RULES AND RULINGS: ORGANIZING THE LEGISLATURE


   The records-keeping procedures were further refined in Assembly Joint
Resolution 1 of the May 1976 Special Session, offered by Majority Leader
Terry A. Willkom (Dem., Chippewa Falls), and were codified into the joint
rules by 1973 AJR-23:
    BIENNIAL RECORD CONTINUITY; SPECIAL SESSIONS. For each session biennium
the chief
    clerks of the 2 houses and the legislative reference bureau shall, and
the executive and
    secretary of state's office are requested to, treat the legislative documents
of the regular
    session and of any special sessions convened by the governor during that
biennium in the
    following manner:
       (1) Drafting requests. The legislative reference bureau shall number
all drafting re-
    quests received by it in a continuing sequence throughout each legislative
biennium.
       (2) Billjackets. When jacketing drafted proposals for consideration
in a special ses-
    sion, the legislative reference bureau shall identify each page of the
draft, as well as the
    bill jacket itself, by the month in which a specific special session
begins.
       (3) Bills and resolutions. For each special session, the chief clerks
shall number the
    bills, joint resolutions or resolutions in a new sequence, beginning
with the number "1"
    for each type of document.
       (4) Journals. The daily journals for each special session shall be
identified as journals
    of the legislature meeting in special session, but shall be filed in
consecutive order, by
    date, together with the journals recording the action in regular session
throughout the
    legislative biennium. When the legislature, at different times within
a single calendar
    day, conducts the business of the regular session as well as business
under the governor's
    special session call, the actions may be recorded in a single journal
for that day but
    actions under the special session call shall be clearly identified as
actions of the legisla-
    ture meeting in special session.
       (5) Bulletin ofproceedings. The history of legislative action on all
measures offered in
    special sessions shall be published in a single chapter for each special
session, at the end
    of the senate and assembly volumes of the bulletin of proceedings. In
the subject and
    author indexes of the index volume, special session legislation shall
be indexed, together
    with regular session legislation, into a single subject- and author-heading
sequence.
       (6) Session laws. The executive office and the office of the secretary
of state are re-
    quested to number all session laws enacted throughout a single biennial
session period,
    and whether enacted in regular or in special session, into a single consecutive
chapter
    number sequence.
    On January 3, 1980, the Senate Committee on Organization and the As-
sembly Committee on Organization both met in the Capitol. Each commit-
tee voted to convene the Legislature at 10:00 a.m. on 1/22/80 for a one-week
extraordinary session "for the purpose of acting on bills relating to
crime and
energy". Not to be outdone, Governor Dreyfus issued a proclamation on
January 15 to convene the Legislature in special session at 9:30 a.m. on
1/22/
80 to consider 2 bills relating to crime, and one constitutional amendment
and one bill relating to bail. Once again (Assembly Journal 1/22/80, page
1848), a
presiding officer had to defend the Legislature's institutional prerogatives
against executive encroachment:
       Representative Wahner [majority leader] rose to the point of order
that the hour of
    10:00 A.M. had arrived and, therefore, the assembly was in extraordinary
session.
       Representative Shabaz [minority leader] stated that the assembly was
in special ses-
    sion pursuant to Article IV, Section 11, of the Wisconsin Constitution.
       The speaker [Jackamonis] ruled well taken the point of order raised
by Representa-
    tive Wahner that the assembly was in extraordinary session. He ruled
that a regular
    session or an extraordinary session called by the legislature takes precedence
over a
    special session called by the governor and cited two precedents as the
basis for his ruling:


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