A University of Wisconsin student government committee met Monday to discuss sexual assault legislation that would prevent victims and witnesses from being cited for underage drinking.

Associated Students of Madison’s Legislative Affairs Committee members expressed some doubts Monday regarding the legislation, which would extend UW’s sexual assault provision across the state.

The ASM legislative affairs committee “advocates for students at the city, county and state level,” according to their website.

If passed by the state Legislature, under 21 sexual assault victims and witnesses of the crime would be able to report the assault to law enforcement without fear of receiving an underage drinking citation.

Proposed bill would give sexual assault victims amnesty from drinking citations throughout Wisconsin

Committee members expressed positivity regarding the bill’s potential to raise awareness of sexual assault across the state.

The bill could help send a statewide message about the universal severity of sexual assault, ASM Chair Madison Laning said.

“This bill sends a message that it doesn’t matter if you’re intoxicated or not — it’s still sexual assault,” Laning said.

The bill could also serve as a stepping-stone to “medical amnesty” bills, which would protect underage individuals seeking help in medical emergencies from being cited for underage drinking, Carmen Gosey, chair of the legislative affairs committee, said.

Committee member Jason Klein said the bill could help bring other effective medical amnesty bills up for discussion in the state government.

“It could be a pathway to get other medical amnesty bills passed,” Klein said. “Other bills that will actually do something.”

But committee members expressed concern that the bill could potentially result in victims of sexual assault being obligated to disclose details of their assaults they may not be comfortable sharing.

Other concerns related to how discretion from individual police officers would factor into the equation, the difficulty of definitively proving certain kinds of sexual assault — like groping and unwanted kissing — and the extent to which the bill would actually impact sexual assault reporting.

Sexual assault amnesty bill is necessary, but more must be done

Danielle Wetter said current issues with reporting sexual assaults stem primarily from stigma and victim-blaming, not fear of citation.

“I don’t think it’ll have as large an effect as other bills because the primary issue here is the stigma associated with reporting,” Wetter said.