Maintained by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), this page provides an overview of recent and upcoming activities in the Wisconsin Legislature. The LRB revises its content weekly. Links to more detailed information are highlighted in the text.
The final scheduled floorperiod of the 2009-10 legislative session ended on May 26. The legislature is in an interim period for the remainder of the biennial session. The schedule for the current legislative session was established by 2009 Senate Joint Resolution 1. Senate and Assembly committees will meet during the interim to consider administrative rules and conduct informational hearings. Inauguration of the new legislature elected on November 2 will take place on January 3, 2011.
News reports indicate that the outgoing leaders of the legislature, Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Wausau) and Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan (D-Janesville) are planning to have the legislature return in an extraordinary session in December to consider approval of state employee union labor contracts currently being negotiated by Governor Jim Doyle’s administration. The contracts cover the two-year period which began on July 1, 2009 and end on June 30, 2011. Governor-elect Scott Walker has requested that the contract negotiation and approval process be halted until after he and the next legislature are inaugurated in January.
The November 2 general election included election of all 99 members of the Wisconsin Assembly and Senators for all odd-numbered districts in the 33-member Wisconsin Senate. Official results will be certified by the Government Accountability Board on December 1 and will be posted on its Web site that day. Unofficial results indicate that the Republican Party gained the majority in both houses: 19 Republicans and 14 Democrats in the Senate, and 60 Republicans, 38 Democrats, and 1 independent in the Assembly. The final tally may be affected by recounts in the 68th and 93rd Assembly Districts and in the 31st Senate District. Each house will have one more female legislator in 2011-2012 than in 2009-10 — 8 in the Senate and 23 in the Assembly. For an historical look at the partisan composition of the Wisconsin Legislature, see page 272 of the 2009-2010 Wisconsin Blue Book.
See the Schedule of Committee Activities for information about locations and times of committee hearings held by standing or special committees.
In the 2009 legislative session, 406 bills have been signed into law. Six bills have been vetoed in their entirety, and 5 bills were vetoed in part.
There were 978 assembly bills and 708 senate bills introduced during the 2009 session. Additionally, one senate bill was introduced during the June 2009 Special Session, and 2 assembly bills were introduced during the December 2009 Special Session. All introduced legislation can be found on the Legislature's Searchable Infobases site, or by using the "Request text and history of legislative proposals" function on the home page.
For more information about Legislative Service Agency publications, see the left panel of the Spotlight index page.
With the 2010 9-day gun deer hunting season in Wisconsin starting on Saturday, November 20, the LRB Librarians have put together a list of resources about hunting from our library. Remember to check the Library Services page for links to more topical lists of library resources.
Send comments to LRB.Reference@legis.wisconsin.gov
Last revised: November 13, 2012