Leadership keeps popular bill off the calendar.

MADISON, WI – After Senate Bill 568 creating a task force on missing and murdered African American women, which passed unanimously from the Senate Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families last week, failed to make the Senate floor calendar, Representative Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) released the following statement: 

“There are no words to express my disappointment that Senate Bill 568 was not scheduled for the floor, it seems like a deliberate attempt to kill my bill. It is unfortunate that the personal dislike of a few Senators can determine whether or not a bill that has broad bipartisan support in both houses of this legislature makes it to the floor for a vote. I am extremely  disappointed by the lengths that some legislators are willing to go to in this building—rather than protect and save the lives of missing people and provide closure for the families of victims, they would prefer to play games.

This is a minor  setback for SB 568, but  I can assure you that I will be back next session with this legislation. Wisconsin needs this task force, and looking at the data, it’s easy to see why. As of 2020, Wisconsin had the highest Black female homicide victimization rate at 20.2/100,000, a rate which had doubled from the previous year’s rate of 10.1/100,000. Victims’ family members, such as Ms. Georgia Hill, whose daughter Lasheky Hill disappeared from Racine March 26, 2023, still do not have the closure they deserve.

I will continue to work tirelessly until we as a state take seriously the dangers facing our African American mothers, sisters, and daughters and strengthen our response to violence and to all missing persons cases in our state. In closing,  I quote Angela Davis ,“sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.”