GOP lawmakers nixed a plan to fund a program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that recovers the remains of missing soldiers, but a new proposal would require the UW Board of Regents to pay for it, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project at UW-Madison searches archives and conducts field excavations in an effort to return the remains of missing service members to their families.
Gov. Tony Evers’ 2025-27 budget proposal recommended that lawmakers allocate $1 million in state aid to the project over the next two years, but legislative Republicans cut the recommendation.
The new bill that would make the UW system fund the program does not specify a dollar amount. It would also give $1.9 million to keep open the state’s veterans homes in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls, and expand a state tax credit providing a refundable property tax credit to eligible veterans and surviving spouses.
Since it launched in 2015, the project has been donations-based, although UW-Madison covers some administrative costs. It has also reportedly received some federal funding through the Department of Defense, which assigns the project recovery cases.
