(CN) — Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers filed suit against eight leading Republican state lawmakers Tuesday morning, claiming legislative committees have unconstitutionally used a de facto veto power to block a number of executive branch functions.
In the Wisconsin Supreme Court petition, state Attorney General Josh Kaul’s office argued that Republican leadership in the Legislature had exercised a “legislative veto” to block already-budgeted-for Department of Natural Resources conservation projects, pay raises guaranteed by statute for University of Wisconsin employees and rulemaking meant to update Wisconsin’s commercial building standards and its ethical standards for social workers, marriage and family therapists and professional counselors.
“These vetoes evade the constitutional lawmaking procedures of bicameralism,” state attorney Charlotte Gibson wrote in the petition filed by Evers, the University of Wisconsin's board of regents and several state agencies.
“Equally important, these vetoes empower legislative committees to interfere with executive branch authority and exercise executive power themselves.”
Evers’ petition takes aim at the Legislature’s joint committees on finance, employment relations and review of administrative rules.
The Joint Committee on Employment Relations, the petitioners argued, is “using its veto power to hold hostage statutory pay raises for about 35,500 University of Wisconsin System Employees.” The committee's co-chair Robin Vos, who is also speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, has said that he plans to continue the logjam until the university either cuts positions dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion or gives up its authority to create new positions entirely.
Dating back to 2007, the petitioners say, the Joint Committee on Finance has used its veto power dozens of times to block conservation projects chosen by the Department of Natural Resources under its Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. The 27 projects the committee has objected to since 2019 made up nearly a third of the program’s total proposed projects during that time. Projects were stalled for an average of 291 days each as a result; some were denied outright or withdrawn from consideration.
In the case of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, Gibson wrote, a committee veto is currently holding up an update to the state’s standards for new commercial buildings. The committee has also blocked new ethical standards for a number of mental health professionals, apparently hung up on a provision that defines LGBTQ+ conversion therapy as unethical conduct.
“Republican legislators are unconstitutionally obstructing basic functions of government—actions that have not only aimed to prevent state government from efficiently and effectively serving the people of our state but are now actively harming tens of thousands of Wisconsinites every day across our state,” Evers said in a press release.
“Wisconsinites expect elected officials to govern, they expect us to get things done, and they expect their government to work and work for them—and certainly not against them. I promised the people of our state that I would always work to get things done, and I’d always try to do the right thing, and today, I’m doing both by insisting we follow our state’s constitution.”
Requests for comment from seven of the eight committee chairs listed as respondents to Evers’ petition — Vos, Senator Howard Marklein, Representative Mark Born, Senator Chris Kapenga, Senator Steve Nass and Representative Adam Neylon — were not returned by time of publication, and the eighth, Kapenga, declined to comment. Senate majority leader Devin LeMahieu, however, issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.
“The Governor is working to diminish the voice of Wisconsinites by limiting the authority of the legislature and unduly strengthening his own administration," LeMahieu said in the statement. "The Senate will continue to defend the constitutionally prescribed duties of the state legislature against the Governor's frivolous attacks.”
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