Two state legislative committees passed the contentious state mining bill through to its next step in the legislative process in two separate committee meetings Wednesday, disappointing many state Democrats who have challenged the legislation since its introduction in early January.
The two committees met separately at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Capitol to discuss and vote on proposed environmental and procedural amendments. The procedural amendments were proposed to address Democrats’ concerns that the first version of the bill would limit the time state and federal agencies would be given to review a mining company’s permit application. The bill as a whole aims to simplify the permitting process for potential mining companies in the state.
The Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economy and Mining, chaired by state Rep. Mary Williams, R-Medford, passed the controversial bill on party lines as well as 11 of 13 proposed amendments designed to address Democrats’ environmental and permitting timeline concerns during the session, according to Williams’ office.
But Democratic assembly committee members, including state Rep. Fred Clark, D-Sauk City, said the Republicans’ amendments are still not enough to warrant passage of the bill. They say the bill, even with the new amendments, will allow mining companies to pollute state wetlands and waterways and deny key regulatory agencies from conducting a full permit review in the time allowed in the bill.
The other committee, the Senate Committee on Workforce Development, Forestry, Mining, and Revenue, chaired by state Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, similarly approved the bill 3-2 on party lines after discussing amendments similar to those proposed in the Assembly.
The Senate committee’s hearing got off to a heated start as state Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, a vocal opponent of the proposed bill, quickly launched into a speech criticizing Republicans’ inability to negotiate with other parties on the bill and the Republicans’ “unheard of” scheduling process. According to Jauch, Republicans limited the democratic process by scheduling both committee hearings at the same time, denying citizens the opportunity to listen to both committees.
“There has been a pattern of excluding access to the public and the press on this legislation,” Jauch said.
But Tiffany has maintained he and other Republicans took the time to hear other sides on the mining issue. Despite Republicans’ ability to pass the bill without Democrats’ support due to their clear majority in the legislature, they adopted amendments that addressed some of the concerns Democrats and environmental activists raised.
The bill will move on to the Joint Finance Committee and Walker and Republicans hope to have a legislature-wide vote sometime in March.
