— The co-chair of the Wisconsin Defense Industry Council is calling for a unified approach to growing the state’s defense sector, arguing “we’ve got to prove ourselves” to improve Wisconsin’s standing.
Maj. Gen. Ernie Litynski, who’s also president of RBP Chemical Technology, spoke yesterday during a WisPolitics-State Affairs-UW-Milwaukee event in Milwaukee focused on boosting the state’s defense-related jobs base.
While he noted the state will likely “never” land a prime defense contractor like Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman, he said the council is looking to grow the ecosystem while working to better understand the evolving federal contracting rules.
“We don’t have a military base here, right, Ohio hardly has anything but they’ve got Wright Patterson … Air Force Base,” he said. “And they’re doing R&D, they’re doing a lot of good stuff there, right, with aeronautics as well … Fort McCoy’s not going to do it.”
Derrick Van Zuidam, vice president and site lead for Virginia-based defense contractor Leonardo DRS, highlighted the U.S. Department of War’s new acquisition approach that’s intended to “accelerate” and expand the domestic supply base.
“We have a clear demand signal from the Navy and the shipyards, as far as products we’re concerned with, but they want to accelerate,” he said yesterday. “They want to take things that used to take three years, and they want to do it in one year or less.”
He’s hopeful the new approach will be successful, but noted questions remain about how this will work.
“That intent hasn’t been fully rolled out through the rules and regulations that businesses need to follow, so it’s still somewhat of a TBD what will actually happen,” Van Zuidam said.
Litynski noted the state is ranked No. 1 in the country for manufacturing on a per-capita basis, but added it’s only No. 30 for defense, calling it a “huge” gap that should be addressed. Still, he pointed to “pockets of excellence,” noting Wisconsin’s history of shipbuilding as well as other businesses that could play a larger role.
“There’s a lot of great tool and die shops in the state as well that aren’t doing a lick of stuff, alright, and they could do a lot of good stuff,” he said. “So we’ve got to … take a step back and figure out what the government requirements are, what we have, what the gaps are and go forward as a unified organization.”
Meanwhile, UW-Milwaukee Prof. Rob Cuzner yesterday discussed efforts to bridge the “valley of death” between academic research and commercial application. He said the university has gotten support from Leonardo DRS, Eaton Corporation and others for its R&D, emphasizing the benefit for students as well.
“My last two PhD graduates worked for Leonardo DRS, so to me, that’s a huge success,” he said.
Van Zuidam also noted the Trump administration is recommending a “significant increase” in the defense budget amid the conflict in Iran.
“So hopefully we wouldn’t see a downturn in the research side, the research funding that comes with it,” he said, adding “if the focus maintains, industry will invest to increase research and development.”
Some of Cuzner’s own applied research has focused on energy systems and fortifying electric grids within constrained environments such as a military vessel, as well as integrating energy storage into these systems.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for industry to contribute, okay, to developing this technology and deploying it,” he said, pointing to shifting priorities at the federal level. “I’ve lost all federal support for anything that has to do with land-based resilience.”
See more from the discussion in the video.
— Gov. Tony Evers is asking Wisconsin’s members of Congress to reject White House efforts to bar states from regulating artificial intelligence.
“Wisconsin has led the way in taking bipartisan, targeted action to keep our kids and families safe from some of AI’s most dangerous misuses,” Evers wrote in a letter sent Tuesday. “Limiting states’ ability to protect our communities and respond to rapidly evolving risks will leave Wisconsinites less safe, our kids less protected, and bad actors less accountable.”
The Trump administration has called on Congress to pass legislation that would override state-level restrictions on AI. A broad policy framework of the legislation was released Friday.
The White House also asks the legislative branch to refrain from creating new federal rulemaking bodies to regulate the industry; to streamline federal permitting for data centers; and to create new guardrails for the technology relating to intellectual property and government censorship.
Evers wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in December expressing concern about the administration’s “reckless” approach to AI regulation.
“Yet still, he signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Justice to seek out and challenge state AI laws on the books and threatened to withhold federal funding from states like Wisconsin for enacting basic AI protections,” Evers wrote yesterday.
His letter highlights laws the state passed regulating the industry since 2023, including prohibitions on AI-generated child pornography, disclosure requirements around the use of AI in campaign ads, and barring the use of “deepfake” images for coercion or harassment.
Evers noted these laws passed with bipartisan support.
“Broad federal preemption would put all of that progress in jeopardy,” he wrote.
