Steve Cwodzinski - Update on the Legislative Senate Steve Cwodzinski was the speaker at the Rotary meeting where he discussed a legislation update. Steve started by talking about how the legislature is different this year. There are no children visiting the capital and there are no lobbyists. He then transitioned to talking about how the close the capital is divided which is 33 to 31. He informed the club that democrats are in control of the House of Representatives. Then he talked about how he is on the civility caucus committee. This committee is to find common ground between the two parties. Steve then emphasized how politicians have a balancing act between conscious and constituents. Steve Cwodzinski transitioned to talking about a bill he tried to introduce. It is called the Veterans Restorative Justice Act. This bill is meant to help veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress from their service and commit a nonviolent felony they won't go into the criminal justice system, instead, they will go into a veterans court system and figure out mental health issues and the next steps. He informed the club that this bill would save taxpayers a million dollars a year. The bill was outvoted 34-33. But, when the same bill was introduced by a republican the vote was unanimous in favor of the bill. Since the bill was only passed due to a Republican introducing the bill, Steve emphasized how he is advocating to reduce biased. He discussed how he is "trying to reach to better angles" and not let biases impact the legislature's progress. |