Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week, we celebrate World Breastfeeding week, and I am proud to be the author of a bill to ensure new moms have the workplace breastfeeding accommodations they need to make the healthy choice of breastfeeding their babies while providing economic sustainability for their families. Also this week, Senator Lena Taylor and I introduced a bill that would prohibit the practice of shackling incarcerated women during childbirth and would provide incarcerated new mothers with needed maternal health services and equipment for pumping breast milk.

In this week’s newsletter, you will find a link to a special video we put together for World Breastfeeding Week, more information about our anti-shackling bill, an update on the healthcare debate in Washington, and information on what we now know about the proposed Foxconn facility in southeastern Wisconsin.

If you have any questions or need assistance with any matter, please feel free to contact my office.

Sincerely,

Lisa Subeck
State Representative
78th Assembly District

Healthy Babies, Working Mothers Video for World Breastfeeding Week
This week Representative Joan Ballweg (R-Markesan), Senator LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and I released a video in which Wisconsin moms share their experiences returning to work while breastfeeding to promote our proposed Healthy Babies, Working Mothers Act (AB 193/SB 147). Click on the picture to the left to view the video.

The video highlights the importance of breastfeeding accommodations in the workplace and the need for the Healthy Babies, Working Mothers Act. Our bill would ensure new moms have the space and time needed to pump breast milk when they return to work. The bill also ensures new mothers can maintain their healthcare coverage by counting any unpaid breaks for the purpose of breastfeeding or pumping milk toward any minimum hours required for health care eligibility.
 

Time to End Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Childbirth
On Monday, Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and I introduced a bill to end the shackling of pregnant women while incarcerated. Since 2011, at least 40 women in Wisconsin have been shackled while giving birth. Shackling includes the use of belly-chains, which tie a woman’s wrists to her waist and iron shackles on her legs. It is hard to believe there is any medical or security rationale behind shackling women during childbirth.

Federal agencies and 18 states have policies which prohibit or restrict shackling pregnant women. The bill also provides for maternal support services, which have been shown to reduce the need for costly medical interventions such as caesarean sections, and support for pumping breast milk. Additionally, the bill expands screening for STIs, which can prevent mother-to-child transmissions through early detection and treatment. These measures will improve health outcomes for both mother and child and create savings for taxpayers.

No woman should suffer the indignity and the potential physical and mental harm to herself and her infant of giving birth while shackled. It is shameful that this practice is still commonplace in Wisconsin’s prisons. Every new mother should have access to critical maternal health care, no matter where her baby is born. Our legislation would protect new mothers who are incarcerated from the harm of being shackled during childbirth.

Click here to view a copy of the bill.
 

Foxconn
My office has begun receiving calls and emails regarding the announcement that the Governor has proposed $3 billion in tax incentives for a manufacturing plant to be built by Foxconn in southeastern Wisconsin. We have just received details of the proposal, which appears to be on the fast track. As I review the details, I am approaching the bill with a healthy dose of skepticism and proceeding with caution.

The lure of new jobs is always appealing, and given the failure of Governor Walker and his failed jobs agency to meet their job creation promises, it is no surprise that they have put this deal on the fast track in an attempt to avoid scrutiny. The Governor has claimed that the facility, located near the Illinois border, could employ up to 13,000 people. With an unprecedented corporate giveaway of $3 billion, that is a cost to Wisconsin taxpayers of nearly a quarter of a million dollars per job. The tax credits proposed for Foxconn would be paid to the company, even if the company does not pay any taxes at all.

While the proposed bill outlines the plan to give $3 billion in tax credits, it does not contain any expectations for number of jobs or wages paid, and there is no clear plan for holding the company responsible for its promises. To be clear, Foxconn does not have a good track record of delivering on its promises. The company promised a $30 million facility in Pennsylvania in 2013 that still has not been built, and a promised investment in 2014 of up to $1 billion in Indonesia never materialized. At the same time, Scott Walker’s economic development agency (WEDC) has a long history of losing track of loans and not holding companies accountable for meeting the job creation terms of grants and loans. Yet WEDC, with its failed track record on job creation and accountability, will be charged with monitoring and enforcement of any agreed upon terms.

The proposed bill deal would also waive a number of environmental protections, jeopardizing wetlands and water quality for years to come. Foxconn would not be required to submit the same environmental impact statements that anyone else would, and the proposal even makes changes to the law regarding water diversion under the Great Lakes Compact.

These concerns and the fast track on which the bill is traveling raise serious concerns. I am still analyzing the bill and materials provided by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. As I already stated, I am currently skeptical based on the information I have reviewed thus far.

