Wisconsin state capital in Madison. PC: Fox 11 Online
MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Wisconsin Assembly’s Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee, or GOAT for short, is beginning its work in Madison.
“We’re learning. We don’t always know what the next rock, what’s under the next rock and what we’re going to find,” said committee member State Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard.
The nine-member committee includes three Democratic lawmakers. Three of the six Republicans on the committee — Reps. Shae Sortwell, David Steffen and Nate Gustafson — are from Northeast Wisconsin.
GOAT held its first meeting this week, which focused on telework, space management and cybersecurity, especially among state funded agencies.
“What the people of Wisconsin are asking us to do is to justify these continued experiences with evidence that there’s increased productivity,” said GOAT Committee Chair State Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, during Tuesday’s meeting.
Among the people GOAT members heard from included the State Department of Public Instruction and the Universities of Wisconsin system, about allowing at least some staff to continue remote work following the pandemic.
“We are constantly looking at performance of employees and evaluating whether or not that telework benefit can be provided to them, or whether they need to call back into a headquartered location,” said Dept. of Public Instruction Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy.
“The vast majority of our employees have returned to in-person work at our universities. But to remain competitive in a labor market where teleworking has become the new norm, at least for some, we have had to enact remote work policies,” said Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman.
GOAT was formed by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to investigate potential fraud, waste or abuse within the state government. He provided a statement on GOAT, which reads:
There is waste at every level of government and I am excited for the GOAT Committee to get to work to ensure every taxpayer dollar is used as efficiently as possible.
Steffen further described that waste and abuse.
“Until we identify some of these issues, it’s going to be an unknown. It’s important that we are looking under the hood a little bit more as to how the administration, all the various departments, are spending the taxpayers’ money,” Steffen said Wednesday.
The committee cannot unilaterally fire state workers or cut state government spending. Any recommendations made by GOAT would have to be approved by both branches in the state legislature.
While visiting UW-Milwaukee Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was asked for his thoughts on the GOAT Committee’s work. Here’s part of his response:
I’ll say it out loud. It’s a joke committee that’s essentially looking for things so that they can say, ‘Oh my god, look at what’s happening here or here.’ They already have a Legislative Audit Committee. They’re wasting money is what’s happening.
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