Republican state lawmakers have unveiled a new bill responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, a proposal they intend to fast-track to Gov. Tony Evers’ desk, according to the leader of the state Assembly.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the new proposal was drafted in consultation with the GOP-controlled state Senate. It is scheduled for a public hearing and vote by the Assembly health committee Tuesday.

The new GOP-backed proposal, which mirrors some elements of an Assembly plan released in early December, would give businesses, schools and governmental entities legal immunity if someone contracts COVID-19 on their premises, even if the entity isn’t following local, state or federal requirements to curb the spread of the virus.

The bill would also:

• Bar schools from providing virtual instruction, unless its school board votes to approve virtual instruction by a two-thirds vote of its members. Each approval would last only 14 days.
• Require the state unemployment insurance call center to expand its hours until a backlog of unemployment claims is at pre-pandemic levels.
• Extend the suspension of a one-week waiting period for unemployment benefits until March 14.
• Prohibit the state Department of Health Services, local health officials, and employers from requiring people to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
• Limit local health officers’ ability to restrict capacity of businesses during the pandemic to 14-day periods, unless the local government approves an extension of such an order. Each extension could only last 14 days.
• Bar the state Department of Health Services and local health officers from closing or forbidding gatherings in places of worship.
• Allow a nursing home or assisted living facility resident to designate an essential visitor to visit and provide support for the resident.
• Require health insurers to cover testing for COVID-19 without imposing any copayment or coinsurance.
• Give the state budget committee more power over how federal COVID-19 relief funds are spent.
• Require the governor to submit a plan to reopen the state Capitol Building to the public.

On Monday afternoon, the governor’s spokesperson, Britt Cudaback, criticized Republicans for not working with Evers on a bipartisan bill.

“It’s disappointing that instead of passing the COVID compromise the governor and Republican leaders worked on together, Republicans now plan to move ahead with their own legislation,” Cudaback said. “Wisconsinites deserve legislators who will put politics aside and work together to do what’s best for the people of our state.”

Pandemic response measures and changing election procedures will take center stage when the Wisconsin Legislature opens its 2021-22 session on Monday, eclipsing even state budget deliberations that typically consume the first six months of every session.

The Legislature returns in January with Republicans in the majority and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers at midterm. But the political dynamics have shifted since then. Robin Vos remains Assembly speaker, but Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has moved on after winning a congressional seat. Devin LeMahieu takes Fitzgerald’s place and will deal with a more conservative caucus than Fitzgerald had.

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today announced plans to make it easier for Wisconsinites to file for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits by updating the language for both its initial and weekly UI claim applications.

DWD is currently seeking public input on the updated draft application questions online at https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/uiapplicationsfeedback/.

To improve the UI application process, DWD has updated the questions to feature “plain language” as much as possible. “Plain language” is meant to be understandable to all individuals who are likely to use the UI application process, regardless of educational background or regional/cultural language differences. Further, it is to ensure all those who are filling out either an initial or weekly UI claim can understand the questions as quickly and easily as possible.

The deadline to submit public comment on the draft questions is January 8, 2021. DWD job centers will also host virtual focus groups with selected volunteers from around the state to collect additional feedback on the application process. The Department will review and incorporate all feedback before it begins the necessary IT programming in February and plans to post the updated web applications in March.

With the clock ticking toward a potential U.S. government shutdown, President Donald Trump Sunday signed a $2.3 trillion funding measure that includes $900 billion for coronavirus relief and $1.4 trillion for government funding  through next September.

President Trump said in announcing his signature that he was also insisting on changes to the funding legislation to remove what he called “wasteful items.”  Those demands amount to suggestions to Congress and will not necessarily result in any changes to the bill.

His main objections to the funding package were what he said were insufficient $600 per person coronavirus relief payments, as well as funding for multiple government programs such as foreign aid and scientific research.

“As President, I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child,” Trump said in a statement.

“I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more,” Trump added.

Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday that his administration has partnered with a medical testing company to provide at-home COVID-19 tests.

There is good news in the latest monthly jobs report for Wisconsin. The unemployment rate dropped from 6% in October to 5% in November.

Dig a little deeper, however, and the numbers are not quite as encouraging.

The state’s labor force lost 23,100 people over the month and the labor force participation rate dropped by a half-point to 66.9%. Unemployment was down by 33,000, but employment was up just 9,900, according to place of residence data released by the Department of Workforce Development.

Private sector employment was also down by 1,000, according to a separate survey of businesses used to track job growth.

Wisconsin’s participation rate had dropped from 66.9% at the start of 2020 to a low of 65% in July. It had rebounded since then before dropping in November.

Longer-term, the state’s labor force has been trending down since the mid-1990s. The rate averaged 74.5% in 1997. The average has increased year-over-year only three times since then.

After months of stalemate, Congress struck a deal on nearly $900 billion in Covid-19 relief, including a new round of direct payments and help for jobless Americans, families and businesses struggling in the pandemic.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in another case that could reframe the power of state government to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, reviving a debate that began when justices struck down the state’s “Safer at Home” order in May.

The latest dispute stems from an order restricting bar and restaurant capacity that expired more than a month ago, but it raises issues the court left ambiguous in its “Safer at Home” ruling.

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration issued the order on Oct. 6 through powers invoked by state Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm to respond to public health emergencies.

Palm’s order restricted the size of crowds at indoor businesses like restaurants and bars. Under the order, those businesses were limited to 25 percent of their usual capacity. For example, a restaurant that could normally hold up to 200 people would be limited to a crowd of 50.

The Evers administration argues there’s a key difference in this case.

When the court struck down “Safer at Home,” it carved out an exception, stating without explanation in two footnotes in the majority opinion that it was not striking down the state’s powers to close schools.

The law that spells out the power to close schools states that DHS “may close schools and forbid public gatherings in schools, churches, and other places to control outbreaks and epidemics.” The Evers administration argues that Palm’s latest order did just that.

Critics of Palm’s order argue it should be struck down because it relies on part of the same law that the Supreme Court addressed when it struck down “Safer at Home.”

“We have the same agency here. We have the same pandemic. They are repackaging these same exact arguments they made the last time,” said attorney Misha Tseytlin arguing on behalf of the Mix Up, Inc., an Amery bar and grill challenging Palm’s order. “I understand the composition of this court has changed since, but the law hasn’t changed.”

The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low near zero Thursday and signaled its readiness to do more if needed to support an economy under threat from a worsening coronavirus pandemic.

The central bank’s policy statement Thursday was approved on a 10-0 vote. Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, who had dissented at the previous meeting, voted with the majority this time. Another dissenter in September, Neel Kashkari, head of the Minneapolis Fed, was absent, with his alternate, Mary Daly of the San Francisco Fed, approving the statement.

The statement was nearly identical to the one the Fed issued in September. At that meeting, it adopted a policy goal change it had made in August to keep rates low for some period of time even after inflation hits its 2% annual target. The reason was to allow the Fed to supply a longer boost to the economy and for unemployment to fall further before the policymakers begin to worry about inflation.