Assembly Session
The Wisconsin State Assembly is governed by rules that guide the Assembly operations. The following distribution procedure has been established to aid in the management of information on Session days. For more information on visiting the Assembly click here.
Assembly Floor Distribution Procedure
The procedure outlined below was adopted in 1999 in response to member concerns about the timeliness and manner of the distribution of documents related to floor debate. Members requested that the person approving a distribution be readily identifiable on the document itself. All distributions are scanned and linked to the appropriate bill being considered. To distribute documents (e.g., news articles, position papers, letters of support) to members, please abide by the following procedures.
- Contact the Majority Leader's office in order to have one hard copy of the distribution stamped. The Majority Leader's role is not to approve the distribution, but simply to manage the flow of material.
- The legislator legibly signs the stamped copy to approve its distribution. All distributions must be stamped and signed, with two exceptions:
- Legislative service agency memos i.e., Fiscal Bureau, Reference Bureau, Audit Bureau, Legislative Council and LTSB memos, do not have to be stamped and signed.
- A distribution on a legislator's letterhead does not have to be stamped and signed.
- Provide the stamped and signed document to the Sergeant's staff no later than 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the session day. For example, if 10:00 a.m. is the designated start time, the distribution must be turned in by 9:30 a.m., regardless of the actual start time. Distributions will only be allowed prior to session.
Documents will be scanned and linked to the appropriate bill. Members can access the documents from their laptops while on the floor.
All distributions must adhere to these procedures. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Sergeant at Arms (266-1503) or the Majority Leader (266-2401).