Kitchens Announces Committee Appointments

Representative Joel Kitchens

Rep. Kitchens received his Assembly committee appointments for the 2017-2018 legislative session. Kitchens will serve as chair of the Assembly Committee on Children & Families and will continue serving as the vice-chair of the Assembly Committee on Education. Kitchens will continue to serve as a member of the Assembly Committees on Agriculture, Environment and Forestry, Tourism and Financial Institutions. 
“I am incredibly happy with my appointments,” said Kitchens. “The committees I will be serving on this session have a huge impact on important issues in the 1st Assembly District. We live in the most beautiful area of the state, and we are blessed with an abundance of natural recourses. Our economy depends on the preservation of these resources. Our challenge is to maintain our robust agricultural economy while doing more to protect our ground and surface water. I am particularly excited to assume my role as the chair of Children and Families and to continue my work as the vice-chair on Education. As the father of three and a former school board president, I have spent much of my time focusing on the wellbeing of our young people. Since our children are the future of Wisconsin, I am looking forward to doing everything in my power to ensure that they have the tools and resources they need to succeed.” The Assembly Committee on Children and Families covers legislation that affects social service programs such as W-2, child abuse prevention efforts, and effort to prevent identity fraud and abuse in current welfare programs.

Source: Kitchens press release

Governor Scott Walker

In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio, Gov. Walker weighed in on the President-elect’s criticism of the media. In response to some Trump supporters booing media on the campaign trail, Walker said he wouldn’t encourage people to “verbally or otherwise thrust angst toward any media outlets.” “To have a free society, people need to be not only involved in their government, but they need to have ways to understand what their government is doing,” Walker said. “You need to have people who are giving you some objective information about what your elected officials are doing.” Walker said he believes there is some “unintentional bias” in the media, but more so on a national level than with state and local reporters. He said he thinks the people of Wisconsin can trust what reporters in Wisconsin write about him, and that he has “very rarely” experienced them reporting something with the intent to misinform.

Source: Wisconsin Public Radio

Representative Reid Ribble

In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, outgoing Rep. Ribble warned his fellow Republicans of overreach. “Of course, that is exactly what they’re going to do. And then they are going to pay the penalty in the midterms. It’s how this place works,” Ribble said. “We finally get control – we’re going to do all our great things that we wanted to do, that we know we couldn’t do by convincing the American people.”

Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Senator Tammy Baldwin

Sen. Baldwin announced that in January she will continue to serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), and that she will join the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. “I am proud to continue serving on Senate Appropriations and HELP Committees and I look forward to joining the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Working on behalf of the people of Wisconsin on these committees will provide me with a great opportunity to continue focusing on issues important to our state,” Baldwin said. “My top priority is working to build a strong Made in Wisconsin economy that works for everyone. So I will continue to focus on investing in job training and workforce readiness; making higher education more affordable; strengthening our manufacturing economy; and growing small business start-ups by supporting innovation, science and research. I will also continue my fight to provide affordable health care for all Americans and work to protect Medicare and Social Security for today’s seniors and future generations. Joining the Commerce Committee will also allow me an opportunity to work on two issues that can help create stronger economic growth in Wisconsin. We need to make better investments in rural broadband and I look forward to working on behalf of Wisconsin’s agriculture, timber and manufacturing industries to make sure they have strong transportation infrastructure to ship their goods to market.”

Source: Baldwin press release

Senator Ron Johnson

Sen. Johnson had this to say after the United States failed to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements, breaking a long tradition of standing with Israel before the international body: “It is shameful that the Obama administration would allow this anti-Israel resolution to pass. We should be helping our friends and allies, not weakening them. Inauguration Day cannot come soon enough so that we can begin to repair the damage done during the last eight years.”

Source: Johnson press release

President Barack Obama

President Obama says he is “confident” he could have beaten Donald Trump if he was on the ballot this year, prompting the president-elect to respond with a defensive denial amid a flurry of tweets sent out late Monday night. “President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me,” Trump wrote. “He should say that but I say NO WAY! – jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.” Trump was responding to Obama’s interview with former aide David Axelrod, in an episode of Axelrod’s podcast The Axe Files released Monday. In a sit-down at the White House before departing last week for his annual Christmas getaway to Hawaii, Obama told Axelrod that he did not believe Trump’s election was a repudiation of the vision of a more inclusive America Obama had tried to convey in his campaigns and as president. “In the wake of the election and Trump winning, a lot of people have suggested that somehow, it really was a fantasy,” Obama said. “What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full of energy and dynamism.”

Source: U.S. News and World Reports