Democratic lawmakers announced Tuesday they will introduce a stopgap piece of legislation to help offset President Donald Trump administration’s cuts to federal grants and loans.
Rep. Christian Phelps, D-Eau Claire, said the proposed Frozen Federal Funds Emergency Act would give the Republican-controlled Legislature the power to allocate funds from the state’s budget stabilization fund to affected services through a required convening of a special session.
“No one has reached out to us asking us to do nothing…So we call on our colleagues, including those in the majority party in this building, to join us in doing whatever we can,” Phelps said.
The budget stabilization fund operates as the state’s rainy day fund. The fund currently has $1.9 billion on hand after the end of the 2024 fiscal year, a record amount.
Phelps was joined by Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Angelina Cruz, D-Racine, along with representatives from school districts, farming unions, education unions and nonprofit groups. The freeze was blocked by a federal judge in Washington D.C. late February, but its effects have caused looming uncertainty.
Barret Elward, president of the United Faculty and Academic Staff Union at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that although the bill is a start, he has already witnessed the impacts of the funding freeze in his work at the College of Engineering.
“Funding to entire labs have been cut,” Elward said. “I have colleagues that are leaving this country… The effects will carry on for decades if this damage is not undone.”
The bill is meant to act as a temporary bridge toward a more concrete response to the Trump administration’s freezing of federal funds. Attorney General Josh Kaul and Gov. Tony Evers joined a coalition of 22 states in a lawsuit against the executive order in late January.
Bipartisan support for the bill is needed before Evers signs it into law. Republicans currently have a nine-seat majority in the Assembly and a three-seat majority in the Senate but seem unlikely to support the bill.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told The Daily Cardinal in February the Legislature had no plans to increase funding for UW-Madison if the federal research funding cuts are implemented.
Wisconsin receives roughly $654 million per year in National Institutes of Health grants, which supports more than 7,700 jobs and $1.4 billion in economic activity, according to United for Medical Research.
Without additional funds from elsewhere, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said the capping of indirect costs would have a “ripple effect” on the state’s economy.
