The Assembly Committee on Insurance held an Executive Session on Tuesday, October 1, 2019. The Assembly voted to pass AB 300– Health Insurance for Survivors of a Law Enforcement Officer Who Dies in the Line of Duty in a 11-0 vote. The bill passed with the amendment provided by UW System and UW-Madison to include UW police officers.

The Joint Committee on Finance met on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 and also voted to pass AB 300 as amended in a 10-0 vote.

The full Senate is scheduled to take up the bill on October 8^th.

President Ray Cross, Regent President Andrew S. Petersen, and Regents Cris Peterson, Jason Plante, and Olivia Woodmansee joined UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow for a series of events at UW-La Crosse for the third stop of UW System’s All In Wisconsin tour on Wednesday, October 2. The tour aims to demonstrate the value UW System and each UW institution brings to the community. See the news release for a full recap of the event. The next stop on the All In Wisconsin tour is UW-Superior on October 11.

The Joint Committee on Finance met on Tuesday, October 2 and approved the $45M in biennium funding to be allocated through the Outcomes-Based Funding model on a 15-0 vote. In terms of the distribution of the $45M over the biennium, JFC approved their original proposal of $22.5M in each year of the biennium – with $22.5M in ongoing base funding.

JFC’s approval is in contrast to the UW System recommendation of $15M in FY2019-20 and $30M in FY2020-21; with $30M in ongoing base funding. The Dairy Innovation Hub proposal was also approved for $1M in FY2019-20 and $7.8M in FY2020-21 ($7.8M in ongoing funding) on a 14-0 vote.

Details on the timing of the allocations out to the campuses are forthcoming.

UW System will now shift focus on developing a robust budget request for the next biennium.

Please contact Jeff Buhrandt (jbuhrandt@uwsa.edu) or Deej Lundgren (dlundgren@uwsa.edu) with any questions or concerns.

The Senate Committee on Universities, Technical Colleges, Children and Families held a public hearing on Wednesday, September 25. The bills which relate to UW System were:

• SB 205– credit transfers
• SB 334– requirements for active service members called into active duty

Written testimony for information only was submitted for both bills (see attachments below).

The Senate Committee on Universities, Technical Colleges, Children and Families also held an Executive Session on Wednesday, September 25. The bills which relate to UW System were:

• SB 117– athlete agents act
• SB 142– tuition benefits for student veterans

UW System worked with the authors of SB 142 on an amendment to clarify how federal veteran benefits work in relation to a student’s financial aid package. The committee voted to approve the amendment.

In addition, Board of Regents Edmund Manydeeds III, Karen Walsh, and Olivia Woodmansee were confirmed by the Committee. Next step for the Regents will be a full Senate vote.

Written Testimony Documents:

President Cross, along with Rep. Cindi Duchow, Rep. Mark Born, Rep. Shelia Stubbs, Sen. Luther Olsen, Sen. Pat Testin, and Sen. Jeff Smith, visited UW Health’s American Family Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, September 25, 2019. Representative Duchow organized the meeting to highlight the research being done related to pediatric cancer. The event concluded with a tour of the hospital.