— The National Federation of Independent Business estimates Wisconsin will gain 25,000 new jobs per year over the next decade if a 20% federal small business tax deduction remains in place.
NFIB Wisconsin yesterday issued a brief report detailing the state-level impact of the deduction remaining in place, after it was signed into law last year before it was set to expire at the end of 2025.
In addition to the projected job growth, the report projects an annual state GDP increase of $1.3 billion for the first decade, and $2.6 billion per year after 2035. After the first decade, NFIB expects the job growth figure to rise to 49,000 per year as well.
NFIB Wisconsin State Director Luke Bacher says Congress acting to make the deduction permanent has “provided the relief needed” to help the state’s nearly 500,000 small businesses invest in their operations and employees.
“This means more competitive wages and a more resilient local economy for years to come,” he said in a statement.
See the report.
— The FDA has accepted a drug submission from NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, the Beloit company announced, touting the “critical regulatory milestone” for its nuclear medicine product.
The business yesterday said the federal agency has accepted its Type II Drug Master File submission for its no-carrier-added Actinium-225, noting this “formally establishes” this product for use in developing radiopharmaceutical drugs.
The acceptance also helps “streamline” the regulatory pathway for various applications including cancer treatment, according to the announcement.
NorthStar President and CEO Dr. Frank Scholz says the FDA’s acceptance along with the company’s manufacturing capabilities “establishes NorthStar as a regulatory-ready and operationally proven supply partner for targeted alpha therapies.”
See the release.
— Concordia University Wisconsin announced plans to establish a satellite campus in Mequon with the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine through a newly announced partnership.
The two organizations have committed to creating “streamlined pathways” for students pursuing medical careers, along with setting up an ICOM instructional site on the Concordia campus in Mequon. The partnership also includes an articulation agreement to admit qualified Concordia students into the college’s Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program.
Yesterday’s announcement also references opportunities for dual faculty appointments and shared research between the partners, as well as more opportunities for ICOM students to do their clinical rotations in the Midwest.
Erik Ankerberg, the university’s president, calls the partnership a “natural next step” for Concordia that will benefit students and the local community.
“This partnership builds directly on Concordia’s strong tradition in the health sciences,” he said in a statement.
See the release.
— The nonprofit Glidden Area Ambulance Service is getting nearly $50,000 in USDA funding for a new ambulance, which will operate in Ashland and Douglas counties.
The new ambulance will replace one from 1998 that had become expensive to maintain, according to details from the agency.
The nonprofit serves the townships of Gordon, Jacobs, Peeksville, and Shanagolden, including more than 1,175 people across a 285-square-mile area. That includes remote parts of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
Funding comes from the USDA Rural Development’s Community Facilities Programs.
See the release.
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— State Rep. Francesa Hong called for a pause on new data centers in Wisconsin, while Dem gubernatorial rival and former DOA Secretary Joel Brennan said he believed one of just a few months was needed to implement important guardrails.
Meanwhile, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes told a Wisconsin Citizen Action virtual forum he wanted more stringent regulations before any new data centers are built in Wisconsin.
The other Dem gubernatorial contenders who participated in the event hosted over Zoom all favored new regulations on things ranging from the environmental impact to any effect the data centers may have on utility bills for other customers.
State Sen. Kelda Roys, of Madison, and Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley both backed new regulations. They also raised concerns that blocking development of data centers in Wisconsin would result in them moving to other states with little or no regulations rather than having them comply with Wisconsin-based standards.
Data centers have become a lightning rod in Wisconsin and other states. A Marquette University Law School Poll conducted last month found 69% of voters believe their costs outweigh the benefits. That was up from 55% in October.
Hong, D-Madison, said a pause is needed until steps are taken to delete corporate subsidies and there are plans for data centers to invest in alternative energy sources.
“We need time to be able to implement the regulations and to protect our natural resources, and that is going to take time and legislation in the Legislature to ensure that people get to a place where communities feel safer and feel like they have the resources to make this decision in their communities,” she said.
Brennan, on leave from his job as president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, said he believes regulations need to ensure no taxpayers cover the cost of construction, operation or transmission of data centers. He also wants assurances that they won’t be on the hook if a data center shuts down. Brennan believed that could be accomplished during the first few months he was in office.
“I don’t think this is something that we need to wait on forever,” he said.
Meanwhile, Barns, Hong and Roys all supported increasing Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $20 an hour. The others backed raising it from the current $7.25, though some didn’t commit to a specific number.
See more debate coverage from WisPolitics.
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