Conservative Florida Based Advocacy Group Pushing Laws in Wisconsin and Other States

Tuesday, July 18th, 2023 -- 12:01 PM

(By Jacob Resneck | Wisconsin Watch) Republican lawmakers held a day of back-to-back public hearings in mid-April for bills that would add restrictions to receiving unemployment insurance payouts, ban local guaranteed income programs and prevent state agencies from automatically renewing low-income health insurance. 

According to Jacob Resneck with Wisconsin Watch, a lead proponent testifying at the Capitol was a former Republican legislative aide representing a Florida-based advocacy group with no membership and tens of millions of anonymous donations.

One Republican lawmaker noted it was the third time that afternoon that Adam Gibbs had spoken in favor of the bills, all which were aimed at dismantling the state’s social safety net.

His pitch that April afternoon was succinct: Wisconsin employers struggle to fill jobs because the state’s unemployment insurance benefits, which are among the bottom third of benefits in the nation, are too generous.

The committee later voted 10-5 along party lines to advance the four bills that would add barriers to unemployed workers receiving cash payments from the state. The bills sailed through the Republican-controlled Legislature with only that single public hearing.

Once sent to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ desk, they’ll likely be blocked. Evers has vetoed similar bills in the past and a spokesperson told Wisconsin Watch that "similar if not identical legislation" would face the same fate.

But in Republican-controlled states, FGA and its lobbying arm, Opportunity Solutions Project, have racked up a series of wins. Recently, FGA got national attention for its successful drive to relax child labor restrictions in Iowa and Arkansas.

A similar effort supported by the group is pending in the Missouri legislature. Major Wisconsin Republican benefactors have fueled FGA’s successes. They include the Uihlein family, owners of the Pleasant Prairie-based Uline Industries, and the conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee.

In Wisconsin, where unemployment remained at a record low of 2.4 percent in May, the group has pushed bills that would broaden the definition of workplace misconduct to ease unemployment benefit denials as well as empower the Legislature’s budget committee to veto future federal jobless relief.

It also opposes Medicaid expansion and supports certain election changes such as purging the names of ineligible voters from election rolls and making it harder for clerks to correct minor mistakes on absentee ballot envelopes.

Opponents of the bills include the left-leaning Main Street Alliance which organizes small businesses for grassroots advocacy on economic and social issues. Interim policy director Shawn Phetteplace said dark money pro-business groups like FGA enjoy privileged access with the Republican leadership setting the agenda.

A Wisconsin Watch analysis of the 2021-22 session found that of the 17 bills passed with Opportunity Solutions Project/FGA support, Evers vetoed all but one. The lobbying group also opposed a Democratic-sponsored bill that would extend Medicaid for eligible women for a full year after childbirth; Republicans refused to schedule a hearing, and the GOP-led budget committee stripped it from the governor’s budget.

The group also supported 16 bills that ultimately did not pass both chambers. FGA and its lobbying arm in recent years have kept a relatively low profile despite collecting millions in funding, hiring at least 115 lobbyists and flying lawmakers, including some from Wisconsin, across the country for educational seminars.

In Wisconsin, Opportunity Solutions Project reported three registered lobbyists, two of them in state, and $106,863 in lobbying expenditures during the 2021-22 session. This year’s numbers aren’t in yet, but a Wisconsin Watch tally puts its lobbying expenditures at nearly $275,000 between 2017 and 2022.

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