The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date:
__________________
The following Assembly bill was in the possession of the Assembly at the end of the veto review floorperiod, which was adjourned on April 30, 1998 pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1, and therefore adversely disposed of pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1:
Assembly Bill 969
__________________
Relating to hearing procedure and practice.
Submitted by Office of the Commissioner of Railroads.
Report received from Agency, May 14, 1998.
To committee on Highways and Transportation
.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
Relating to railroad ratemaking.
Submitted by Office of the Commissioner of Railroads.
Report received from Agency, May 14, 1998.
To committee on Highways and Transportation
.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
Relating to groundwater quality standards.
Submitted by Department of Natural Resources.
Report received from Agency, May 13, 1998.
To committee on Natural Resources
.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
Relating to electric construction by public utilities requiring public service commission review and approval.
Submitted by Public Service Commission.
Report received from Agency, May 14, 1998.
To committee on Utilities Oversight
.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
Relating to pharmacists and pharmacies.
Submitted by Department of Regulation and Licensing.
Report received from Agency, May 12, 1998.
To committee on Health.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
Relating to amendments to the learnfare program.
Submitted by Department of Workforce Development.
Report received from Agency, May 8, 1998.
To committee on Wisconsin Works Oversight
.
Referred on May 19, 1998
.
Relating to subsidized health insurance premiums for persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
Submitted by Department of Health and Family Services.
Report received from Agency, May 13, 1998.
To committee on Health.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
Relating to annual patients compensation fund and mediation fund fees for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1998, to limit fund fee refund requests to the current and immediate prior year only and to establish standards for the application of the aggregate underlying liability limits upon the termination of a claims-made policy.
Submitted by Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.
Report received from Agency, May 18, 1998.
To committee on Insurance, Securities and Corporate Policy.
Referred on May 26, 1998
.
Relating to filing campaign finance reports in electronic format.
Submitted by Elections Board
.
Report received from Agency, May 15, 1998.
To committee on Elections and Constitutional Law
.
Referred on May 20, 1998
.
__________________
ENROLLED BILLS
The following Assembly proposals, which have been approved by both the Assembly and Senate, have been enrolled by the Legislative Reference Bureau:
Assembly Bill 119
Assembly Bill 736
Assembly Bill 966
Assembly Bill 967
Assembly Bill 968
Assembly Bill 970
Assembly Bill 971
Charles R. Sanders
Assembly Chief Clerk
__________________
Remarks by
Speaker Pro Tempore Freese
May 15, 1998
Pursuant to the unanimous consent request made by Representative Green on Friday, May 15, 1998 (Page 906 of the Assembly Journal), the remarks made by Speaker Pro Tempore Freese to the members of the Assembly on Friday May 15, 1998 follow:
"It has been a long standing tradition for the Speaker Pro Tem to end the session with a poem or a top 10 list or something similar. I will tell you I'm not as talented as Rep. Clarenbach was when it comes to doing a poem or Rep. Carpenter as it is doing a top ten list. I thought this year being our sesquicentennial year, and Marlin continually lecturing this body about how history will be repeating itself, or what goes around comes around, or its going to bite you in the....I'm not going to go there. I thought it would be appropriate, since we began this year making history in Belmont, for us to end this session looking at a glimpse of history in this chamber and our state.
For many of you, you may not know if you weren't natives to Wisconsin, how we became called the Badger State so I did a little looking back into the history books on why we have been known as the Badger State. In the view of all these clearly unreliable stories of why Wisconsin is called the Badger State, it is worthwhile to report the explanation given to Governor Nelson Dewey by his mother. Now Nelson Dewey was our state's first state governor. She said, I quote, "The first settlers actually came to do mining," she said, "and remained and dug deep--and to discriminate between these people and those who came up from Illinois in the spring and ran back in the fall doing only shallow mining, they were called 'Suckers' and we were called `Badgers'.
In 1903 President Roosevelt visited this very state capitol to view Wisconsin's most famous Civil War veteran. "By George! I'm glad to see him, he said, I read about him in my school reader when I was a boy at school." "I always felt a lively interest in Old Abe". It was actually in 1915 that the Wisconsin Assembly received a replica of Old Abe and it has been mounted over the speaker's chair since then. Now as you probably don't know, Old Abe never was in this chamber at any point in time prior to the capitol being destroyed by fire and he came to rest here so that the people of Wisconsin visiting the peoples house would have an opportunity to see him.
