(a) No bill or amendment thereto creating or modifying any system for, or making any provision for, the retirement of or payment of pensions to public
officers or employes, shall be acted upon by the legislature until it has been referred to the joint survey committee on retirement systems and such committee has submitted a written report on the proposed bill. Such report shall pertain to the probable costs involved, the effect on the actuarial soundness of the retirement system and the desirability of such proposal as a matter of public policy.
(b) No bill or amendment thereto creating or modifying any system for the retirement of public employes shall be considered by either house until the written report required by par. (a) has been submitted to the chief clerk. Each such bill shall then be referred to a standing committee of the house in which introduced. The report of the joint survey committee shall be printed as an appendix to the bill and attached thereto as are amendments.
Assembly Bill 656, an act relating to implementing merger of the Wisconsin retirement fund, the state teachers retirement system and the Milwaukee teachers retirement fund and granting rule-making authority, was referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems on April 14, 1977.
537 At the request of the Committee a substitute amendment to the proposal was drafted and introduced by the Assembly Co-Chairperson on August 21, 1977. The report required by s. 13.50 (6) (a) was written on the bill and this substitute amendment, was approved by a majority vote of all the Committee's members, and was subsequently transmitted to the Assembly on September 13, 1977.
Thereafter, the bill was referred, as required by law, to a standing committee in this House and then to the Joint Committee on Finance.
When the bill reached the floor of the Assembly on February 28, 1978, questions arose concerning the ability of the Assembly to act upon certain pending amendments which had been introduced after the Joint Survey Committee reported on the bill. The Chair advised those who asked that, in the Chair's opinion, the Assembly could not consider any such amendment to the bill if it would have a direct impact on a state retirement system because of the requirement in s. 13.50 (6) (a) of the statutes. The Chair further advised that since amendments "follow" the proposals to which they relate, and since there is no procedure for separately referring amendments to a committee, if the members wished to consider any amendments that had not been offered before the bill left the Retirement Committee, the bill would have to be rereferred to that Committee. That action was subsequently taken.
The Committee then met on March 3, 1978 to consider the amendments then pending to the bill. At that meeting, it was decided not to submit a report on the amendments under s. 13.50 (6) (a) but rather to merely report on the members' support for, and opposition to, the amendments in a manner similar to that utilized by standing committees in this House. This "report" was subsequently transmitted along with the bill to the Assembly and the Chair then rereferred the bill to the calendar.
Findings
While the language of s. 13.50 (6) (a) and (b) is not as clear as it perhaps ought to be, the Chair is convinced that the basic requirements of this statute can be clearly discerned by a careful reading of its language.
Clearly, the statute requires: (1) that any bill or amendment "creating or modifying any system for, or making any provision for, the retirement of or payments of pensions to public officers or employes" must be submitted to the Joint Survey Committee before it can be acted upon by either
House of the Legislature; (2) that no such bill can be acted upon by either house until the "committee has submitted a written report on the proposed bill"; and (3) that such written report on any such bill must "pertain to the probable costs involved, the effect on the actuarial soundness of the retirement system and the desirability of such proposal as a matter of public policy." The fact that the statute is silent on the question of written reports on amendments is significant and can only lead to one conclusion: while both retirement bills and retirement amendments must be referred to the Joint Survey Committee before they can be acted upon by either House of the Legislature, the written report described in the law is only required on bills.
This same conclusion was reached in a Senate ruling on October 10, 1973 (1973 Senate Journal, page 1691) and a Senate ruling on November 9, 1977 (1977 Senate Journal, pages 1401-1403).
538 That such a report on AB 656 has not been properly written, approved and submitted to the Assembly has not been maintained by the Representative of the 44th District. Consequently, the Chair does not find persuasive the argument that the bill is not properly before the Assembly because the Committee did not submit a report as described in s.
13.50 (6) (a) on the bill's amendments. As far as amendments are concerned, in the opinion of the Chair, such reports are clearly optional.
As to the argument that the bill requires a second report as described in s. 13.50 (6) (a) because it was rereferred to committee, the Chair can only say it knows of no provision of law or the rules which imposes, or can be inferred to impose, any such requirement.
All of the legal requirements having been met, the Chair finds the point of order not well taken.
