Hamilton Political Tidbits – March 26, 2021

On Friday, March 19, Governor Tony Evers was presented with Senate Bill 3, a bill authorizing the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) to license and regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). The governor can now choose to sign the bill into law or veto it. A bill to reform how Wisconsin regulates physician assistants (Assembly Bill 125) is also ready for review by Gov. Evers.

Earlier this month, Governor Tony Evers approved two scope statements from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that propose new regulations related to groundwater and drinking water. These statements are the first step in the rulemaking process that state agencies must use to create new regulations.

On Tuesday, March 23, the Legislature advanced a series of bills related to COVID-19, including many policies that were originally part of Assembly Bill 1 (AB 1). In February, Gov. Evers vetoed AB 1, an omnibus COVID-19 response package, after he and the Legislature failed to reach a compromise.

As of Tuesday, March 23, Wisconsin had been allocated nearly 2.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the federal government. Earlier this month, the state began administering the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the third COVID-19 vaccine approved in the United States. In total, as of March 24, about 2.44 million vaccine doses had been administered in the state, and more than 890,000 Wisconsin residents or 15.3 percent of the state’s population were fully vaccinated.

Governor Tony Evers recently signed into law two bills intended to improve vaccine distribution in Wisconsin. The governor signed Assembly Bill 4 into law as 2021 Act 3 on February 19. The bill allows pharmacy technicians, who provide services under the direction of pharmacists, to administer vaccines under the supervision and with proper training. On March 22, the governor signed Senate Bill 13 into law as 2021 Act 8, allowing dentists to administer COVID-19 and flu vaccines after completing eight hours of training.

On Thursday, March 18, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) announced that it had secured a $2.4 million federal grant to begin updating the computer system used to administer the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. DWD will spend half of its grant ($1.2 million) to contract with 18F, an office of the federal General Services Administration that helps government entities acquire technology and build digital services.

Last month, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) announced a new phase of worker training grants under the Wisconsin Fast Forward (WFF) program. The grants are intended to fund training programs that will allow workers to obtain full-time or higher-level employment, increased wages, and/or industry recognized credentials. Grant applications are due by 3 PM on Thursday, April 8.