As I was looking at each of our representatives who are leaving, and we have a significant number who are leaving this year, I tried to put together a piece of history and something about each of the representatives who have served here. I'm going to start with Rep. Barb Notestein who, as she leaves, will be, I think, remembered as an individual who stood up for women's rights. So I looked back into the history books trying to find another time period with a famous woman who stood up for women's rights dealing with the Assembly Chamber. In a story that appeared 1889 the Milwaukee Sentinel, a feature story by Lillie Deveraux Blake, who asserted that Old Abe had laid eggs and therefore was a female eagle. Blake, the Sentinel explained, "is a women's rights woman." Blake offered no evidence to back up her claim. Several stories later the most that can be asserted about the question of Old Abe's gender is that we lack sufficient data to prove the case. So nobody really knows whether he did, or she did, lay an egg.
Jerome Case, founder of the agricultural machinery firm - Case, was so impressed by the figure of Old Abe, adopted the war eagle's likeness for his company's trademark.
On June 6, 1944, when the Allies launched their invasion of France, it was somehow fitting that Old Abe should symbolically take part in the greatest airborne assault in history. The likeness of Old Abe on the uniforms of the 18,000 troopers of America's elite 181st Airborne Division called "the Screaming Eagles" whose left shoulder patch depicts an eagle's head on a black shield.
Earlier this year, Speaker Jensen had as his guest, his dog Regis. There were many members who suggested that Regis should be the Mascot of the Wisconsin State Assembly, but in looking back in to history I found that we already have a mascot by Joint Resolution 80, of 1945 - Trooper, a male German Shepherd seeing eye dog whose master was Assemblyman Clair Finch. He served his master 4 terms in the Assembly from 1943-1949. Now some on the other side of the aisle have suggested that Regis should be enrolled in seeing eye dog school for they feel his master, the Speaker, might be blind on a few issues from time to time.
Some of the greatest remarks that I heard on the floor this year were done by Rep. Tom Hebl where he introduced "Peter Goesinya", or Rep. Leon Young after the famous Reggie White's speech who, I'm told, was really upset because he couldn't sing or dance either. When Rep. Bill Murat was presiding over the chamber, he, after I warned him that the microphone picks up a lot, said "I can't talk and chew gum at the same time" when someone called him on the telephone. So those were some interesting experiences.
I think, dealing with intensity, probably the most intense speech was given by the gentleman from the 72nd when he kind of blew his cool. Now it reminded me of an activity that happened before I came to the chamber when my representative then, Bob Travis, kind of got in to the same exchange with the Minority leader Rep. Kunicki. Our representative Travis came back to Grant County and told us that he was now known as "Fighting Bob" because he had decked Wally on the floor of the legislature. Well when I got here I found out it was just the opposite, Wally had actually decked him and he ended up in between the seats. So I thought for a while that Rep. Underheim was going to be in serious trouble as Marlin (Rep. Schneider) came over, but that didn't happen.
A918
Representatives Baumgart and Otte both have carried on a tradition here in the beginning of each session in the month of June with the Sheboygan Brat Days. The softball and the brats really have been a trademark and Rep. Baumgart and Otte really were the champions of that. This year we have both Representative Otte retiring and Rep. Baumgart running for the State Senate, and Cal Potter leaving the state senate, there may be nobody left to do the Sheboygan Brat Days. I hope that tradition doesn't end but it's kind of interesting because Rep. Otte always told me, "You know the only way to serve brats is two on one hard bun with butter." Well both of our brats are now leaving, but I hope the tradition (Sheboygan Brat Days) actually does continue.
For Rep. Baumgart, whom I believe has made history by adjourning the most times in honor of the same person, Aldo Leopold. I looked up a quote by Aldo to kind of send the gentleman from the 26th off, possibly to the Senate. The date was May 11, 1947, for a monument dedication at Wyalusing State Park, which is in Grant County. Aldo Leopold read the plaque, which said, "Dedicated to the last Wisconsin passenger pigeon, shot at Babcock, September 1899. The species became extinct through the thoughtlessness of man." So, gentleman, as you move to the most thoughtful of the two houses, just remember Marlin's words, history can repeat itself, just like the passenger pigeon - making you extinct from this thoughtless house!
