MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – State legislators are once again pushing to create a task force focusing on missing and murdered African American women and girls in Wisconsin.

A bill to create this passed in the state Assembly back in February, but it failed to make it to the Senate floor despite bipartisan support.

Representative Shelia Stubbs is the author behind the bill. She and other lawmakers held a press conference at the State Capitol Thursday urging the Senate to reconvene and schedule a floor vote.

“How much longer must families of missing persons in our state wait for justice,” Rep. Stubbs said.

Among those waiting for their loved ones to come back home is Tanesha Howard. Howard’s daughter, Joniah Walker, has been missing from Milwaukee since June of 2022.

“I take it literally minute by minute,” Howard said. “It’s like a nightmare that never ends. She’s out there somewhere and somebody knows something. I have faith that she’s still alive, that she’s out there.”

As of 2020, Wisconsin had the highest homicide victimization rate for black women and girls in the United States at 20.2 out of every 100,000, according to The Guardian.

“I was shocked to discover that Wisconsin, a state that I love, the state that I’m raising my children in, the state where my husband and I are pastors in, the state where my mother brought me to be raised since the age of 5, had the worst numbers for black female homicide victimization in the nation,” Rep. Stubbs said.

The MMAAWG task force would aim to develop strategies to prevent violence, improve investigations and support families impacted by missing or murdered black women and girls in Wisconsin.

“I employ everyone to join me in this effort until something is done about this issue in the great state of Wisconsin,” Rep. Stubbs said.

The bill would require Attorney General Josh Kaul to establish the task force within 45 days of the proposal becoming law.

The task force is similar to the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s missing and murdered indigenous women task force created by Kaul in 2020. Kaul does have the ability to create the proposed MMAAWG task force without a Senate vote.

Rep. Stubbs said she spoke to Kaul about him taking this action, but Kaul told her funding for the task force would be a problem.

“I can say to you from many conversations, funding is an issue and at this point, I don’t care that funding is an issue,” Rep. Stubbs said. “I want something done now.”

State Senator Duey Stroebel, who is the GOP chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee, responded to Stubbs’ press conference Thursday. Sen. Stroebel said he would not give the bill a hearing.

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