Reps in the News: Walker Issues Order Declaring Propane Emergency

Governor Scott Walker

On Dec. 29 Gov. Walker signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency exists in Wisconsin in response to propane shortages and increased wait times to obtain propane. These challenges are due, in large part, to the below-normal temperatures experienced across the country and a shortage of drivers. Governor Walker’s order exempts drivers in the process of obtaining or transporting propane from certain federal and state requirements to mitigate the propane supply shortage. “As Wisconsin faces extreme temperatures, we want to do everything we can to ensure people who rely on propane for heat have access to it,” Walker said. “This executive order is a move to alleviate the propane shortage while ensuring the safety of drivers who are doing the important work of transporting it.” The order declares a state of emergency exists in Wisconsin beginning Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, at 12:01 am and expiring on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, at 11:59 pm.

Source:  Walker press release

Senator Tammy Baldwin

Bipartisan legislation cosponsored by Sen. Baldwin passed the Senate and she is calling on President Trump to quickly sign it into law. The INTERDICT Act, would provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tools such as chemical screening devices to help detect and interdict fentanyl and other illicit synthetic opioids. “The growing crisis of fentanyl and opioid abuse is hurting families and taking lives at alarming rates both in Wisconsin and across our country,” Baldwin said. “We must do more to combat this epidemic. This bipartisan legislation will help ensure that Customs and Border Protection officers have the tools they need to help stop fentanyl from entering our communities.” In 2016, Milwaukee County saw 97 deaths related to fentanyl – an increase of 223 percent from 2015.

Source:  Baldwin press release

Senator Ron Johnson

Sen. Johnson, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told CNN he may seek to change federal law after concerns were by raised by President Donald Trump’s lawyers that special counsel Robert Mueller had improperly gained access to thousands of transition emails. Johnson said he thinks there needs to be a change to the law to say that those transition emails, administered by the General Services Administration (GSA), are not the property of the federal government. “We’re going to have to potentially update the laws…to make it very clear that even though this is housed at GSA, this is not government property,” said the Wisconsin Republican, who planned to write a letter to GSA to get more clarity on what happened. “I think those are some legitimate issues they raised.” Johnson added that “we need to look at the transition law and maybe clarify those issues. … I think they are definitely private emails, so we need to clarify that.”

Source:  fox6now.com

President Donald Trump

President Trump accused the Justice Department of being part of the “deep state” and urged prosecution against a top aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey. “Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents,” Trump tweeted in an apparent reference to a report by the conservative Daily Caller. As he remains shadowed by the special counsel’s Russia investigation, Trump has seized on recent revelations of anti-Trump behavior by some FBI officials, including some who once worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, to claim bias against him. The president’s reference to “Deep State Justice Dept” suggests that federal law enforcement is part of an entrenched bureaucracy that Trump and his supporters say didn’t want him to be elected and is actively working to undermine his presidency.

Source:  CNBC