Yahoo News 
Wisconsin Republican governor to act on bills curbing Democrats' power
Thomson Reuters
By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) - Outgoing Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker plans to act on Friday on a package of last-minute legislation aimed at weakening the powers of his newly elected Democratic successor.
Walker has expressed support for the bills. His office said he would take action on the lame-duck bills at noon local time, but stopped short of saying whether the governor plans to approve the legislation.
Democrats have blasted the move, and a similar package of measures in Michigan, as a naked last-minute power grab that undermines the results of the Nov. 6 election.
Republicans in both states have defended the legislation as a good-faith effort to ensure the legislative and executive branches remain equals.
In Wisconsin, Democrats won the governorship and other state offices in last month's election, cracking eight years of total Republican control of the state, though Republicans will continue to command majorities in the legislature's two chambers next year.
The legislation, which passed on Dec. 5 largely along party lines, would prevent Governor-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul from carrying out a campaign promise to withdraw the state from a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed Obamacare.
It would also limit Evers' ability to pass administrative rules and block him from killing a provision that would impose a work requirement on Medicaid recipients. In addition, the legislation would allow lawmakers to sidestep the attorney general's office in litigation involving the state.
Evers, who takes office on Jan. 7, has called on Walker to veto the bills, and both he and Democratic lawmakers have threatened to take legal action.
The Republican-controlled Michigan legislature is expected to pass measures that would curb the powers of the incoming Democratic governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Frances Kerry)
See Also:
