SB 377 or AB 471 are the People First Bills which will remove the R-word (mental retardation and mentally retarded) from Wisconsin law.

Senate:
The Senate Committee on Public Health, Human Services, and Revenue will vote on the People First Bill (SB 377) tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 25. The vote will be held at 11:30 a.m. in room 400 SE in the State Capitol. The bill is expected to pass! If you want to make one last call to any of these senators, thanking them in advance for their YES vote on SB 377, here are links to their web pages and their phone numbers:

Senator Galloway (Chair) - (608) 266-2502 (She supports! Say ‘Thank you!’)
Senator Lazich (Vice-Chair) - (608) 266-5400 
Senator Vukmir - (608) 266-2512
Senator Carpenter - (608) 266-8535 
Senator Shilling - (608) 266-5490

Assembly:
The Assembly Committee on Health will hold a public hearing on the People First Bill (AB 471) on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 10:00 a.m. in room 417 N in the State Capitol.

Many People First members, other advocates, and disability organizations will testify and many people have already shared their stories. This committee will not vote on the bill Wednesday. If you have not shared your thoughts or filled out the survey on why it is important to remove the R-word from Wisconsin law, write your thoughts about the R-word and e-mail them directly to these committee members before tomorrow’s hearing:

Representative Stone (Chair) 
Representative Severson (Vice-Chair) 
Representative Kaufert (He supports! Say ‘Thank you!’)
Representative Van Roy 
Representative Strachota (She supports! Say ‘Thank you!’)
Representative Petersen 
Representative Litjens (She supports! Say ‘Thank you!’)
Representative Richards 
Representative Pasch (She supports! Say ‘Thank you!’)
Representative Seidel 
Representative Taylor 

Next Steps:

The Assembly Committee will take a vote on the People First Bill sometime in the next few days. The vote is not scheduled.

The full Legislature (all Senators and all Assembly representatives) will eventually vote on this bill. The vote date is not set.

When we know dates of the votes, we will pass along that information so you can contact your personal legislator one more time to either say ‘VOTE YES’ or ‘THANK YOU for supporting this bill!’