Carpenter Statement on Legislative Republicans’ Decision to Boycott Legislative Session

(MADISON)—Today, Senator Tim Carpenter issued the following statement regarding the avoidance of responsibility displayed by legislative Republicans:

“Wisconsin Republican state legislators have been boycotting legislative session since April.

“Republicans in our state legislature have pulled a ‘no show’ in a desperate, last-ditch effort to grind the people’s business to a halt.

“Of the 24 days that Republicans had scheduled for the Senate to be in session in 2020, they have only decided to meet 3 times. In order to address the pandemic, they held one extraordinary session on April 15^th.

“However, there is nothing stopping the legislature from treating the unprecedented circumstances of the current situation like the crisis that it is. In the 200-plus days since we first recognized the danger of the pandemic in early March, the Legislature has only met one time. The Health committees, and the Economic and Workforce Development committees have been out of commission just as long. Republicans have also ignored all but one of the special sessions called for by Governor Evers to address the needs of our state.

“There have been 186,100 cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin, and 1,703 Wisconsinites have lost their lives. The people of Wisconsin deserve less political theater and more work from their elected leaders.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.