Glossary

The Legislature's records use terms of art; bill histories and motions on this site quote them verbatim. Plain-language translations below — for the Legislature's own description of its process, see the official overview.

Biennium / biennial session: The Legislature's two-year working period, starting in January of each odd year. Bills live and die within one biennium — nothing carries over.
Floorperiod: A scheduled stretch of days when a chamber meets to debate and vote on bills. The schedule is set at the session's start by joint resolution.
First / second / third reading: The three formal stages of a bill on the floor. Amendments happen at second reading; final passage is the vote on third reading.
Referral: Assignment of a new bill to a committee. Most bills never leave the committee they're referred to.
Public hearing: A committee meeting where anyone may register or testify on a bill. Having a hearing is the first hurdle most bills fail — see Hearing None.
Executive session: A committee's voting meeting (open to the public despite the name). The committee votes on whether to recommend the bill — no public testimony is taken.
Appearance slip: The form you fill out at a hearing to register for, against, or for-information-only on a bill, with or without speaking.
Fiscal estimate: A state agency's projection of what a bill would cost or save, attached to the bill. Linked on bill pages here when one exists.
LRB analysis: The Legislative Reference Bureau's neutral plain-language summary printed at the top of most bills. Shown on bill pages here, verbatim.
Amendment / substitute amendment: A change to a bill's text; a substitute amendment replaces the whole text. Both are voted on before final passage.
Engrossment: The official incorporation of adopted amendments into a bill's text before it moves on.
Author, coauthor, cosponsor: The legislator who introduces a bill is its author, and the first name printed on the bill is its lead author. Members of the same house who sign on are coauthors; members of the other house are cosponsors. A bill's "Introduced by" line often runs to dozens of names, so being on it is not the same as leading the bill — and none of these roles means writing the text, which the Legislative Reference Bureau drafts.
Concurrence: One chamber's approval of the other chamber's bill. A bill must pass both chambers in identical form before it can go to the governor.
Passage: The vote that actually decides a bill: passage in its house of origin, concurrence in the other house. It needs a simple majority of members voting.
Suspension of the rules: A procedural vote to skip the normal schedule, most often to take up a bill's third reading immediately. It needs a two-thirds majority — a higher bar than passing the bill itself — so a suspension motion can draw more Ayes than the passage vote that follows it, and tallies shift between motions as members come and go from the floor.
Tabled / laid on table: A motion that sets a bill or amendment aside, usually permanently. A quiet way to kill something without a direct vote against it.
Joint resolution: A measure passed by both chambers that doesn't go to the governor: session schedules, constitutional amendments, and honors.
Failed to pass pursuant to SJR 1: The end of the road for most bills: Senate Joint Resolution 1 sets the session's last day for general business, and every bill still pending on that day formally fails.
Enrolled: The final, authoritative copy of a measure after passage, as sent to the governor or secretary of state.
Act: What a bill becomes when the governor signs it (or a veto is overridden): a numbered Wisconsin Act, part of state law.
Partial veto: Wisconsin's unusually strong line-item veto: the governor can strike words and numbers within appropriation bills, changing their meaning. Subject to override like a full veto.
Veto override: The Legislature's power to enact a bill over the governor's veto. It takes a two-thirds vote in each chamber — see the Governor's desk page for every attempt.
Roll call vote: A vote where each member's Aye or Nay is recorded by name. Only roll calls appear in attendance and vote records here; voice votes record no names.
Voice vote: A vote by collective shout, recorded only as the outcome. No individual positions exist, so none are shown here.
Party-line / bipartisan vote: As tagged on roll calls here: party-line means the majorities of the two parties took opposite positions; bipartisan means both parties' majorities voted the same way. Ties within a party get no tag.
Special session: A session called by the governor, limited to subjects in the call. Special-session bills carry their own numbering.
Extraordinary session: A session the Legislature calls itself, outside the scheduled floorperiods.
Recall election: A mid-term election to remove a sitting legislator, triggered by petition. Recalls in 2011 and 2012 changed several Senate seats — those departures are labeled on the profiles here.
Sine die: Adjournment 'without a day' — the formal close of the biennial session period.