Mar 6, 2024
The Final Hurdle in Wisconsin?
Jake Beckstrom
As you all know by now, The Wisconsin Assembly passed our SCI Research Grant bill (AB19) last week by a vote of 93-3. That was a major accomplishment, but the work is not over.
Still image taken from the passage of SCI Research Grant bill AB19 in the Wisconsin Assembly on Thursday, Feb 22, 2024.
The next step is for the bill to get passed on the Senate floor. We thought this would be an easier task, now that the Assembly has passed the bill. But like every step of our advocacy work in Wisconsin thus far, it's going to take more effort than we had hoped.
Although the bill does have broad support across the Wisconsin state Senate, we got word last week that there is a small holdout of GOP senators who do not want this bill to reach the Senate floor for a vote. We have tried to find out the specific issues they have in an attempt to negotiate with them, but their reasons remain unclear to us.
Myself, Matthew, Jason and all our Wisconsin CAN Advocates are meeting with Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu this morning, Wednesday, March 6 at 10am to convince him to bring our SCI Research Grant bill (SB27) to the Senate floor for a vote.
It is up to all of us - including YOU - to once again make the Voice of the SCI Community heard. We have to encourage the senate leadership to bring this bill to the floor for a vote, regardless of these few senators’ mysterious opposition.
Senate President Kapenga and Majority Leader LeMahieu have the power to refer this bill to the Senate floor. Neither Senator is directly opposed to our bill. It just seems that they are hesitant because of a small minority of opposition in their own party.
We need Senate President Chris Kapenga (608-266-9174 | Sen.Kapenga@legis.wisconsin.gov) and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (608-266-2056 | Sen.LeMahieu@legis.wisconsin.gov) to hear from all of you - no matter what state or country you live in.
You can tell them the following, but try to make it your own:
Senators Kapenga & LeMahieu,
My name is ____ ______, and I [have a spinal cord injury / am family/friend of someone with a spinal cord injury].
Please bring our Spinal Cord Injury Research Grant bill (SB27) to the Senate floor for a vote. Give us a chance to profoundly and positively affect the lives of people in Wisconsin living with SCI.
The SCI community is counting on you - thank you in advance!
PS - Please say hi to our friend and your constituent Jeff Mohr, father of C5 quadriplegic and Wisconsin SCI advocate Mike Mohr, when you meet with him this morning :)
The more people Senators Kapenga & LeMahieu hear from, the better chance we have of getting this bill over the finish line in Wisconsin. Two weeks ago, your calls and emails made the difference in the Assembly - we know because of feedback we received from legislators and community members.
Now it’s time to show the Wisconsin Senate that the SCI Community won’t back down. In fact, our goal this week is to flood Senators Kapenga and LeMahieu’s offices with even more messages of support. This is YOUR time to make your voice heard and encourage them to do the right thing - refer the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. If it gets introduced, we have the votes to pass it.
This is not an impossible task! We knew breaking through to Assembly Speaker Vos was going to be a difficult task, and yet We did it! YOU did it!
As Christopher Reeve once said, "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."
Please call and email these two senators and ask them to bring SB27 to the Senate floor for vote.
There are only a few weeks left for Senate floor sessions. And there is only one time to achieve the impossible. No time like the present.
Let's do this!
