The following videos from Wisconsin Assembly Democrats were shot over the last few hours as a legislative debate raged in the background about a controversial, last minute amendment that would strip away affirmative action provisions for a state higher education grant program. This surprise amendment was introduced at 11 pm with no warning. The bill being amended was a non-controversial proposal to make technical changes to a state higher education grant program that serves first generation college students. The bill had passed a legislative committee with a unanimous vote and was expected to pass with broad support from both parties. That was before the mean spirited amendment to undermine affirmative action considerations was introduced.
What followed was a long running and highly partisan debate with Assembly Democrats rallying around preserving the program and Republicans voting in lock step to roll back longstanding affirmative action provisions.
At close to 8:00 a.m. CST, after hours of debate, we finally reached a deal with the Republicans to not take this bill up at this time, but they may still try to pass it at a later date.
Here are the video messages shot by members of the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats as debate raged on through the night and into the morning:
[Note: For some reason the video below doesn't work at the moment when embedded, but it does work if you watch directly on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/...]