December 20, 2024

By Lane Kimble

State Rep. Nancy VanderMeer will once again lead the Assembly Committee on Transportation.

Speaker Robin Vos announced his committee selections Wednesday for the upcoming legislative session.

Alongside Chairwoman VanderMeer, State Rep. John Spiros (R-Marshfield) will replace Rep. Karen Hurd as the Transportation Committee vice chair.  Vos moved Hurd to the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee as its newest member.

VanderMeer has been in the Assembly since 2014 and has long supported WTBA’s transportation efforts.  She co-sponsored the Association’s Utility Bill, which received unanimous support in 2023.  She also co-authored last session’s electric vehicle charging legislation, which will capture 3 cents per kWh sold for the Transportation Fund.

WTBA and Mathy Construction led VanderMeer on a tour of a western-Wisconsin quarry and asphalt plant last year.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu announced his Republican committee selections Thursday. State Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee) will once again chair the Senate Transportation Committee. Senator Rob Hutton will now serve as vice chair. Sen. Van Wanggaard rounds out the GOP members.

While many committee appointments are similar to the 2023-25 session, Vos did create a new committee aimed at finding and fixing government inefficiencies.  The so-called “Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency” (GOAT) mimics President-Elect Donald Trump’s newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).

“One of the things that Republicans have been really good at over the past 30 years is we are reformers, and we are returning to our roots,” Vos told WisPolitics.  “We know that we need to shrink the size of government. We need to make it more efficient, we need to embrace technology and AI.”

Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) will lead GOAT.