If Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, has a regret with his fellow Republicans in Congress and the White House, it is that no leaders had seemed interested in taking action on his pet concern: welfare reform.
Until Monday, that is.
As recently as two weeks ago, Grothman twice discussed with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Tennessee, his desire to see improving America’s poverty programs moved up on the agenda.
Since serving in the state Legislature before being elected to Congress in 2014, Grothman has long opposed programs that discourage the upward mobility of impoverished recipients they were designed to help.
Grothman told the Commonwealth he talked to McConnell two times about making welfare reform a higher priority during the late-January Republican retreat in West Virginia to plan the party’s 2018 legislative plans
Grothman noted that McConnell appeared more receptive toward the idea the second time he brought it up.
But he added that the Trump administration recently had shown it was “not on board” the idea of revamping the nation’s programs to curtail poverty by incentivizing work, encouraging two-parent families and discouraging distribution of benefits that may be used to buy illegal drugs.
Read the full story in the Feb. 15, 2018 edition of the Ripon Commonwealth Press.
Just hours after Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, voted to approve a budget deal last week that effectively ended a five-and-a-half hours long government shutdown, he was in Ripon explaining his $400 billion decision.
Ripon’s representative was among 240 congressmen to vote for the bill, which President Trump signed several hours later. Voting “no” were 186 of his colleagues.
Grothman, visiting Ripon to talk to the Wisconsin Towns Association district meeting at Royal Ridges last week Friday, stopped by the Commonwealth office afterward en route to an appointment in Oshkosh.
He explained that he voted for the legislation — passed at 5:30 a.m. — knowing that by doing so, it would end a government shutdown that started at midnight.
The bill appropriates $300 billion more funds over two years for military and nonmilitary programs, as well as $90 billion in disaster relief in response to last year’s hurricanes and wildfires.
It also suspended through March 1, 2019, the statutory debt ceiling — an amount the federal government is allowed to spend, which had been set at $20.456 trillion.
Read the full story in the Feb. 15, 2018 edition of the Ripon Commonwealth Press.