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One of the many things
people have asked me about as I have been traveling the district is how the
legislative process works. I will use Act 251, which recently became law to
illustrate how this happens.
The idea for Act 251 came out of my experiences as a Police Officer. Under
the law at the time, there were specific penalties for deliberately
battering a Police Officer, but there were no consequences for causing
injury to Police Officers while resisting arrest if the suspect could claim
he/she did not cause the injury intentionally. Unfortunately, this happens
far too often in Wisconsin.
I was sworn into office as a new Representative on January 5, 2009. I began
working on Act 251 the next day. I contacted the Legislative Reference
Bureau, told them what I had in mind and they began drafting the wording of
the bill. After reviewing a number of drafts, I was then ready to begin the
process of looking for co-sponsors and a Senate author. This is an important
step. A bill has a better chance of passage if it has a good number of
Representatives and Senators on board as co-sponsors. In the State Senate,
Sen. Jim Sullivan agreed to be the lead author and on May 19, 2009 the bill
was introduced with 25 co-sponsors, as Assembly Bill 269.
The next step was for the bill to have a public hearing in the Criminal
Justice Committee of the Assembly. On August 20, 2009 the public hearing was
held. This was the opportunity for me to testify in front of the committee
about the importance of the bill, and why it should become law. It is also
where the general public gets to have their say, both for and against.
Police officers from all over the state came and testified in support of the
bill. There was also some opposition. After the hearing, I met personally
with all the committee members to ask if they had any more questions and if
they could support the bill. Nine of the 10 members of the committee said
that they would vote to move the bill out of committee and did so on October
9, 2009.
The next step was to make sure that I had the votes to pass the bill on the
floor of the Assembly. I knew that I could count on the co-authors to
support passage, as well as those who had voted for it in committee. But 50
votes are needed to pass anything in through the Assembly, so I then went to
individual members and met with them or their staff to see if I could be
assured of their vote when the bill came up for a vote. Once I was assured
that I had the necessary votes and a solid cushion, I requested that the
bill be scheduled for a floor vote, and one was set for November 3, 2009. On
the day of the vote, several concerns were raised about the bill, and I
offered an amendment to clarify some wording to address those concerns. AB
269 then subsequently passed on a voice vote in the Assembly.
The process then has to repeat itself in the State Senate. The Senate has to
pass an identical version in order for the bill to advance. That is where
having a good Senate author is critical and I was fortunate enough to work
with Sen. Sullivan who also cares passionately about protecting members of
the law enforcement community. A public hearing was held by the Senate
committee on Judiciary and Corrections. The bill was amended slightly again
by the committee and passed 5-0 on February 22, 2010.
Working with Sen. Sullivan, we spoke with individual Senators and asked for
their support. The necessary vote margin in the Senate is to obtain at least
17 votes for passage. Once we had the votes counted, the Senate agreed to
take up the bill as amended, and it was concurred in by the Senate on April
15, 2010. It was also necessary for the Assembly to adopt the Senate
amendment on that date to make the bills uniform.
AB 269 was presented to the governor on May 4, 2010 and on May 7, 2010
Governor Doyle signed it into law as Act 251.
As you can see, it took about a year and a half of work to successfully see
this bill become law. 978 Assembly bills were introduced last session, only
160 of which were enacted into law. It is not easy to successfully pass
legislation that becomes law. I was proud that I worked with Democrats and
Republicans to move the bill forward. It is necessary to work diligently,
build support and ultimately be willing to strike reasonable compromises in
order to see a good idea become law.
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