Wisconsin state lawmakers wrapped up the 2017-2018 legislative session in March. During the session they passed several bills affecting K-12 education, health care, taxes, and public assistance. To learn more about specific bills, please read our legislative summaries:
K-12 Education: Legislative Summary
Health care: Legislative Summary
Public Assistance: Legislative Summary
Corrections and the Justice System: Legislative Summary
Some of the most concerning bills to be introduced and approved by the Wisconsin legislature this past year was a package of bills that made changes to Wisconsin’s public assistance programs. Governor Walker declared these special session bills as “welfare reform,” but in reality these bills do very little to improve the welfare of children, families, and communities. Instead, the policy changes will increase the number of children and families that are hungry, homeless, and uninsured by creating barriers to participating in safety net programs. Within just a few weeks of when they were introduced, the legislature approved nine of the ten special session bills proposed by Governor Walker.
The legislature is scheduled to be out of session for the rest of the year. Unless lawmakers call for a special session of the legislature that is not on the regular schedule, they will not meet again until January 2019. Bills that did not pass during this session can be brought up again at that time, but will have to start the process over.