MADISON - Republican leaders suing to block Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' restrictions on daily life haven't yet said what rules — if any — they want to replace the governor's order.

Instead, the GOP leaders are asking the Evers administration to work with them to quickly craft a new plan on containing coronavirus — a cooperative dynamic the two sides have rarely been able to achieve before.

And the committee that could have veto authority over a new plan, known as an emergency rule submitted by the Department of Health Services, includes the most vocal critics of the agency's current approach — three GOP senators who have called on their colleagues to fire the agency's leader.

"Senator Nass is hopeful that at some point over the next week Governor Evers might end his strategy of confrontation and decide to cooperate with the legislative leadership in the development of a real plan to reopen the Wisconsin economy while protecting public health with reasonable guidelines," said Mike Mikalsen, spokesman for Joint Committee on Review ofAdministrative Rules co-chairman Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater.

The two other senators on the committee who've called for the ouster of Secretary Andrea Palm are David Craig, R-Big Bend, and Duey Stroebel, R-Town of Cedarburg. The 10-member committee includes six Republicans and four Democrats.

The Evers administration said it's moving forward with the plan Republicans don't like and hasn't signaled it would submit a new plan, if required, that varies greatly from what is currently in place.

"Our approach is we have a plan and we are going to keep implementing our plan," Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff said. "And we are going to keep following the science and listening to public health experts."

If the state Supreme Court sides with Republicans, the two sides are likely heading toward another difficult negotiation process that raises the question of whether any restrictions on movement and interaction will be in place while the risk of becoming infected persists.

RELATED:GOP lawmakers ask Supreme Court to block Tony Evers' order to stay home

LIVE UPDATES: The latest on coronavirus in Wisconsin

Meanwhile, public health experts and economists warn that reviving the workforce before the virus is contained in the state — even by lifting restrictions regionally — might necessitate another lockdown.

"It’s pretty clear that pushing the economy to go back to work before coronavirus is brought under control is going to be like being in a vehicle and pushing on the accelerator and the brake at the same time,” said Ian Coxhead, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a White House briefing Wednesday that social distancing has helped to slow the spread of the virus and that state and federal officials are at a point to think seriously about how to lift restrictions.

But he also said the economy must be revived in a measured way according to guidance released by the White House last week, which requires a downward trajectory in cases for 14 days — a benchmark Republicans in Wisconsin have questioned.

It's unclear exactly whether Republican lawmakers want the majority of Evers' restrictions lifted or just some of them. Neither Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald nor Assembly Speaker Robin Vos proposed specific measures or answered questions.

"There’s no shortage of ideas out there. This lawsuit is about giving the voice of the people a seat at the table to advocate for Main Street, because right now it doesn’t feel like anyone in the Evers Administration cares," Fitzgerald, who is running for a seat in Congress, said in a statement.

Fitzgerald and Vos sent Palm a letter Tuesday asking that she begin working with them immediately on a new plan. As of Thursday, the GOP offices had not received a response, aides said.

Vos in an interview Wednesday on WTMJ said he and Fitzgerald resisted calls to repeal the governor's 60-day public health emergency, which expires on May 12.

"The reason we're filing the lawsuit is not necessarily to stop the response to the pandemic because I know it's serious and I know we're going to have to have a gradual reopening and it's going to be slow and painful," Vos said. "But the difference is after the 60 days, if we win the lawsuit ... it just says like every other proposal in a democracy, the legislative branch negotiates with the executive branch and the best ideas are brought forward."

GOP suggests lifting restrictions by region

One idea that has been floated by some top Republican lawmakers is lifting restrictions by region. Evers has said he is open to that idea but noted areas with few cases also have fewer resources like intensive care hospital beds and ventilators.

Malia Jones, a social epidemiologist and assistant scientist in health geography at the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said lifting restrictions by region could push residents in areas with hundreds of cases into regions with few potentially spreading the virus.

"If we were to reopen some fraction of the state, then everybody would want to go to those places to do their recreation and all those nonessential activities that we’re all yearning for," Jones said.

"I think it would be very likely to introduce that one case into an area that right now is OK and since we still don’t have enough testing, that one case would very quickly spread and we would be looking at this really cruel exponential math in a place that has very limited capacity to deal with it," she said.

Eighteen GOP members in the Assembly on Friday sent Evers a letter asking that the governor follow a monthlong plan to resume activities beginning Saturday, saying they haven't seen any data to support restrictions being in place any longer. Vos did not sign the letter, so it's unclear if he supports the plan.

Schools and businesses have been most affected by the order before the Supreme Court, with nearly 400,000 new unemployment claims since the pandemic began and nearly 1 million public and private school students at home.

Wauwatosa School Board President Eric Jessup-Anger said any decision about whether schools in the Milwaukee suburb should reopen will be up to district and health experts, regardless of the court's decision. Wauwatosa had 69 cases as of Wednesday, according to the city's Health Department.

"I don’t think anyone is paying attention," he said about the lawsuit. "It seems extraneous to the conversation of health and well-being and when to open. I think if anything parents would feel uncomfortable at this point."

Meanwhile, a bar in Wauwatosa plans to open May 1 regardless of the court's decision.

Dan Zierath told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub would enforce social distancing and take other precautions, such as questioning customers at the door if they've been exposed to COVID-19 or if they have fevers.

"I feel like our constitutional rights are being taken from us. And I’m just not willing anymore. What’s going to happen is going to happen," he said.

Mikalsen said Nass is seeking a plan from DHS that "can’t exceed statutory authority, contain provisions that are arbitrary and capricious or impose undue hardships on the people of Wisconsin."

Meanwhile, thousands of people say they plan to converge on the Wisconsin State Capitol on Friday to protest Evers' restrictions.

Republican Party of Wisconsin treasurer Brian Westrate in a private Facebook group told rallygoers not to bring Confederate flags, assault-style weapons or other long guns.

“I well understand that the Confederacy was more about states rights than slavery," he said. "But that does not change the truth of how we should try to control the optics during the event.”

In an interview with the New York Times, Westrate acknowledged making the comment to the Facebook group.

The American Civil War was fought between Northern states and Southern states that formed the Confederate States of America on the basis of wanting to continue to own black people as slaves.

Contact Molly Beck and Madeline Heim at molly.beck@jrn.com and mheim@appleton.gannett.com. Follow on Twitter at @MollyBeck and @madeline_heim.