Abstract
Amendments affecting state retirement systems must be referred to the Joint Survey Committee prior to action by either House of the Legislature; because there is no procedure in the Assembly for referring such amendments to the Committee independently of the proposal to which they relate, in the case of amendments offered after a bill has left that Committee, rereferral is the only means of meeting this requirement; the Committee may, but need not, report on such amendments in the same manner as it must report on bills; in the case of rereferrals to the Committee, the Committee need not transmit a second report on the bill or any of its amendments.
Assembly Journal of March 9, 1978 .......... Page: 3544
Point of order:
Representative DeLong rose to the point of order that Assembly Bill 656 was not properly before the assembly because action taken by the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems on Friday, March 3rd was not approved by a majority of the committee as required by Wisconsin Statutes 13.50 (5).
The speaker [Jackamonis] ruled the point of order not well taken because, although committee action requires a vote of the majority of the members, the action taken by the committee on Friday, March 3rd was not required and a written report by the committee was not necessary on the amendments. The
speaker further ruled that it is proper for the chairman of the committee to submit committee reports to the chief clerk at his discretion and is not required to send a bill out of committee even though the committee has voted to make a recommendation to the full assembly. (The complete text of the speaker's ruling will be printed at a later date).
Assembly Journal of June 7, 1978 .......... Page: 4385
Clarification of March 9 Ruling on the Second Point of Order Concerning AB 656
On March 9, 1978 following the point of order and ruling by the Chair discussed on pages 4049-52 of this Journal, the Representative of the 44th Assembly District raised the further point of order that Assembly Bill 656 was not properly before the House because s. 13.50 (5) of the Wisconsin Statutes requires that all actions of the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems be approved by a majority vote of all its members - i.e., at least six - and the Committee's recommendations on certain of the amendments to Assembly Bill 656 were carried by a lesser number (5 to 3). The Chair ruled the point of order not well taken.
Background
Section 13.50 (5) of the Wisconsin Statutes reads as follows:
Committee Action. All actions of the committee shall require the approval of a majority of all the members.
539 Assembly Bill 656, an act relating to implementing merger of the Wisconsin Retirement Fund, the State Teachers Retirement System and the Milwaukee Teachers Retirement
Fund and granting rule-making authority, was referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems on April 14, 1977.
At the request of the Committee, a substitute amendment to the proposal was drafted and introduced by the Assembly Co-Chairperson on August 31, 1977. The report required by s. 13.50 (6) (a) was written on the bill and this substitute amendment was approved by a majority vote of all the Committee's members, and was subsequently transmitted to the Assembly on September 13, 1977.
Thereafter, the bill was referred, as required by law, to a standing committee in this House and then to the Joint Committee on Finance.
When the bill reached the floor of the Assembly on February 28, 1978, questions arose concerning the ability of the Assembly to act upon certain pending amendments which had been introduced after the Joint Survey Committee reported on the bill. The Chair advised those who asked that, in the Chair's opinion, the Assembly could not consider any such amendment to the bill if it would have a direct impact on a state retirement system because of the requirement in s. 13.50 (6) (a) of the statutes. The Chair further advised that since amendments "follow" the proposals to which they relate, and since there is no procedure for separately referring amendments to a committee, if the members wished to consider any amendments that had not been offered before the bill left the Retirement Committee, the bill would have to be rereferred to that Committee. That action was subsequently taken.
The Committee then met on March 3, 1978 to consider the amendments then pending to the bill. At that meeting, it was decided not to submit a report on the amendments under s. 13.50 (6) (a) but rather to merely report on the members' support for, and opposition to, certain of the amendments in a manner
similar to that utilized by standing committees in this House. This "report" was subsequently transmitted along with the bill (which by previous committee action had a written Retirement Systems Committee report appended to it) to the Assembly, and the Chair then rereferred the bill to the calendar.
Findings
The Chair has previously found that under s. 13.50 (6) (a) and (b):
Amendments affecting state retirement systems must be referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems prior to action by either House of the Legislature; because there is no procedure in the Assembly for referring such amendments to the Committee independently of the proposal to which they relate, in the case of amendments offered after a bill has left that Committee, rereferral is the only means of meeting this requirement; the Committee may, but need not report on such amendments in the same manner as it must report on bills - i.e., with a written report as discussed in the law; in the case of rereferrals to the Committee, the Committee need not transmit a second report on the bill or any of its amendments.
