State Republicans Want to Amend State Constitution Regarding How State Spends Federal Dollars

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022 -- 8:05 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) Republican lawmakers want to amend the state constitution to give the legislature control over how the state spends federal funding.

The proposed amendment would hand over federal funds to the legislature's joint finance committee for review. State Senator Dale Kooyenga says it makes sense to him. "Money spent by the government should go through the branch of government that controls the purse strings and that's a legislature."

The resolution comes after Republicans attempted to pass a similar bill, which was vetoed by Governor Evers. State Senator Dale Kooyenga says the Democrats in Congress who passed the recent stimulus bills didn't actually review the laws before they passed them. "Congress voted on it but didn't get the details there's very little accountability on that money going out and where is it going? It goes to the states."

The G-O-P wants to direct all federal funding through the Joint Finance Committee first before it goes to the executive branch. The resolution would have to pass through two different sessions of the Legislature and then be voted on in an election.

The issue has come into the forefront following billions of dollars of stimulus funding that came to the states as part of the pandemic and infrastructure bills. State Representative Chuck Wichgers says the Governor's office shouldn't be the sole decision maker in that process. "Never before have we seen such of an inflow of federal funds for into our state and right now the legislature does not have any say in to where it goes."

The G-O-P's proposal would instead give the legislature's joint finance committee control over those funds. Republicans stripped a number of powers from the Governor's office and handed them to the J-F-C just before Evers took control in 2019.

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