Robin Vos



Robin J. Vos is a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He represents the 63rd District and serves on the following committees: Committee on Finance (Chair), Committee on Audit, Joint Committee on Finance (Co-Chair), Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Joint Committee on Employment Relations, Joint Legislative Council.

Vos was reelected on November 6, 2012.

An ALEC Wisconsin Foot Soldier
Rep. Robin Vos is the co-chair of the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee, along with Sen. Alberta Darling. He is also an ALEC State Co-Chair along with Rep. Scott Suder and Koch lobbyist Amy Boyer. In the middle of critical budget discussions in May 2011, Vos stopped all discussion of the budget to take up a non-budgetary matter: a Voter ID bill. Proponents said the bill was needed to prevent voter fraud, a statistically non-existent problem in the state of Wisconsin. Opponents said the bill’s restrictions on qualifying IDs threatened to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of American citizens in Wisconsin, including college students and other Democratic constituencies. ALEC passed a “model” voter ID bill in 2009. Looming Senate recalls scheduled for August of 2011 and the threatened recall of the governor in 2012 may have been the impetus for this emergency action. But with two ALEC members at the helm, Vos and Darling, the bill was rushed through on a 12-2 party-line vote and signed by the governor a short time later. The bill has subsequently been struck down as a violation of the Wisconsin Constitution’s guarantee of the right to vote.

Rep. Vos and Sen. Joe Leibham also introduced SJR 21, the “Health Care Freedom Amendment,” in March 2011. The resolution would change the Wisconsin Constitution to prohibit the implementation of the 2010 federal health reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, by barring the mandatory purchase of health insurance and could also bar single-payer health care in the state. The resolution is modeled on an ALEC bill of the same name. According to ALEC, the Health Care Freedom Amendment has been introduced in 44 states.

Vos is the Wisconsin State Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as of 2011. He is also a legislative member of ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force. In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Rep. Vos co-authored 9 bills that reflect ALEC models, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy.

On his 2011 Statement of Economic Interest, filed for calendar year 2010, Vos listed ALEC as the payer, but only noted “reimbursement of expenses” with no amount listed.

Vos and Tax and Fiscal Policy

 * Assembly Bill 51, Charter School Authorizing Board created and charter school provisions revised re virtual charter school cap on pupils, health insurance and WRS participation for employees, teacher license, and contracts; CESA may establish an independent charter school; DPI duties; general school aid modified. Compare with ALEC's Charter Schools Act and Next Generation Charter Schools Act.
 * Assembly Bill 7, Small business: income and franchise tax credits created