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The news out of Washington is moving at a breakneck pace. On the heels of unprecedented events surrounding the 2024 presidential election, Wisconsin’s senior Sen. Tammy Baldwin joined the MMAC Board of Directors to talk about the issues impacting our region. Baldwin addressed this weekend’s change at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. |
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“I think we first should reflect on the lifetime of commitment to this country,” Baldwin said of President Joe Biden, ticking off legislation he had a hand in as a U.S. senator, vice president and then president. “I think what he did (Sunday) was extremely patriotic.”While much of the country’s attention is focused on the elections, recent news has impacted the future of economic development in Wisconsin. The state was recently designated as a regional tech hub, landing $49 million in grants through the U.S. Dept. of Commerce for investment in the biohealth and personalized medicine sector.
Baldwin said the designation has been in process for several years, starting with a study by the Brookings Institute which identified Wisconsin as a fertile area of the country for innovation.
“Wisconsin just shone in that report. They basically said we would be the No. 1 state for a tech hub,” said Baldwin, who then helped write the tech hub program into the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.
Over the first 10 years, the Tech Hub designation is projected to create more than 30,000 jobs in the personalized medicine sector and over 111,000 indirect jobs. Additionally, the tech hub is projected to create $9 billion worth of economic development in Wisconsin within the first decade.
MMAC President Dale Kooyenga, who moderated Monday’s Q&A, asked Baldwin about the gridlock in Washington pertaining to U.S. immigration policy – pointing to a need to secure the border, transition immigrants in good standing to citizen status and move to a system based on workforce needs. Baldwin said bipartisan immigration legislation has been written and passed twice during her tenure in the Senate, but ultimately failed to be addressed on the floor of the House.
“It’s very, very disappointing,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin added that Biden has signed several executive orders to address immigration but said “it’s no substitute for congressional action.”
Kooyenga ended Monday’s Q&A by expressing the business community’s concern about federal spending.
“You don’t have to know how to read balance statements to know that our country’s level of spending is unsustainable,” he said. “There has to be substantial conversations and actions taken to change the trajectory.”
