senate votes in favor of overturning the mask mandate, we are going to see increased death and illness in Wisconsin, and we are going to see this pandemic getting worse,” Roys said.
Kooyenga, one of the two Republicans who voted to uphold the mask mandate, said during debate Tuesday that he agreed that Evers had acted unlawfully. But Kooyenga noted that his district included Medical College of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
“I’m going to stand with the health care providers in my district,” Kooyenga said.
Kooyenga said his top priority was getting children back to schools and he worried repealing the mask mandate would be used as an argument to prevent that.
But other Republicans who spoke during debate Tuesday supported the repeal, arguing that it was important to respect the separation of powers in state government, regardless of the circumstances.
“There’s no such thing as a perpetual emergency,” said state Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville.
Tuesday’s session was the first time GOP lawmakers have taken a vote to overturn one of Evers’ emergency orders rather than letting others fight them out in court.
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and Republican donor Jeré Fabick both filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the governor’s orders last year. WILL lost at the circuit court level and the state Supreme Court has yet to rule in Fabick’s case.
COVID-19 cases have been on the decline in Wisconsin after spiking in November and jumping again in early January, but they remain higher than they were during most of last year.
On Jan. 25, the seven-day average of new positive cases was 1,577. By comparison, the seven-day average for new cases was 887 on July 30, the day first mask mandate was issued.
GOP State Senators Vote To Repeal Wisconsin’s Mask Mandate was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
- WI Daily: 206 New COVID-19 Cases - Urban Milwaukee - Mar 6th, 2021
- Surprising No One, Senator Johnson Votes Against Relief for Wisconsin Workers and Families - Opportunity Wisconsin - Mar 6th, 2021
- U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Votes to Pass the American Rescue Plan and Support Wisconsin - U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin - Mar 6th, 2021
- WI Daily: 350 New COVID-19 Cases - Urban Milwaukee - Mar 5th, 2021
- DHS and Laboratory Partners Identify Variant Strain B.1.351 of SARS-CoV-2 in Wisconsin - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Mar 5th, 2021
- Many South Side Seniors Now Eligible for Vaccination at Kosciuszko Community Center - Sup. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez - Mar 5th, 2021
- State Vaccine Hotline Up and Running - Graham Kilmer - Mar 5th, 2021
- County Targeting Vulnerable ZIP Codes for Vaccine - Graham Kilmer - Mar 5th, 2021
- Ron Johnson Pushes Conspiracies Ahead of Possible Third Term - Shawn Johnson - Mar 5th, 2021
- Gov. Evers, DHS Announce 1 Million Wisconsinites Have Received at Least One Dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine - Gov. Tony Evers - Mar 5th, 2021
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here
More about the Statewide Mask Mandate
- Suit Asks State Supreme Court to Toss Mask Order - Erik Gunn - Feb 11th, 2021
- Op Ed: Why the War on Masks? Gerrymandering - Mel Barnes - Feb 7th, 2021
- Will Supreme Court Act on Mask Mandate? - Erik Gunn - Feb 6th, 2021
- Rep. Robyn Vining Supports Wearing Masks to Save Lives - State Rep. Robyn Vining - Feb 5th, 2021
- Rep. Rodriguez: Authors Legislation to Create Statewide Mask Order - State Rep. Sara Rodriguez - Feb 5th, 2021
- Democrats Take Action to Protect Public Health - State Sen. Jon Erpenbach - Feb 5th, 2021
- Rep. Bowen Statement on Senate Joint Resolution 3 and Executive Order #105 - State Rep. David Bowen - Feb 4th, 2021
- Republicans End Mask Mandate, Evers Puts It Back In Place - Jeramey Jannene - Feb 4th, 2021
- Rep. Robyn Vining Responds to Assembly Republicans’ Actions to Disregard the Lives and Livelihoods of Wisconsinites - State Rep. Robyn Vining - Feb 4th, 2021
- Gov. Evers Puts Public Health Before Politics, Signs New Public Health Emergency - Gov. Tony Evers - Feb 4th, 2021
Read more about Statewide Mask Mandate here
There is a line somewhere, not always easy to find, between the political and the moral, but some actions are so egregious that it is easy to say that they have crossed the line. For example, putting children in cages and intentionally destroying families are such cases.
These actions, given that they will clearly produce illness, suffering and death (see Kansas counties mask comparison) are in that latter category, but they also demonstrate something else. That something is the consequences of high levels of human stupidity. As the film director Claude Chabrol once said, “Stupidity is infinitely more fascinating than intelligence. Intelligence has its limits, while stupidity has none.” Wisconsins’s citizens will pay the price for this absence of limits.
I’ll say it simply. Republicans are guilty of homicide.
Another example of the current Republican majority’s inability to lead. They have no vision and no understanding of their need to govern. They continually demonstrate is their Inability to govern. It’s not about ideology it’s about maintaining a just and livable society. The question Wisconsin residents have to answer is, how long will we put up with this faint echo of government?
In the Middle Ages, the Bubonic Plague was spread by rats. Today Covid is being spread by Republicans, modern day plague rats.
And next will they outlaw social distancing?
What will these miscreants propose next? Death panels?
Only if the panels can make them profit.