Amanda Bell

I support strong oversight of data center development and the AI industry, which up to now has had a blank check to do whatever it wants. These facilities use huge amounts of water and power, often without honest answers about where that water comes from or goes. As a scientist who spent 24 years researching rivers and lakes, I have a unique perspective on how industrial discharge and water use can cause serious environmental harm. I’ve worked with community groups in Wisconsin and Minnesota reviewing water use and cooling system disclosures, and found discrepancies in water use figures and unauthorized groundwater withdrawals before facilities are even operational.

AI’s impact on our economy, jobs, and privacy raises concern. Elon Musk is suing Minnesota because his AI platform has been used to turn photos into sexually explicit images, including of children, which a new state law would ban. Musicians, writers, journalists, and artists are having their work stolen to create AI generated art, music, and films without credit. We haven’t had federal electronic privacy regulation since the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act, which made it illegal to share what movies people rented. We need to update federal privacy law for this millennium.

KEYWORDS: Environment, transparency, consent

Wisconsin’s 6th district has the highest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the country, and our workforce policy needs to build on that strength. We need to expand hands on training in agriculture, food science, biotech, and energy at technical colleges and high schools, which lead to good paying jobs. Our district also has several power plants and growing solar and wind projects, and we need trained workers ready to build, maintain, and staff that energy infrastructure as it expands. We need additional grants for schools to buy modern lab, manufacturing, and energy equipment, and partnerships between universities, local manufacturers, and energy companies. Rural Wisconsin has been losing young talent for decades because we haven’t invested in keeping opportunity local. We must invest federal funding into apprenticeships for manufacturing, ag tech, renewable energy, and biomanufacturing, especially in rural counties that get passed over for these investments. If we want a strong bioeconomy and a strong industrial base, we need to train the workforce here so we have the ability to grow here.

KEYWORDS: Education, training, manufacturing

I substitute teach in three school districts right now, so I see the effects of these cuts firsthand. We have crowded classrooms, out-dated materials, and fewer STEM opportunities the further you get from a city. We must restore full federal funding for public schools and oppose any effort to divert public dollars into private school vouchers. That includes fully funding IDEA, which Congress has never funded at the level it promised, leaving districts to cover special education costs out of budgets that are already underfunded. Rural districts need supportive funding for STEM equipment, broadband, and teacher recruitment, since many can’t compete with suburban districts on pay, and they need the same commitment for special education staff and services. I’d support loan forgiveness for teachers who commit to rural placements and partnerships between rural schools and nearby universities or ag research stations to bring real-life science experience into the classroom. Every kid deserves the same shot at a good education, whether they’re in Port Washington or Poy Sippi, and that includes kids with disabilities who are too often shortchanged when funding falls short.

KEYWORDS: funding, special education, STEM

I spent 24 years at the US Geological Survey, rising to Deputy Director of the Upper Midwest Water Science Center, so I have dedicated my career to science and research and know that information helps to inform policy. But when DOGE was created, I saw firsthand what happens when science and research gets politicized. Contracts with university partners working on toxic algal blooms were cancelled with no warning and no reasoning given. This administration also cut funding for flood mapping and streamflow monitoring, work that saves lives by helping first responders know which roads and bridges are underwater during a flood. If elected, I’d rely on career scientists and researchers, not political appointees, for the technical basis of any policy touching public health, water, agriculture, or the environment. I’d hold regular briefings with agency scientists at DOI, EPA, CDC, NIH, NOAA, and NSF, and I’d support strengthening whistleblower protections so scientists can speak up when political pressure distorts their findings. That’s the standard I’d bring to Congress: policy built on evidence, not ideology, and full transparency about where the evidence came from.

KEYWORDS: evidence, integrity, transparency

Wisconsin’s research institutions are an economic engine, and gutting NIH and NSF funding hurts jobs and undermines our global scientific credibility. Having spent my career in federal science, I know how much damage short-term thinking does to long-term research. Cutting funding doesn’t save money, it just moves the cost to lost jobs, delayed treatments, and lost American competitiveness in fields other countries are racing to lead.

I will support policies that include multi-year funding commitments for research projects so universities and hospitals can plan longer-term studies and ending the threat of government shutdowns whenever Congress fails to pass a budget. I will fight against any effort to use science funding as a political bargaining chip or to steer research toward predetermined conclusions. We must support unbiased research free from political interference in what gets funded or published. We should encourage federal science agencies to partner with international universities and other countries to advance research faster than any one country can alone.

KEYWORDS: credibility, collaboration, investment