Here is a brief overview of how to look up the history of a legislative measure. It is the same for bills and resolutions. The more you play around with the Wisconsin legislative homepage the more information you will have at your fingertips.
Start by going to the Wisconsin legislative homepage -
Click on the “Law and Legislation tab.”
Click on “2023-2024” tab unless you would like to see a bill from a prior session.
Click on Assembly bills (for this demonstration I’ll use AB567 - the Monday Count bill). Then scroll down to AB567 and click it.
See bill number and the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) description of the bill. You may click on Amendment histories, Bill text, Leg Council memo (that describes the changes made to the bill by any amendments), Fiscal estimates, and the ROCP - Record of Committee Proceedings, and Leg Council materials (see the authors written testimony along with any written testimony by lobbyists, groups or individuals). The last link is the link to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission Information, in other words the bill’s “lobby sheet”. I always check it out, it is telling, especially on controversial bills, which groups are in favor and which groups are not.
The last part of the bill history is the actual history. I chose the Monday Count bill to demonstrate something that may get missed by the causal observer. How quickly it was moved through the process. Look at the dates! Bill’s get “introduced” or assigned to a committee by the speakers office. Generally when a bill gets sent to committee the committee chair and the main author discuss the bill, the chair will discuss with their staff whether they want the bill to move forward. NOTE: The first thing they teach you in committee clerk school is NEVER hold a hearing on a bill that you don’t want to see become law, EVER. The clerk then informs the author that they will hear the bill, the author then informs the bill’s advocates to prepare for a hearing. Click a few bills and see that 99.9% of the bills that pass take a month or so. UNLESS the speaker wants the bill moved quickly, and we all know why it needs to move quickly. It’s because it’s a bad bill. The Monday Count bill was passed on the floor within 14 days of introduction.
NOTE- There is one thing missing, and that is a vote tally from the floor. Usually there will be a blue vote total from the floor included in the line from 11/9/2023 Asm. Read a third time and passed (xx-xx) but there isn’t because it was a voice vote! The idea that such a controversial bill that was fast-tracked wasn’t given a roll call vote is also VERY telling. Click the number to the far right, in this case it is 449, that is the page of the official journal that the proceeding was recorded. As you can see, Brandtjen, Allen, Wichgers, Bodden, Behnke and others asked to be recorded as voting no.
This is valuable information for anyone but particularly for those running for state office. When you hear of a bad bill, you now can see exactly what the bill was, what the authors and lobbyists were saying, who was originally on the bill and how did they all vote.
NOTE: Besides an occasional “Madison -Monday Morning Report Extended Version that I do as a extra service to those who have donated to my “We’ve Had Enough” effort, all my substacks will remain free of charge. I do fully appreciate when someone subscribes for $50 bucks. The primary season is almost upon on us and we must send a better team to Madison or we are sunk!!
Thank you!!
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