Walker applauds move
Gov. Scott Walker this evening applauded the Senate's actions.
His statement:
"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused. In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."
-- By JR Ross
Senate approves amended budget repair billHis statement:
"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused. In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."
-- By JR Ross
The state Senate quickly approved the amended budget repair bill this evening 18-1 moments after it was passed out of conference committee.
The Senate offered no debate on the bill as Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, was the only member to vote against it.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca raised concerns about whether the conference committee was properly noticed, said he'd like to offer amendments and asked for details on the revised bill.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, told Barca the bill was the same one the Assembly voted for almost 60 hours with some changes, but he did not detail what they were other than reading a statement at the beginning of the meeting that the revised bill would not trigger the constitutional requirement of 20 members being present for a vote on a fiscal bill.
-- By JR Ross and Andy Szal
The Senate offered no debate on the bill as Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, was the only member to vote against it.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca raised concerns about whether the conference committee was properly noticed, said he'd like to offer amendments and asked for details on the revised bill.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, told Barca the bill was the same one the Assembly voted for almost 60 hours with some changes, but he did not detail what they were other than reading a statement at the beginning of the meeting that the revised bill would not trigger the constitutional requirement of 20 members being present for a vote on a fiscal bill.
-- By JR Ross and Andy Szal
-
Wed Mar 9, 2011 6:39 PM EST
UPDATE @7:32 EASTERN: NBC News reports that the Wisconsin Senate has passed a bill stripping unionized state workers of collective bargaining rights without any Democrats present.It went 18-1, with the Assembly looking likely to vote tomorrow morning. Democrats say the rushed proceedings violate the state's open meetings law and that they'll be asking the State Attorney General to intervene.
Previously: Potentially big news in Wisconsin just now. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that Republican Senators have moved Governor Walker's budget-repair bill to a joint committee. That committee can then rework the bill and send it back to the House and Senate for a vote. From the Journal-Sentinel:
What changes would be made remains unclear, but Democrats said they had not been consulted on them. They raised concerns that Republicans would take out all the spending in the bill and leave only the changes to collective bargaining.To pass spending measures, 20 senators must be present, but Republicans hold just 19 seats. But Republicans would not need any Democrats to be present to pass the collective bargaining changes as a standalone bill.
That squares with what we're hearing, too -- that Republicans are splitting Governor Walker's bill into two parts. They can vote by themselves, without a budget quorum, on anything that's not fiscally related. Since the union-busting is not about the budget (as we've been saying throughout the standoff), they could vote on that without the Democrats present.
A Republican source in Madison tells NBC's Mike Taibbi that Senate Republicans could vote on the provisions to strip collective bargaining rights as soon as tonight. Mr. Taibbi reports that the source is furious because a compromise with Democrats had nearly been in place. Another report, on WisPolitics, makes it sound like today's development happened in a hurry.
We'll have much more on the show at 9 PM Eastern.
No comments:
Post a Comment