Issues
Katrina Shankland will work with anyone — Democrat or Republican — to get things done that improve the lives of the people of Wisconsin. In the State Legislature, she passed 225 bipartisan laws to help farmers, workers, and families — and she’ll do the same for us in Congress. Below are some of her stances on the issues.
Abortion and Reproductive Freedom
In Congress, Katrina will fight to restore a woman's freedom to make her own health care decisions. She opposes a national abortion ban and any attempt to ban I.V.F. treatments.
As a Wisconsin state legislator, Katrina has been the lead author of legislation to require insurance companies to cover 12 months of birth control for the last decade. Additionally, she coauthored legislation to repeal Wisconsin’s 1849 criminal abortion ban, legislation to require insurance companies to cover fertility treatment, and several bills to lower maternal mortality rates and improve access to health care post-partum.
After 12 years of service, Katrina has a 100% record on the side of reproductive freedom and health care access in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Katrina is running for Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law and expand access to contraception. She will stop Republicans’ national abortion ban, and will fight to ensure access to comprehensive family planning services — including insurance coverage of IVF.
Public Education
Raised by public school teachers, Katrina believes it's high time we give teachers a raise. In Congress, she will work to ensure we are fairly funding our public schools and reducing our over-reliance on property taxes.
A tireless champion of public education at all levels, Katrina has served on the Colleges and Universities Committee in the Assembly and has worked to make our public technical college and universities more affordable. A leading voice on college affordability and access, she is a fierce advocate for all our two-year and four-year campuses. She is proud to be endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT-Wisconsin).
Clean Water
Katrina worked with Governor Tony Evers to launch a $10 million program to help people who could not drink water from their taps because of cancer-causing contaminants. Today, nearly 500 families can now drink water from their tap because of her work.
From PFAS to nitrate and bacteria, Katrina has led the charge to clean up our water, passing three bills to help farmers with water quality and prevent runoff leaching into our groundwater. In Congress, she will fight to bring our tax dollars home to clean up our water from PFAS, nitrate, and other contaminants and lower costs for families with contaminated wells. She will also cosponsor the Mississippi Restoration & Resilience Initiative to help protect one of our district’s greatest assets from water quality issues and invasive species.
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
Katrina thinks big pharmaceutical companies have too much power – and both parties are to blame. They're making record profits while Western and Central Wisconsin families struggle to pay for medications. That's why she passed a state law to greatly reduce the price of certain prescription drugs, and in Congress, she will stand up to Big Pharma to negotiate lower drug prices.
Katrina will work with anyone to get things done for Wisconsin. After a young boy died unexpectedly of a bee sting, Shankland co-authored and passed three new laws that allow any person or business with a short training to receive and carry free epi-pens to help with life-threatening allergies.
Protecting Our Democracy
Katrina Shankland will protect our democracy against attacks from right-wing extremists. She has the experience to strengthen voter rights and safeguard our democracy from election deniers like Derrick Van Orden. In Congress, she will work to pass a new law to crack down on insurrectionists who try to overturn elections and overthrow the will of the people.
Cracking Down on Price Gouging
Katrina understands that wealthy corporations are driving up the costs of everything we buy and raking in record level profits. In Congress, Katrina will fight for a middle-class tax cut and hold big corporations accountable for price gouging customers. In Congress, Katrina will also push for investments in our nation’s agricultural supply chains to reduce food prices.
Supporting Our Veterans and Military Families
Katrina believes the best way to honor veterans and military families for their service is to help them access the benefits they earned and deserve. She strongly supported the PACT Act and wrote Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation to urge its passage. She will work with anyone to ensure veterans are given the highest quality health care in Wisconsin.
In the Legislature, Katrina introduced a bill to expand support for the Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program and cosponsored bills to reduce barriers for veterans, from legislation to expand a property tax credit to veterans and their surviving spouses to several bills to reduce fees for veterans on college campuses. She also championed expanding access to first-year veterans seminars at college campuses, and for her work, the Wisconsin Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) awarded her the Legislator of the Year.
Jobs, Workforce Development & Economic Opportunities
Katrina understands that the key to thriving economies is investing in infrastructure – from broadband to roads, bridges, and culverts — and a healthy education system, from childcare and Pre-K to public schools, technical colleges, and universities. As a state lawmaker, Katrina has focused on investing in workforce training, apprenticeships, and growing the middle class. She was appointed to the Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment by Governor Evers to champion workers and invest in education at all levels. She’ll do the same in Congress.
Social Security and Medicare
Katrina believes retirement security is a basic dignity that everyone deserves. She will work nonstop to protect and expand the promise of Social Security and Medicare. She is deeply committed to strengthening these programs by making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. That’s why she’s endorsed by Social Security Works.
Healthcare
No one should ever have to worry about how and if they'll access the health care they need. Rural hospitals across the country are struggling to keep their doors open, and we can do more to help by increasing the Medicaid reimbursement rate and protecting patient access to 24/7 hospital care. In Congress, Katrina will fight to ensure our hospitals' and providers' doors stay open to our patients.