Since reporting on amendments in the manner prescribed by law is optional, it follows that any inability of the Committee to agree on a written report on any amendment by the majority vote prescribed in s. 13.50 (5), or any decision by the Committee not to issue such a report, cannot subsequently preclude Assembly action on any such amendment, or the bill itself, because legal requirements have not been met by the Committee. Optional actions are optional, not requirements.
540 Section 13.50 (5), furthermore, applies only to actions taken by the Committee. Under the Assembly's rules, and by long standing tradition, the action of transmitting a bill from an Assembly standing committee to the Assembly is a discretionary action taken by the
Chairperson of that committee. Under standard Assembly procedure then, no committee ever votes to transmit a bill to this House. Rather, the committee's action on any bill referred to it is limited to voting to recommend that the Assembly take a special course of action on the bill and thereafter the Chairperson, at his or her discretion, transmits the bill together with a report on the committee's action to the Chief Clerk for action by the Assembly. The point is that once a committee has properly voted to recommend some action on a bill - be it passage, indefinite postponement or not to make a recommendation - the Chairperson may, but need not, transmit that bill to the Assembly. Given the fact that s. 13.50 does not prescribe another transmittal procedure for the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems, the Chair can only conclude that the legislative intent of those who drafted this law was that the committee would be governed by Assembly and Senate transmittal practices. Accordingly, the Chair finds that the transmittal of an Assembly bill from the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems is an action taken by the Assembly Co-Chairperson of that committee rather than an action taken by the committee. Consequently, s. 13.50 (5) does not apply to such transmittals.
There is only one remaining question concerning this matter and that is: given s. 13.50 was the committee's report on its recommendations concerning the amendment properly stated. Since s. 13.50 (5) clearly states that all actions of the committee must be by the approval of a majority of all the members, and since the votes by which the committee recommended adoption of certain amendments did not carry by such a majority, the Chair is of the opinion that the report should have indicated that the committee could not agree on a
recommendation regarding these amendments rather than that it had voted to recommend adoption of the amendments. This error was corrected on the floor by an announcement from the Chair and was, in the opinion of the Chair, not of sufficient magnitude to delay action on the bill.
Abstract
All actions taken by the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems must be approved by a majority vote of all the Committee's members (6); this requirement does not prevent a bill or amendment from being considered on the Assembly floor if the action the committee could not agree on by a sufficient vote was optional to begin with; recommendations or written reports on amendments are such optional actions. The transmittal of a bill to the Assembly is a properly discretionary action of the Chairperson and not the Committee; consequently, no majority vote of all the members is needed to accomplish this action.
1 9 7 7 S E N A T E
Senate Journal of November 7, 1977 .......... Page: 1378
[Background:]
REPORT OF JOINT SURVEY COMMITTEE ON RETIREMENT SYSTEMS
Appendix to Senate Bill 1, Special Session
Recommendation
The report by this committee on Senate Bill 1, Special Session is concerned only with those areas which relate to the programs administered by the Department of Employee Trust Funds (DETF).
541 This report notes that some of the proposed amendments to the statutes governing the DETF are inappropriate or unneeded, and that one additional amendment is needed to
newly include court of appeals judges under the department programs. Specifically, this committee recommends that amendments in this bill to ss. 41.02 (21) (b), 41.05 (6) (n), 41.07 (1) (a) 5., 41.09 (9), and 41.11 (6) (c) 3.b be deleted. In addition, this committee recommends that s. 41.11 (6) (d) 3.b be amended to include court of appeals judges thereunder. With these amendments to the bill, the committee would find that the references to the statutes governing the DETF are proper and needed.
CARL W. THOMPSON EDWARD McCLAIN
Senate Cochair Assembly Cochair
Senate Journal of November 7, 1977 .......... Page: 1379
[Point of order:]
Senator Sensenbrenner raised the point of order that pursuant to s. 13.50 (6) (a) and (b) and senate rule 54, the committee was required to act on senate substitute amendments 1 and 2 to Senate Bill 1, Special Session. The chair took the point of order under advisement.
By request of Senator Bablitch, with unanimous consent, the rules were suspended to allow the ruling of the chair to be submitted at a later date.
Senate Journal of November 9, 1977 .......... Page: 1401
On Monday, November 7, 1977, Senator Sensenbrenner raised the point of order that s. 13.50 (6) and senate rule 54 require the joint survey committee on retirement systems to submit reports on senate substitute amendments 1 and 2 to Senate Bill 1, Special Session and that until such reports are received further action on the substitutes is improper. The chair took the point of order under advisement.
