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Official Government
Communication
Week of Apr. 8-13
Dear
Friend,
There is a
lot happening at the State Capitol and it is my hope that this email will
help you stay in touch with your government. As your Senator, I truly believe
in public service. If there is anything my office can do to assist you,
please feel free to contact us.
Here to
serve,
Sen. Lena
Taylor
4th
District
Last
Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Interview
 Last Friday, I had the opportunity
to appear on MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. I, along with
Julia Busch, Director of the Foundation for American Progress, and host
Ali Velshi discussed the role and impact of young activists and
progressives on the Wisconsin political landscape.
It is always amazing to watch how much goes into these
interviews. Initially, I was asked to be prepared to talk about
three issues. First, the host was interested in how Wisconsin
farmers would be impacted by the talks of trade wars and tariff battles
with China. Wisconsin ships more than $300 million
in goods to China each year. There are three exports areas in particular that
could harm Wisconsin: soybeans, ginseng, and cranberries. I was
also asked to be prepared to discuss comments made by Michelle Obama at a
recent women’s conference regarding the current administration, Hillary
Clinton, and her decision to not run for office. Finally, the host
was interested in the changing political winds in Wisconsin.
Ultimately, that is where the bulk of my interview centered. Going
into the 2018 elections, the message is clear: Wisconsin has elected
Democrats in areas with strong Republican showings and in the State
Supreme Court race of Rebecca Dallet. Wisconsin
has once again shown why we are most often a purple state, neither
solidly red nor blue. There is going to be a real fight for the
direction and leadership of the state in future
elections.
Equity
Summit
 “Listen to the sound of the genuine
inside you”. Those were the words of PolicyLink’s
President Michael McAfee when he addressed the audience at the Equity
Summit 2018 in Chicago. This week, my office had the opportunity to
attend the Equity Summit, one of the year’s most important diversity
conferences, and hear from Mr. McAfee and a long list of other strong
voices from all walks of life, including Policy Link’s CEO Angela Glover
Blackwell.
PolicyLink is a nationally renowned research
and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up
What Works.® Their work is rooted in the idea that our work must be
grounded in the conviction that equity – just and fair inclusion – must
drive all policy decisions. It was clear that everyone at the summit,
both speakers and attendees, had come to connect and define our goals and
organize to take action. It was inspiring to hear from people who,
despite the hardships they’d faced, have made their voices heard and used
their success to inspire others. Linda Sarsour,
the co-chair of the Women’s March, and speaker at the Equity Summit,
paraphrased the famous quote from Shirley Chisolm, the first
African–American Congresswoman, “If they don't
give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” Government works
best when it’s inclusive of all the people that it represents.
"Enhancing
the Pipeline & Partnerships between Regional Milwaukee K-16
Educational Institutions, Corporations & HBCU"
 On Wednesday, I was one of three
panelists at “Enhancing the Pipeline and Partnerships between Regional
Milwaukee K-16 Education Institutions, Corporations and HBCU.” This event
served as an opportunity to discuss ways to connect Wisconsin employers
to diverse pools of candidates from Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCU). A number of key stakeholders of the community
attended, including area and HBCU college deans, presidents,
administrations, HBCU alumni and admissions personnel. Additionally,
regional Milwaukee educational institutions, corporations and
community-based organizations were in attendance.
This is an annual event that allows us to learn how to better attract
and retain talent from HBCUs. This year the career interest focused on
those with degrees in education, engineering, information technology,
agriculture and health care fields. My comments addressed Urban
Agriculture and the important role that it can play in providing family
supporting wages and careers. I also discussed the need to view the
industry through another lens that allows us to address broader needs
than food insecurity and food deserts, but also employment, high school
graduation rates, corrections, and so much more.
Community
Update: Juvenile Corrections
 Tomorrow, via a partnership with St.
