evidence: In the following months since the signing of the 2023-25 budget, Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature still have not made the funds available. Republican lawmakers instead insisted on pursuing stand-alone legislation outside of the biennial budget process to govern the distribution of the funds—something the DNR has repeatedly argued is unnecessary given the agency’s existing programs that can be utilized to get these resources to local communities and private well owners. Despite months of negotiation between Gov. Evers and the Republican bill authors to reach bipartisan consensus, Senate Bill (SB) 312 was advanced through the legislative process with controversial "poison pill" provisions designed to benefit polluters that could have functionally given polluters a free pass from cleaning up their own spills and contamination that Gov. Evers and the DNR had insisted was a non-starter from the beginning. SB 312 also would not have released the $125 million as approved through the biennial budget to fight PFAS contamination statewide. In December, after nearly six months of Republican inaction, the governor directed the DNR to submit a Wis. Stat. s. 13.10 request to release the $125 million in approved state funding to ensure impacted communities could work to address contamination and reduce their exposure to PFAS. Unfortunately, Republicans on the JFC still refused to schedule a meeting for the request.