Here & Now

Rep. Steineke Reacts to Sup. Court's Ruling, Scope Statement

Frederica Freyberg:

Republicans had been publicly pushing to relax the strict “Safer at Home” order at the same time they challenged it in the Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Now with legal backing, the ball is in their court to act. Wisconsin Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke was able to join us early this afternoon. And, representative, thank you very much again for being here.

Jim Steineke:

Absolutely. Glad to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, so, as we all know, Wisconsin is reopen for business. What is your reaction to the court’s ruling?

Jim Steineke:

Well, it’s unfortunate that we got to this place. We’ve been trying over the last few weeks to engage with the administration to see if we can come up with a bipartisan plan that everybody can support. As late as 10 or 12 days ago now, we met with Governor Evers to discuss those things while the court case was going on to try to see if there was some common ground, asked for additional meetings beyond that day, and he said he didn’t want to talk until after the Supreme Court decision came down, which was his right. But that’s kind of why we’re here where we are today without anything succeeding that original 60-day authority.

Frederica Freyberg:

He has disputed that it was he who said he wanted to wait, but let’s move along, because this is where we are now, and I know that leadership met with the governor this week to talk about new rules. Going forward, at this moment, I suspect that you want to work with the governor to fashion these rules.

Jim Steineke:

Yeah. Again, we met this week with the governor, had some initial discussions about what our priorities were, what his were in any new rule. He took some input. He’s — obviously, he put out a scope statement for the new rule and now that is open for public comment for ten days, and then they’ll come back to us with whatever their proposed rule is, hopefully taking into account everybody’s input.

Frederica Freyberg:

Taking a look at that scope statement, it looks very similar to the “Safer at Home” and the Badger Bounce Back Plan. Do you support what’s in that document?

Jim Steineke:

Parts. I mean, I think what we’re seeing now is a vast majority of the country is starting to reopen. We were one of only a handful of states that hadn’t started to reopen yet. And one of our frustrations with what the governor has proposed in his original “Safer at Home” package was a statewide order, with no accounting for regional differences. And what we see in a vast majority of counties in the state is very few cases of the virus, very few hospitalizations. So we think that we can start to open up in a vast majority of the state.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, as you know, the Joint Committee on Review of Administrative Rules has the power to block these new rules that are going to be drafted. Should it, in your mind?

Jim Steineke:

Well, I think we have to wait and see what the new rules are. I’d hate to presume that the governor isn’t going to listen to the public and isn’t going to listen to the legislature in crafting these new rules. So hopefully he’ll do that and give us an opportunity to accept the new rules. But that’s yet to be seen.

Frederica Freyberg:

So in your mind, do you think that the committee should kind of save these kinds of rules for any surge in cases?

Jim Steineke:

Well, I think that’s one of the things that Representative Ballweg, who is co-chair of the Joint Committee on the Review of Administrative Rules, talked about, was having something in place in case we do have another surge. As we’ve seen in Wisconsin, there are no hospitals operating at crisis level, so we’re in a really good spot. That’s why I think you’ve seen most of the counties start to open up. Some counties are choosing to extend those “Safer at Home” orders but let’s remember that the governor’s order only lasted until the 26th and even he said he wasn’t going to extend them beyond that date.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your opinion of these local or county orders?

Jim Steineke:

Well, I think it’s well within their rights, as I see it. I think they have to do what they believe is correct with the situation on the ground within their own counties. I’d much rather see that approach than a statewide approach, where every area is treated exactly the same. Because, like I said, in the vast majority of the state there aren’t these crisis levels of the virus.

Frederica Freyberg:

Will you be going out to a restaurant this weekend or elsewhere because of the ruling from the court?

Jim Steineke:

Well, unfortunately, I’m in a county that chose to extend the “Safer at Home” order indefinitely, even though Outagamie County only has 124 cases. So I’m kind of confused as to why this particular county decided to go further than every other county — almost every other county out there. But I happen to be in one of those counties that has a “Safer at Home” extended and surrounded by Brown County and Winnebago and Calumet that also have that order in place.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to leave it there, Representative Steineke. Thank you again for joining us.

Jim Steineke:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.