Madison, Wis. — Public safety, reproductive healthcare, climate change, and funding for education are important issues to people across Wisconsin. Yet bills addressing these and other top priorities were routinely blocked by Republican legislative leaders during the 2023-2024 legislative session. To highlight bills that died in committee, Representative Deb Andraca’s office created a series of social media posts with the tagline #NeverHadAHearing on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@RepAndraca).
“A public hearing provides an opportunity for citizens to weigh in, experts to provide context, and legislators to learn where compromises can be made,” said Andraca. “Unfortunately, throughout this session popular, critical issues were routinely ignored. Failure to honor the interest of our constituents goes against our ideals of an open, transparent government working for the greater good of the state.”
According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Republican majority in the 2023-2024 State Assembly held public hearings on only 5% of bills with a Democrat as the lead author vs. 69% of bills led by a Republican member. By comparison, in the 2009-2010 legislative session, 39% of bills with a minority party author received a hearing. Many high-priority issues like firearm safety, abortion rights, clean water, and affordable healthcare were sidelined by Republicans who chair all of the standing committees and determine which bills have the opportunity for public debate.
With the social media series #NeverHadAHearing, Rep. Andraca hopes people will gain an insight into the obstacles to common-sense solutions and demand that their elected officials focus on the issues Wisconsinites care about, not a political agenda. The full series is available on Rep. Andraca’s website.
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