In the State Legislature, Katrina fought to increase access to affordable health care — especially in rural areas. In Congress, she will work to lower health care costs for families. Katrina has proudly cosponsored legislation to expand Badgercare for the last 12 years, which would have saved state taxpayers over $1 billion while covering 90,000 more people. Katrina also worked with fire and EMS departments to pass a new bipartisan Community Paramedic Law that reduces 911 calls and increases access to affordable preventative care. She is committed to transparency in health care pricing and cosponsored bills to crack down on surprise medical bills — and she’ll do the same in Congress. For her leadership on health care issues, she was honored by four different nonpartisan organizations committed to expanding access to affordable health care in Wisconsin.
Labor
A tireless advocate for working people in Wisconsin, Katrina will be a voice for workers and families in Congress. That's why she has earned endorsements from unions like the AFL-CIO, Fire Fighters, American Federation of Teachers, Bricklayers, AFSCME, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the Iron Workers. Katrina will champion the PRO-Act in Congress. She will fight to increase wages, benefits, and safety standards of workers while voting to protect multi-employer pensions.
In the State Legislature, Katrina introduced bills to repeal right to work and restore prevailing wage laws. She also cosponsored bills to require the state to Buy American and Buy Wisconsin, and she’ll do the same in Congress so workers get a fair shake.
Corporate Money
Katrina Shankland believes there is too much corporate money in politics today. That’s why she refuses to accept any Corporate PAC money for her campaign. Instead, her campaign is powered by people and working families. This is why Katrina is supported by End Citizens United.
Agriculture
A member of the Agriculture Committee, Katrina believes that supporting agriculture means investing in farmer-led initiatives, from producer-led watershed groups in Wisconsin to ensuring farmers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to passing policy. She supports enforcing anti-trust laws to crack down on corporate consolidation which unfairly drives up costs for farmers and consumers alike. That’s why the Wisconsin Farmers Union named her Friend of the Family Farmer and the Dairy Business Association awarded her the legislative excellence distinction twice while serving as a state lawmaker.
Environment and Climate Change
When it comes to ensuring current and future generations have access to clean water and air, bountiful public lands, and a healthy climate and wildlife, Katrina has spent her entire career in the renewable energy nonprofit sector and in the State Legislature championing these issues.
In Congress, she will marshal more resources to Wisconsin to clean up and protect our state’s groundwater and surface water and continue her work to ensure everyone has clean drinking water from their taps.
Katrina serves as the only legislator on Governor Evers’ Green Ribbon Commission, a board set up to guide the state’s first-ever Environmental Innovation Fund in Wisconsin. The governor appointed Katrina because of her work introducing a bill to create a similar fund to jumpstart clean energy in Wisconsin. In Congress, Katrina wants to build on the progress of the Inflation Reduction Act and ensure more working families and seniors can leverage these incentives while lowering the cost of energy bills.
Katrina knows that climate is an urgent issue. In the Legislature, she passed a bipartisan flood resiliency pilot program and introduced bills to help farmers with carbon sequestration and support research on climate and agriculture in Wisconsin. In Congress, she will work to expand programs in the farm bill to help farmers with carbon sequestration and reduce runoff while strengthening Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for our water resources.
Katrina is committed to healthy wildlife and protecting our sporting heritage. As a hunter who serves as the Co-Chair of the Wisconsin Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, she introduced legislation to protect our deer herd from Chronic Wasting Disease and worked with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation to advance it. In Congress, she will work to expand opportunities for sportsmen and women and expand access to public lands.
For her extensive work on protecting our natural resources in Wisconsin as a member of the Environment Committee, Katrina has been awarded the Conservation Champion by Wisconsin Conservation Voters, the Friend of Conservation by Wisconsin Land + Water, and Legislator of the Year by the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, an organization representing hundreds of sportsmen and conservation groups in Wisconsin.
LGBTQ+ Equality
Katrina believes that everyone deserves the same freedoms, protections, and opportunities. That’s what she will fight for in Congress. Katrina also supports comprehensive non-discrimination protections in employment, housing, healthcare, and education and will cosponsor the Equality Act in Congress. As a state lawmaker, she sponsored the Equality Agenda to ban conversion therapy, prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender identity or gender expression, eliminate the gay and transgender “panic” defense, create a transgender equality task force, and update Wisconsin’s statutes and constitution to recognize marriage equality. Katrina believes in the freedom to love, live, and be your authentic self without discrimination and knows that our nation's strength lies in its diversity.
Public Safety
Katrina takes her relationship with first responders seriously and is very active on public safety issues, riding along with fire fighters and EMS, law enforcement, and judges to get a better understanding of the challenges they face. In the Legislature, Katrina brought millions of dollars to her district through vital public safety services and increased state aid to communities across Wisconsin. She also worked with her community and colleagues in both parties to protect rural communities from violent sex offenders and changed the law so they have to live in their home county.
In Congress, Katrina will champion FEMA grants for emergency preparedness so more local departments can hire the first responders they need to meet national staffing ratios and protect our communities’ health while lowering response times.
A strong advocate for our first responders, Katrina authored a new law to protect first responders from reckless drivers and also authored the state’s community paramedic law. For these reasons, the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State Fire Chiefs Association recognized her as Legislator of the Year.
Innovation and Emerging Technology
As someone with personal experience with cryptocurrency, I support regulating and creating a level playing field for crypto and digital assets, ensuring consumer protection as well as safeguards for privacy. I believe Congress needs to come together to prioritize commonsense solutions because of the national security and economic implications for our country.
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