Section 13.50 (6) (a) directs that:
No bill or amendment thereto creating or modifying any system for, or making any provision for, the retirement of or payment of pensions to public officers or employes, shall be acted upon by the legislature until it has been referred to the joint survey committee on retirement systems and such committee has submitted a written report on the proposed bill.
Senate Rule 54, Amendments to be reported, directs that:
Whenever any bill to which am amendment is pending shall be referred to a committee such amendment shall be reported back to the senate.
The question is whether the statutory language requires each bill and amendment to be referred to the retirement committee and then requires a single written report on the proposed bill; or, whether the statute requires each bill and amendment to be referred to the retirement committee and then requires a written report on the bill and each amendment.
A ruling of the chair which has application in this case was made on October 10, 1973 (1973 Senate Journal page 1691) in response to a point of order by Senator McKenna that a retirement bill was improperly before the senate because: 1) a majority of the committee members had not approved the entire report as required in 13.50 (5), and 2) the committee had submitted its report recommending adoption of senate substitute amendment 1 while the bill itself was reported without recommendation in violation of 13.50 (6).
The chair [Lt.Gov. Schreiber] ruled in part that, "While the statute is clear that the joint survey committee on retirement systems must make a report on a bill before being acted upon by the legislature, the statutes are silent on the need for a report by the committee on an amendment. However, it is clear that the amendment must be submitted to the committee."
542 The chair went on to conclude that: (1) a committee report must be received on the original bill with approval of a majority of all the members of the committee, and (2) that amendments must be referred to the committee but that there is no requirement for a report by the committee on amendments."
A glance at language elsewhere in the rules and statutes bear out these conclusions. Joint rule 42 (b), for example, mentions a single report for each retirement bill.
"Bills affecting a public retirement fund shall be referred to the joint survey committee on retirement systems under section 13.50 of the statutes .... For any such bill the fiscal estimate shall be prepared by the respective joint survey committee at the time the
committee prepares its analysis of the bill, and shall be submitted to the legislature as a part of the committee's bill analysis which is then printed as an appendix to the bill."
It is a well-known joint rule, 41 (2), that fiscal estimates are required on original bills only and not on substitute amendments or amendments.
Tax exemption bills, which are handled by a statutory committee similar in structure and operation to the joint retirement committee, are required to have only a single report before being considered by the legislature.
These references lead to but one conclusion .... that bills and amendments must be referred to the retirement committee, but that a written report is required only on the proposed bill.
The senate rule 54 requirement that amendments as well as bills be "reported" back to the senate clearly refers to the "report" required under senate rule 27, not the statutory report required by s. 13.50 (6).
Reports under senate rule 27 are typically brief documents which simply record the action of the committee and the committee's recommendations. Statutory reports from the retirement committee, on the other hand, are very thorough documents which take hours to research and prepare. They are submitted for the purpose of informing the legislature about the effect, cost and desirability of retirement legislation, but they make no recommendation regarding passage or postponement of the legislation.
The purpose of senate rule 54 is to assure that every amendment in a senate committee will be returned to the floor for action, not to require a lengthy and detailed report for each amendment and substitute. To read rule 54 as requiring such a report for each amendment and substitute amendment would be a perversion of the rules and present unlimited opportunity for delay.
For these reasons, the point of order raised by Senator Sensenbrenner is not well taken.
FRED A. RISSER
Acting President
1 9 7 3 S E N A T E
Senate Journal of February 14, 1974 .......... Page: 2197
[Point of order:]
Senate Bill 632 [relating to public employes deferred compensation plan]. Read a second time.
Senator LaFave asked unanimous consent that Senate Bill 632 be rereferred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems. Senator Risser objected.
Senator LaFave raised the point of order that, pursuant to Section 13.50 (5) of the Wis. Statutes, the committee must report in the majority either favorably
543 or unfavorably. Since the committee reported the bill with a tie vote, the measure must be rereferred to the committee.
The chair [Lt.Gov. Schreiber] ruled the point of order well taken.
Senate Journal of October 9, 1973 .......... Page: 1675
[Written report nor required on amendments:]
Senator McKenna raised the point of order that Senate Bill 528 was required by statute to go to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems. The chair took the point of order under advisement.
Senate Journal of October 10, 1973 .......... Page: 1691