On Thursday, August 3, the Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy will hold a public hearing on the bill which has been introduced as August 2017 Special Session Assembly Bill 1. If you wish to testify, details are below:
Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy
Thursday, 8/3/17
State Capitol – Room 412 East
1:30 p.m. – Hearing will begin with invited testimony.
Approx. 4:30 p.m. – Public testimony will begin.

If you wish to attend and testify, you will need to complete a hearing slip found outside of the hearing room. You may wish to complete a slip early to minimize your wait time once public testimony begins.
 

Update: Status of the Affordable Care Act
The US Senate engaged in a series of votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act. One of the first proposals the Senate voted on and failed to pass was the misnamed Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). Thanks to Senator Tammy Baldwin, her Democratic colleagues, and nine Republicans who broke ranks with their party, this legislation - which the Congressional Budget Office confirmed would be devastating to America’s health care system - failed.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell then tried to rally Republicans around what was called a "skinny bill." In this case, the bill consisted of portions of previous bills, including a repeal of the individual and employer mandates and the medical device tax. The skinny bill was defeated with all Democrats and three Republicans (Senators McCain, Snowe, and Murkowski) voting against it.

The actions of President Trump and Senate Republicans have only served to put our health insurance markets into disarray. After the Senate voted down the skinny bill, President Trump threatened to stop government payments to insurance companies to force the collapse of the Affordable Care Act. If he were to follow through on his threat, millions of people who purchase insurance privately without any government assistance would face prohibitive increases in health insurance rates.

The actions of the President and US Senate Republicans are nothing short of reckless. Fortunately, a few were willing to break ranks with their party and stand with Democrats to preserve health care access.
 

Legalize Opportunity
Representative Melissa Sargent recently introduced a bill which would legalize and regulate marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes in our state. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have already passed laws that have legalized marijuana in some form.

Instead of criminalizing and demonizing the use of marijuana, we can keep our communities safer by regulating its use and taxing its sale. Wisconsin currently spends millions of taxpayer dollars arresting and incarcerating non-violent individuals for marijuana possession, leaving us with some of the worst racial disparities in the nation. African-Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than Caucasians despite nearly identical usage rates. In Madison, the ratio is a staggering twelve to one.

In addition to co-sponsoring this bill, I have also sponsored a bill to legalize medical marijuana introduced earlier this year by Rep. Chris Taylor. We can and should move forward with smart regulation to legalize the use of marijuana.

Do Your Homework for Back-to-School Shopping Success
It's back-to-school shopping season again! Each year this shopping event seems to come earlier, and this summer is no exception. The shelves are stocked and the newspaper inserts are hitting doorsteps. To make sure you get your money's worth at the register, take these tips from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) along with your shopping list.

Follow these simple tips to ensure that you are charged correctly:

• Before setting out for your shopping run, review the advertisements for restrictions on quantities, sale hours, returns and rain checks. Check store policies on price matching to consolidate your run.
  Write down prices or special sales while you shop to have a better sense of the final total before you hit the register. Most pricing errors occur on sale items.

• Keep an eye on the display screen while your items are being scanned. Speak up if you think you have been overcharged for an item.

• If there is a pricing error, Wisconsin law requires that a store refund any overcharge. Work with customer service to receive a refund while you are in the store. Double check your receipt before you leave to ensure that the totals are correct.

• Report pricing errors to state or local inspectors. To file a weights and measures complaint with DATCP's Weights and Measures Bureau, send an e-mail to datcpweightsandmeasures@wi.gov or call 608-224-4942.

• When you are finished shopping, save your receipts and submit any rebates immediately.

Every year DATCP's Weights and Measures team visits stores statewide to test for price accuracy, and the results show that consumers pay correct prices at Wisconsin stores an overwhelming majority of the time. In 2016, DATCP inspectors tested more than 58,000 items for price accuracy and found that prices registered accurately or in the consumers' favor nearly 99% of the time. Even so, it doesn't hurt to keep these back-to-school shopping tips in mind during this busy shopping season.
 

Fun Wisconsin Fact
Ethwell “Eddy” Hanson was the composer of Wisconsin’s official state waltz, "The Wisconsin Waltz.” This week marks the anniversary of his birth on August 1, 1893. Hanson published his first piece of music at 17 and went on to write more than 300 musical pieces in his lifetime.

"The Wisconsin Waltz" was composed in 1951. The song was adopted as the official state waltz in 2001. Hanson retired to Waupaca in the 1960s, but he did not stop playing. He performed at supper clubs, often playing the piano with one hand and the organ with the other before he died in 1986.

Click here to hear “The Wisconsin Waltz.”