Wisconsin Legislature Votes to End Evers’ Mask Mandate
Update 2/4 2:45PM: Gov. Evers has declared a new Public Health Emergency, undermining the GOP effort to end the mask mandate. The new order will last until April 5th unless the State Legislature votes again to repeal the mask mandate or the State Supreme Court rules against Evers.
State Republicans, in an effort to nullify Governor Tony Evers’ statewide mask-mandate, passed a Joint Resolution to terminate the COVID-19 health emergency which the Governor issued by executive order on January 19th, 2021. Legislators have the power to extend or terminate executively-ordered public health emergencies, which they wielded for the first time on February 4th to end the mask-mandate prior to its March 20th expiration. As a joint resolution, this move is immune to Gov. Evers’ veto.
Senate Joint Resolution 3 (SJR 3), which had 29 Republican co-sponsors in the GOP-controlled Legislature, passed 18–13 in a State Senate vote on January 26th. Republican Senators Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) and Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) joined Senate Democrats in opposing the measure.
Opponents of the Joint Resolution faced an even greater challenge in the Assembly, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 61–38. The Assembly was set to hold a vote on SJR 3 last Thursday, January 28th. Assembly leadership delayed the vote following news that without an emergency health order in place, Wisconsin would be set to lose $49 million per month in federal food assistance. Speaker Robin Vos was reportedly unaware of this drawback when he first scheduled the Assembly to take up the Resolution.
The Resolution passed today in the Assembly 52–42. Republican Reps. Joel Kitchens (Sturgeon Bay), Todd Novak (Dodgeville), Loren Oldenburg (Viroqua), Jessie Rodriguez (Franklin), David Steffen (Howard), Ron Tusler (Appleton), and Jeff Mursau (Crivitz) joined Assembly Democrats in opposing the Resolution. The mask-mandate repeal will take effect tomorrow, when Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Racine) and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Sheboygan) sign the Joint Resolution.
Wisconsin will then become one of only 11 states without a statewide mask mandate. It will be the only state with a Democrat Governor not to mandate community masking indoors. Wisconsin’s two most populous counties, Dane and Milwaukee, continue to require masks through local ordinance. Green Bay’s City Council also voted on Tuesday to extend a city-wide ordinance requiring facial coverings until March 31st.
During last Tuesday’s Senate session and today’s Assembly floor remarks, Democrat and Republican lawmakers came at the matter from diametric positions. With a mask-mandate popular among Wisconsinites, GOP legislators made the argument that their challenge to Evers had more to do with mandate than mask.
In the text of the resolution and their remarks on the floor, Republicans questioned the constitutionality of Ever’s executive action. Gov. Evers originally issued the mask mandate on July 30th and has since re-issued it three times, effectively stretching the public health emergency over five months. State law limits states of emergency to 60 days, but Evers has argued that as the threat of COVID-19 morphs over time, additional declarations prove necessary. The mask mandate faces legal challenges in Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court where it is currently under advisement. A Wisconsin judge blocked an earlier effort by a conservative group to overturn the mandate last October.
Their focus on constitutionality did not stop some Republicans from weighing in on the efficacy of masking. GOP Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) suggested last Tuesday that the majority of masks are unsuccessful at stopping the transmission of respiratory droplets, declaring without citation that the most common facial coverings (cloth and paper masks) range in effectiveness from 0 to 30%.
His remarks cast aspersions on the consistency of “science” generally, while specifically targeting recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and “Lord Fauci,” whom he criticized for being “all over the place.” The CDC has updated its messaging to reflect new data throughout the pandemic. The CDC currently recommends community masking based on “experimental and epidemiological data” which support its effectiveness in stopping the spread — while noting that cloth masks remain under-researched.
For those lawmakers who opposed SJR 3, the mask is more important than the mandate. Legislative Democrats stressed the need for extraordinary action on the part of the government to ensure the health of the people. They cited the support of Wisconsin health organizations for a mask-mandate, the commonness of such mandates even in states with Republican governors, and the words of their own constituents who wrote begging them to oppose the joint resolution.
Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) spent much of her floor speech last Tuesday reading emails from Milwaukeans. “As much as I don’t like wearing a mask in public, it’s helping to keep my family and others healthy. We need to keep wearing masks until the majority of us are vaccinated” one constituent named Erica wrote to Sen. Taylor. “Please try to bring sanity to politics” wrote another, John, urging Sen. Taylor to vote to uphold the mask mandate.
Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) mentioned the over 60 Wisconsin organizations that have opposed terminating the mask mandate in her speech today — her first on the Assembly floor. “You have the support of no one but yourselves” she told Assembly Republicans.
Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) reprimanded his Republican colleagues for making masking a partisan issue last Tuesday. He compared the mask-mandate to another public-health law, seatbelts, asking if “flying through a windshield when you get in an accident is the utmost way to exercise your liberty?" Larson was among several Senate and Assembly Democrats who accused the Republican-controlled Legislature of spending more time opposing Evers’ health measures than working on COVID-19 legislation to aid Wisconsinites. Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) today decried his Republican colleagues for making the Joint Resolution their first legislative action since last April.
Wisconsin’s lawmaking body was indeed less active than any other full-time state Legislature since the pandemic began. “Had we actually taken our jobs and our responsibilities as a state Legislature seriously when this first happened, things would look very differently here in the state” said one lawmaker, Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-West Point). A heavily-amended COVID-19 Response Bill is currently bouncing between chambers in the Legislature.
News that ending Evers’ public health emergency would endanger eligibility for millions in emergency food assistance for low-income Wisconsinites further fueled Democrats in the assembly debate. Rep. Kristina Shelton (D-Green Bay) put out a statement ahead of the vote citing the projected loss in food assistance and accusing Republicans of engaging in “reckless, unconscionable, life threatening behavior” by putting forth the resolution. She ended her statement by urging Republican legislators to “grow a conscience. Fast.”
Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) proposed an amendment to the Wisconsin Covid-19 Recovery Bill which would give the Governor the authority to issue “a public health emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic solely for the purpose of receiving emergency or other allotments under the federal Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Act of 2020,” in an attempt to remedy the food assistance funding issue while still terminating the rest of Evers’ public health emergency. The amendment passed without debate in the senate. Today, the Assembly further amended the Bill, returning it to the Senate where they will vote to finally pass it on to the Governor during a special session tomorrow.
As Gov. Ever’s emergency order lapses, the onus for pandemic response is on the Republicans who passed the Joint Resolution. While questioning the authority of Gov. Evers to continue Wisconsin’s state of emergency, several Republicans reminded the floor that there are legal paths to re-issuing the public health order and mask-mandate — including legislative action.
Many Republicans have personally advocated for masking, but voted nonetheless to end the mask-mandate. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos released a bipartisan ad last year with U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI-02) stressing the importance of wearing masks, among other health measures. He reiterated his party’s rhetoric during his floor speech today. He started the debate by telling the chamber that the subject of discussion was not masks, but the constitutionality of Governor Evers’ order.
Mark Pocan Tweeted at Speaker Vos last Thursday, calling on him to pass a bill requiring masks “IMMEDIATELY” through the state Legislature.
Assembly Democrats took up the call to order a mask-mandate through legislative action. They proposed an amendment to the Covid-19 Recovery Bill which would mandate face masks. The amendment was deemed not germane by Speaker Pro Tempore Tyler August (R-Lake Geneva) and was rejected on a procedural vote. Rep. Sara Rodriguez (D-Brookfield) — who is a registered nurse and public health expert — noted that if the vote to overturn the health emergency was meant to protect the rule of law and not challenge the use of masks, GOP legislators should have agreed to the proposed amendment to include a mask mandate in the Covid-19 Recovery Bill.
Speaker Vos, meanwhile, sent a letter to Governor Evers encouraging him to introduce rules to the Legislature that would “enact reasonable masking requirements” in specific locations including health care facilities, nursing homes, public schools, and state government buildings. The proposed rules would not mandate masks in other public or private buildings, but would authorize entities to mandate masks on their property should they choose to do so. If Evers did suggest such a mandate to the Legislature, Sen. Steve Nass — chairman of the Rules Committee — may not support it. Sen. Nass authored the Joint Resolution to end the mask mandate.
For now, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature have blocked one of the few moves state governments can make to combat the spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus continues to threaten Wisconsin residents. There are nearly 550,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, which have led to over 6,000 deaths. A fast-spreading coronavirus variant first detected in England was reported in Eau Claire county last month. Health officials in South Carolina reported last week that they had detected two cases of the concerning South Africa variant — marking the first appearance of the strain on U.S. soil. With a slow-moving vaccination effort, fast-moving variant spread, and a newly repealed mask-mandate, Wisconsin may face its greatest public-health challenge in the months ahead.
