(The Center Square) – A pair of Wisconsin Democrats are filing legislation to limit how much legislative leaders can spend on private attorneys without approval.
The bill would require a vote of the full Assembly and Senate before leadership can enter into contracts with private attorneys.
Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D–Green Bay, and Sen. Chris Larson, D–Milwaukee, cited a report from the Milwaukee Journal-Sential that said the Legislature has spent more than $26 million on private attorneys since 2017.
“This is about restoring trust and transparency,” Rep. Rivera-Wagner said in a statement. “Right now, Majority Leaders in the Assembly and Senate—can spend unlimited public dollars on private law firms without input from the rest of us or the people we represent. That’s not how democracy should work.”
The lawmakers say that the bulk of that spending happened after Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul, both Democrats, were elected after legislative leaders passed laws to give themselves the authority to retain outside legal counsel.
“This is a perfect example of actual waste, fraud, and abuse that I’d like to root out of our government,” Larson wrote on social media.
Rivera-Wagner said that $5 million has been spent in the last year alone on what he categorized as politically motivated cases including an ethics investigation into former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman and redistricting legislation.
“These are resources that could have gone toward helping keep shelters for homeless veterans open or funding classrooms and mental health services across Wisconsin,” Rivera-Wagner said.
