WisEye Morning Minute: JFC Approves Amended UI Special Session Bill

Instead, the proposal would require DWD to seek and exhaust federal funds for the project. The agency would also have to issue a request for proposal for the project within 30 days after the bill took effect.

DWD Secretary-designee Amy Pechacek told the Finance Committee the 30-day window would be "extremely aggressive." She said some states have taken a year for similar proposals and the administration thought it could shorten the process to six months.

"Certainly, we'd do our best to do this as quickly as possible but still as prudent as possible, so that we don't make mistakes," she said.

JFC Co-chair Representative Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) questioned why the agency hadn't made more progress on the effort.

"If it's such a priority, why would we not want to be aggressive in our approach to the timeline?" Rep. Born asked.

Pechacek said the agency began talking to vendors and others in 2019 about what it would need to modernize the system. Since then, it has continued to speak with others and is now ready to hire a consultant to assist with the process of inviting vendors to bid on the work.

The special session bill is separate from provisions that Gov. Evers put into the budget on Tuesday to allocate $79.5 million to cover the long-term costs of the overhaul.

The committee then voted unanimously to approve the amended legislation, adding several provisions that were in a COVID-19 bill that Evers vetoed earlier this month.

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