Dec 18, 2025

Be Our Champion - Wisconsin Update

Jake Beckstrom

The never-ending saga of our Wisconsin SCI bill continues. The last month and a half has seen myself, Matthew and Jason doing a lot of backchannel communications with various lawmakers in the legislature to make sure our bill continues moving forward. While we are optimistic, we are still nervous about keeping our bill top of mind with key legislators.

From left: Samantha Troyer, Bethany Sullivan and Mackenzie Wann outside the Wisconsin Capitol earlier this fall. Mackenzie wrote about her experience here, and Matthew also reflected on the unlikely outcome of their trip here.

Right now, our proposed legislation is sitting with the Senate Majority leader who is hopefully planning to pass it over to the Joint Finance Committee. I say ‘hopefully’ because we are at the point (again) in this process where putting too much pressure on the Senate Majority leader could backfire on us. This is part of the art involved in smart advocacy - knowing when, how and on whom to apply pressure to get what you need.

And this of course is where you come in :) What we need right now is a reminder to our bill’s authors, Rep. Paul Tittl and Sen. Van Wangaard, to do some work on our behalf. Yes, they have sponsored and guided our bill to this point, and we appreciate their continued support. But now is when they are in the best position to convince their colleagues of the importance of our bill. We need them to be our Champions, not just our sponsors.

The same goes for our newfound backer, Sen. Andre Jacque, who flipped from opposing us to supporting us within the last year. Sen. Jacque holds sway and can convince key members of his party to back our bill.

So, please call and email Rep. Paul Tittl, Sen. Van Wangaard and Sen. Andre Jacque today, no matter what state or country you live in. You can say something like this:

Thank you so much for supporting our SCI Research Grant bill (AB92 / SB99) up to this point. Please continue your support for this bill by being our champion: convince your caucus, especially Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, to pass our bill through the Senate Finance Committee as soon as possible. Your efforts will ensure our bill makes it to the Senate and Assembly floors for a full vote.

Thanks in advance for being a champion for the SCI community - let’s get this done!

Please take 5 minutes to share this message with these legislators today. It could make the difference in whether or not our bill moves forward.  

Thanks for raising your voice!

 

PS - If you want to support the work that U2FP is doing to organize and activate the SCI community, consider making a year-end gift today. Your contributions are what fuel our work!