Madison – Representative Shae Sortwell (R-Gibson) released the following statement today regarding the Assembly’s ongoing investigation into the Governor’s failure at the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) and the agency’s sixteen day license blackout period:
“DSPS has been operating on a fully manual system to process licenses. Yet 70% of their current employees are working remotely. How is a Wisconsin nurse, social worker, or psychologist supposed to care for his or her patients when their license is delayed because bureaucrats cannot access the paperwork they send in?”
“The legislature also set aside $5 million in the recent budget for Evers to request to make DSPS software system upgrades. According to our Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Governor has yet to request a penny of those funds since becoming available in July 2021. He would rather wait more than six months until an election year to use federal dollars and block any new license application for healthcare workers for sixteen days before upgrading their old system.”
“To fix another mess that Governor Evers has caused, the Republican legislature has created a joint study committee on occupational licensing and appointed me to chair it with Senator Stafsholt. We hope to craft solid reforms heading into next session to solve this healthcare crisis.”
We have uploaded the third in a series of videos on this topic to our Facebook for your review. Representative Sortwell is available for comment.