Mark AME Church in Milwaukee, we are providing a community update on the
juvenile corrections bill now that it has become law. I will be joined by
Representatives David Bowen and Tim Muth, a
volunteer staff attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
to discuss next steps in the implementation and impact of the new
law. As a reminder, the law requires the closing of the Lincoln
Hills and Copper Lakes juvenile corrections facilities by 2021. It
also funds a process for transitioning our state’s juvenile corrections
to a county-based youth facilities that will provide more rehabilitative
programming and keep youth closer to their families. The goal is to
ensure that all youth who leave the corrections system are better off than
when then entered it, or at the very least not worse.
Come to learn how the community can have a voice in the committees
responsible for creating the change in the juvenile corrections
system. The law provides for two committees to be formed: one that
will decide how to allocate grant money to counties that will be
constructing new youth facilities, and one that will study the
best-practices and programs for governing the facilities. Please join us
to talk about who will be on these committees, who we want to see on
them, and what we can do as a community to ensure they address the
concerns and issues raised by residents. The event runs from 12:00pm –
2:00pm and will be held at St. Mark’s AME Church, 1616 W Atkinson Ave,
Milwaukee.
Trade
War With China to have effect on Wisconsin
 Once again, Donald Trump’s lack of
understanding and depth of basic policy issues has created problems for
America and many of our global partners or allies. This time many
of Trump’s own supporters are finding themselves in the crosshairs of
hastily made decisions and tweets. At issue is the escalating trade war
conversations regarding China. Wisconsin has three products that we
export in particular that would be problematic for area farmers were
these talks to go beyond threats and posturing: soybeans, cranberries,
and ginseng.
Last year, Wisconsin produced $940 million in
soybeans. In the U.S., 30% of all soybeans are exported to China.
Further, the U.S. ships more
than 95 million pounds of cranberries a year to countries in the European
Union. Nearly 40% of the crop is exported. At varying years,
Wisconsin crops account for more than half the world's supply of
cranberries. A trade war would be devastating for many area farms. Trump
has said that some suffering will be worth better deals in the long run,
but that’s easy to say when your own family won’t be impacted. It
also doesn’t help that he pulled the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP). The 11-nation partnership has been
rebranded as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP. It will cover an area that
makes up 13% of the world economy and is home to 500 million
people. A trade war with China could hurt less if we were a part of
that partnership, and so it’s no surprise that the Trump administration
is now trying to figure out how to rejoin the group.
Lobby
Meetings
 This week was a busy week in my
Madison office, as my staff were able to meet with a number of community
groups, organizations and businesses to inform us of their work and
efforts in the community. We also heard about legislative concerns
or ideas. On Tuesday, my team met with a representative from the Council
of the Blind and Visually Impaired to discuss increased funding for those
with special needs in the Milwaukee Public Transportation system as well
as change the Council would like to see made to Wisconsin law regarding
seeing-eye animals. On Wednesday, they got to meet with some amazing
undergraduate constituents from UW-Steven’s Point, UW-Whitewater and
UW-Platteville to discuss their research projects. As my staff briefed me
on the meetings, they could not say enough about how impressive these
students were. On Thursday, my team got to discuss possible new ways to
fund the education of differently-abled students in public schools with
the Family Voices Organization. They also got to connect with the Wisconsin
Breast Cancer Coalition to outline legislative and budgetary priorities
for the upcoming sessions.
Intern
Spotlight
 Alex Wills is one of the policy
interns in Senator Taylor’s office. She is from Northampton,
Massachusetts and is in her third year at UW-Madison, where she is
majoring in international studies. She says she chose international
studies because it combines her interest in political and foreign
affairs. Alex will be graduating in December and plans on working before
eventually going to graduate school. In the future she hopes to do work
in either diplomacy and/or foreign policy. Alex wanted to work in Senator
Taylor’s office to get experience working in local policy. She was
particularly interested in the Senator’s passionate projects: justice
reform and education. In this internship Alex says she’s learned about
just how much work gets done in a Senate office. Her favorite part of the
internship has been writing committee testimonies, which she says comes
from her love of writing argumentative essays. She says that writing a
fact based argument that could affect state law is “incredible and feels
rewarding and impactful.”
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