Government Relations
Legislative Update
October 21, 2005
Personnel Policies and Practices Joint Audit Committee Hearing
The Joint Audit Committee voted 9-0 to authorize the State Audit Bureau to review backup positions, sick-leave policies, and identify felons on the system's payroll. Regent President Walsh and UW System President Reilly testified at the hearing. President Reilly requested this audit in July to reassure the public that personnel policies and procedures are being followed and fixed where necessary. Remarks to the committee can be found at: http://www.wisconsin.edu/news/2005/r051018a.htm
UW Employee Practices; Review of Governor’s UW Procurement Plan Hearing
The Senate Higher Education and Tourism Committee held a public hearing on Oct. 19 to receive testimony on UW System plans to correct personnel policies. President Reilly and Regent President Walsh testified before the committee. Their testimony can be found at:
http://www.uwsa.edu/execvp/govrel/lupdate/2005/10-2005/reilly.pdf
http://www.uwsa.edu/execvp/govrel/lupdate/2005/10-2005/walsh.pdf
The committee also heard testimony regarding Governor Doyle’s Accountability, Consolidation and Efficiency (ACE) procurement initiative. President Reilly’s testimony can be found at: http://www.uwsa.edu/execvp/govrel/lupdate/2005/10-2005/ACE.pdf
Most testimony recommended continued and expanded flexibility for the UW System to purchase items at the lowest prices a campus could identify, even if they were outside the state contract.
Legislative Committee Action
AB 387 which expands the nursing student loan program to include nurse educators was passed by the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee by a vote of 10-0. The bill has been referred to the Assembly Rules Committee to schedule for a vote by the Assembly.
SB 351 allowing each divorced parent to claim an income tax credit for amounts contributed to the EdVest college savings account program was passed by the Senate Job Creation, Economic Development and Consumer Affairs Committee by a vote of 5-0.
Legislative Hearings: Nov. 2 Concealed Carry Hearing
A joint hearing of the Assembly Criminal Justice and Homeland Security and the Senate Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy Committee will hold a public hearing on the concealed carry bills AB 763/SB403 (see description under Legislation Introduced) on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 10:00 a.m. in room 411 South.
The Senate Job Creation, Economic Development and Consumer Affairs held a public hearing on Thursday, October 20. They heard testimony on the following bills that have an affect on the UW.
SB 338 exempts UW System and research companies from a prohibition against a public officer or employee having a private interest in a public contract. A paper ballot vote will be taken on the bill by the committee Friday, October 21.
SB 351 allows each divorced parent to claim an income tax credit for amounts contributed to the EdVest college savings account program. The bill passed Committee 5-0.
SB 372 appropriates $2 million GPR to support biomedical research of a consortium of five southeastern universities including UW-Milwaukee and UW-Parkside. Right to Life Wisconsin proposed an amendment to prohibit use of public employees, public building and public funds for stem cell research.
Legislative Hearings
The Assembly Education Reform Committee is holding a public hearing on Wednesday, October 26 beginning at 11:00 a.m. in room 328 Northwest. The Committee will take testimony on several charter school bills:
AB 698 increases the enrollment of the charter school established by the UW-Parkside from 400 to 480 students. The 21st Century Academy in Racine was designed as a K-8 school and adding two grades each year until all grades 1-8 were included. The original limit of 400 is not large enough to cover enrollments in the last two classes.
AB 730 would allow five additional charter schools to be established by UW institutions.
Legislation Introduced: Carrying of Concealed Weapons, Charter School in Dane County, Academic Excellence Scholarships, Default Judgment for Citations
Representative Gunderson has introduced AB 763 (a companion bill to Sen. Zien’s SB 403) which authorizes the carrying of concealed weapons and would require background checks for handgun purchases. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Homeland Security. See full text of the bill at: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/AB763hst.html
Representative Vukmir has introduced AB768 (a companion bill to Sen. Darling’s SB 377) which allows the president of the UW System to operate or to contract for the operation of a charter school with the approval of the Board of Regents. The school must be located in Dane County and may accept any pupil who resides in Dane County. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Education Reform. See full text of the bill at: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/AB768hst.html
Representative Lothian has introduced AB 774 (a companion bill to Sen. Brown’s SB 370) which extends Academic Excellence Scholarship awards eligibility to a student enrolled in a 2-year, full-time vocational diploma program at a technical college. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Workforce Development. See full text of the bill at:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/AB-774.pdf
Senator Darling has introduced SB 389 (a companion bill to Rep. Kleefisch’s AB 725) which allows the court to use an alternative to the citations procedure that applies to violations of rules promulgated by the Board of Regents by not issuing a summons or arrest warrant and to consider the violator’s nonappearance to be a plea of no contest and to enter default judgment accordingly. The bill was referred to the Committee of Judiciary. See full text of the bill at: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/SB-389.pdf
Federal Update
On Thursday, the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs approved a bill to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Appleton after John H. Bradley, Mark Bradley’s father. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mark Green, was unanimously approved by the committee and heads to the House floor for further consideration and passage.
Both the Senate and House are in session this week. The Senate will continue to consider the FY06 Labor/HHS/Education bill, and may also consider the conference report for Agriculture appropriations. The House plans to bring up a proposal to amend the FY06 concurrent budget resolution to raise five-year savings in mandatory programs from approximately $35 billion to $50 billion – cuts intended to help offset the cost of hurricane disaster relief efforts. The House will also consider a resolution on the recommendations of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
Last week, Senator Specter announced that he would not seek to add House-passed legislation to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to the FY06 Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill saying that it would delay approval of the funding bill and because the Senate Majority Leader had agreed to make this a priority item when Congress reconvenes in January.
President Reilly has sent a letter to U.S. Senator Kohl, U.S. Congressman Obey and U.S. Congresswoman Baldwin on behalf of the Academic ADL Co-Lab. The letter seeks support for increasing the Distributed Learning Advanced Technology Development account in the Research and Development Defense programs by $1 million to support competitive grants. The UW System Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab, under the leadership of Director Judy Brown, is well positioned to competitively compete for these federal funds.
The Office of Federal Relations recently brought together UW System Research/Grants administrators for a two-day meeting in Madison. The objective of the meeting was to identify ways we can collaborate and/or pool resources to increase the number of grants awarded to our institutions. This is important because, as state support dwindles, grant dollars can allow important research to continue that will benefit all our campuses and the citizens of Wisconsin. Research administrators are in a unique position to identify ways to improve the process and know how best to pool experience and strengths to aggressively pursue academic research and development. A special thanks to Maliyakal John, General Manager, and WiSys for hosting the meeting. For those interested in a summary of the notes and helping to implement ideas/action plans, please contact Kris Andrews at (608) 263-3362 or kandrews@uwsa.edu
Bills and Board of Regents positions are posted at:
www.uwsa.edu/execvp/govrel/pending/index.htm
For further information, contact Margaret Lewis at (608) 262-4464.
Information on the Web
UW System Government Relations:
http://www.uwsa.edu/govrel/
UW System Budget:
http://www.uwsa.edu/budplan/
Wisconsin Legislature:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/