Senate Rule 93 says that when the Legislature is in special session, “A notice of a committee meeting is not required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board.”
That’s the rule Republican leaders are citing in their contention that one of the votes leading up to passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial anti-union bill was legal.
One ironic footnote: The rule was written in 1983 by two of the Democratic senators who left Wisconsin last month to avoid voting on the bill, Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, and Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison.
The two were among 14 senators who fled to Illinois to slow down the bill, which Walker and Republican leaders were fast-tracking through the Legislature.
Cullen said he didn’t recall authoring the rule 28 years ago. But, through happenstance, Cullen said he’s never criticized the lack of notice for the March 9 meeting of the joint conference committee.