The 14 Democrats left for Illinois with no warning Feb. 17, leaving the Senate with one too few members to vote on the bill. Finally on March 9, Republicans removed some financial provisions from the bill so they could pass it with a lower quorum and no Democrats present. The Democrats returned to Wisconsin in March to participate in a large rally the day after Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill into law.
The law is now tied up in court and hasn't gone into effect. It would require most state employees to pay more for health care and pension benefits while taking away all of their collective-bargaining rights except over salary increases.
In a way, the Senate picked up Tuesday right where it left off. The first bill considered was a measure that includes many of the spending items Republicans removed from the antiunion bill before it passed last month. Those items are needed to plug a $137 million budget shortfall projected by July 1.
The bill passed on a 22-11 vote with three Democrats - Tim Cullen, Jim Holperin, and Bob Jauch - supporting it. It passed the Republican-controlled Assembly later Tuesday, 58-36, with one Democrat, Rep. Elizabeth Coggs, voting yes.
Many of the Democrats mingled with their Republican colleagues before the start of the Senate session, a far cry from the acrimony that lay heavy in the Statehouse during their absence. Republicans voted then to find the Democrats in contempt and authorized everything from their arrest to daily fines to force them to return.
No one was arrested, none of the threatened penalties were imposed, and the contempt orders were lifted Tuesday. Efforts have been started to recall eight Democratic and eight Republican state senators.
Republican Senate President Mike Ellis started Tuesday's session with a subtle joke.
"As you can see we have a full house - a full agenda, a full agenda," Ellis said.
Also Tuesday, a Walker spokesman said that the governor had reversed the promotion of a 27-year-old son of a lobbyist whose appointment to an $81,500 administration job had sparked cronyism allegations by Democrats.
Cullen Werwie said in a statement that Brian Deschane would return to his previous $65,000 job with the Department of Regulation and Licensing just two days after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported his hiring and promotion.
Deschane had been promoted to head a division within the Commerce Department that oversees environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees even though he has no college degree and little management experience.
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