My staff and I have been busy for the past ten months, preparing research and legislation for the 2017-18 legislative session. And yesterday, the new session began with the inaugural floor periods for both the Senate and the Assembly.

The only resolutions voted on yesterday were to elect Senate officers and to approve the session calendar, but more is certainly to come. Already, co-sponsorship memos are coming into my office, and conversations have begun over the coming budget debate. Next week Tuesday, Governor Walker will deliver his State of the State speech to a joint session of the Legislature and Supreme Court.

Throughout the session, I will keep you informed on our progress through these E-Updates, my Facebook page, and my website. I welcome your input and prayers for my colleagues and me as we strive to serve you over the coming two years.

Last week, I was appointed to chair the Senate Committee on Public Benefits, Licensing, & Sate-Federal Relations for the coming session, and I am ready to get to work. With recent changes at the federal level, we have a unique opportunity to have more authority delegated back to the states, especially regarding the delivery of public benefit programs. The committee will be tasked with delivering solutions that help people regain their purpose and transition from public assistance into the workforce.

It is also my how that this committee can continue the discussion of how to re-balance the power form Washington, D.C. back to Wisconsin; where government is more accountable to the people and can deliver legitimate government services in a more responsive and efficient manner. I spoke about this with Matt Kittle last week on 1310 WIBA (interview at 37:15).

In addition, I was appointed to serve on the Senate committees on Government Operations, Technology, and Consumer Protection; Elections and Utilities; and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

17,801 Wisconsinites are employed thanks to welfare reform.

That's the number in a recently released Department of Health Services report on the effectiveness of the FoodShare Employment Training (FSET) program, and reported by the MacIver Institute. In 2015, a work requirement was implemented for FoodShare, requiring able-bodied childless adults to work or receive job training for 80 hours per month to remain eligible for benefits.

The statistics released by DHS also showed that FSET participants earned an average of $12.06 per hour and worked an average of 32.9 hours per week. This shows that requiring welfare recipients to work as a condition of receiving benefits provides an opportunity and a purpose for those seeking to move out of poverty to independence.