Rural Wisconsin Initiative Unveiled
January 15, 2016
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Rural Wisconsin is filled with excellent places to live, work, and raise a family. However, this state's small towns and villages are not exempt from the American demographic trends of the last fifty years. Many rural counties are losing population or barely maintaining population. When young people leave for jobs in the city, or senior citizens choose to retire to the suburbs, our communities become caught in a downward spiral of decreasing vitality. As Representatives of rural Wisconsin, we are working to bridge the urban-rural gap, and to start a conversation about building our future. This is where the Rural Wisconsin Initiative comes into play. This is an ongoing plan and legislative suggestions from people across the state are highly encouraged. To kick off this plan, we have drafted seven bills that will improve education, health care, industry, and technology in rural Wisconsin.
www.RuralWisconsinInitiative.com
Assembly Passes HOPE Legislation
To kick off this Assembly Session, Rep. John Nygren offered additional bills as a continuation of his HOPE Agenda. Last year, Rep. Nygren introduced seven bills that laid the foundation for his Heroin, Opiate Prevention and Education (HOPE) Agenda. These bills focused on combating Wisconsin’s heroin epidemic and were passed unanimously by both houses of the Legislature. The bills passed in this Assembly Session were: Assembly Bill 364: This bill changes the requirement for those who dispense certain prescription drugs to submit information to the PDMP from 7 days to 24 hours. It will also require a practitioner to review a patient’s record when initially prescribing a monitored prescription drug (for example, a Schedule II drug). Assembly Bill 365: This bill states that when law enforcement encounters an inappropriate use or an infraction of the law concerning scheduled drugs, they upload that information into the PDMP and have the PDMP notify the physician. There are exceptions for on-going investigations. Assembly Bill 366: This bill gives the Department of Health Services (DHS) oversight over the operation of pain management clinics across the state. The department’s oversight would not be regulatory, but would be a way of providing safeguards so “pill mills” don’t pop up in our state. Assembly Bill 367: This bill requires methadone clinics to gather data such as staffing ratios, the number of patients receiving behavioral health services with the medication, and average mileage an individual is traveling to come to a clinic. This information will then be reported to DHS on an annual basis to give public health and treatment professionals a chance to analyze outcome data.
Upcoming Events in Northern Wisconsin
January 14-17 AMSOIL World Championship Snowmobile Derby Eagle River
January 16th Merrill
January 16-17 Tomahawk
January 17th Antigo
January 23 Great Northern Ice Fishing Tournament Phelps
January 23 Merrill Winterfest Sled Dog Race Merrill
January 29-31 Eagle River
January 30 Phelps
January 30 Fibber's Annual Ice Fishing Tournament St. Germain
January 30 Minocqua
January 30 Langlade County-Wide Snowmobile Ride White Lake
I want to thank you for giving me the honor to serve as your Representative this year and I look forward to continuing my work for the people of the 35th district in 2016.
Happy New Year!
Share your ideas at www.WisconsinAssemblyRepublicans.com and on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/WisconsinAssemblyRepublicans. #ForwardAgenda
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State Capitol Room 15 West- PO Box 8952, Madison, WI 53708
(608) 266-7694
Email: Rep.Czaja@legis.wi.gov