Madison - In the unlikely event that the Senate is again evenly split between both political parties, Republicans will retain the ability to run a key committee, according to new rules senators adopted Tuesday on a party-line vote.
Majority Republicans also tightened rules so members of the public who display signs from the galleries or disrupt Senate sessions could be removed from the chamber for 24 hours or longer. People who violate the rules three times could be banned from the Senate for the remainder of the two-year session.
"Where is it written that you can only petition our government three times?" asked Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma). "I don't think you'll find it in the Constitution."
The new rules were adopted after a tumultuous session that saw frequent disruptions in response to the Republican agenda, most prominently against Gov. Scott Walker's sharp limits on collective bargaining for public workers. At one point last session, two protesters used bicycle U-locks to attach themselves to the railings in the Senate galleries.
The rule changes, approved on an 18-14 vote, were also a response to an unusual circumstance in which the Senate was equally divided for four months between Democrats and Republicans.
The Senate was split 16-16 from March to July after Sen. Pam Galloway (R-Wausau) resigned. During that time, there was confusion and debate about how the Senate would be run.
If this were to happen to the Senate again this session - a distant possibility - Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) would retain his seat as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Organization, under the rules the Senate adopted Tuesday. That panel decides which bills come to the Senate floor and helps determine how the chamber is run.
In such a situation, the committee would grow from five to six members, so both parties would be equally represented on it. But with the chairmanship, Republicans would get to decide if and when the committee met and maintain more control of what issues it took up.
Other changes in the rules would impose new restrictions on what demonstrators and other members of the public can do in the Senate galleries as well as in Senate offices and committee meetings. They are similar to stricter rules adopted by the Assembly last week.
Demonstrators would not be able to hold up any kind of object in such meetings or use any electronic device in the Senate galleries. Democrats said the rules were overly restrictive, arguing they would require visitors to the Senate to turn off their hearing aids.
For a first offense, members of the public could be removed for 24 hours from the Senate galleries. For a second offense, they could be removed until the next legislative floor period, which means they could miss days or weeks of Senate meetings. For a third offense, they could be removed for the remainder of the two-year session.
Initially, Republicans planned to put in place rules that would have given leaders more power to take legislation out of committee when the committee chair and leaders did not agree on what to do with a bill. Leaders decided to drop that change after the Republican caucus discussed the measure behind closed doors.
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