67th Wisconsin Legislature

The Sixty-Seventh Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 10, 1945, to September 6, 1945, in regular session, and reconvened in a special session in July 1946.

This legislative term saw the end of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations. The term also saw the end of the Wisconsin Progressive Party, which formally disbanded at a 1946 convention.

Senators representing even-numbered districts were newly elected for this session and were serving the first two years of a four-year term. Assembly members were elected to a two-year term. Assembly members and even-numbered senators were elected in the general election of November 7, 1944. Senators representing odd-numbered districts were serving the third and fourth year of a four-year term, having been elected in the general election of November 3, 1942.

Major events

 * January 1, 1945: Second inauguration of Walter Samuel Goodland as Governor of Wisconsin.
 * January 20, 1945: Fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President of the United States.
 * February 11, 1945: The Yalta Conference concluded, agreeing to the denazification and postwar partition of Germany, as well as self-determination rights for a liberated Poland.
 * April 3, 1945: Wisconsin voters ratified two amendments to the state constitution:
 * Aboliting the office of justice of the peace in first class cities.
 * Allowing the state to take on debt for aeronautical improvements.
 * April 12, 1945: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office. Vice President Harry S. Truman immediately succeeded him as the 33rd President of the United States.
 * April 28, 1945: Benito Mussolini was executed by partisans in Milan, Italy.
 * April 29, 1945: Axis forces in Italy signed an unconditional surrender to the Allies.
 * April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin, Germany.
 * May 2, 1945: Soviet forces captured Berlin.
 * May 8, 1945: Representatives of the German Army signed the German Instrument of Surrender, formally ending Germany's part in World War II.
 * June 26, 1945: The Charter of the United Nations was published at the end of the United Nations Conference on International Organization.
 * July 16, 1945: The first atomic bomb test took place at the Trinity site in New Mexico.
 * July 21, 1945: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed an order approving the use of atomic bombs against Imperial Japan.
 * August 6, 1945: U.S. forces detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, killing at least 90,000 people and destroying much of the city.
 * August 8, 1945: The United States ratified the Charter of the United Nations, becoming the third nation to ratify the document.
 * August 9, 1945: U.S. forces detonated an atomic bomb over Nagasaki, killing at least 39,000 people.
 * August 14, 1945: Emperor Hirohito agreed to the unconditional surrender of Japan to Allied forces, ending major combat in World War II.
 * October 24, 1945: The United Nations was established as a sufficient number of nations had ratified the Charter.
 * March 17, 1946: At a convention in Portage, Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Progressive Party voted to disband. The majority of delegates voted to rejoin the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
 * March 19, 1946: Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Joseph Martin died in office.
 * April 2, 1946: Wisconsin voters rejected an amendment to the state constitution which would have removed term limits from the sheriffs.
 * April 6, 1946: Wisconsin governor Walter Samuel Goodland appointed James Ward Rector to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to succeed the deceased justice Joseph Martin.
 * April 18, 1946: The League of Nations met for the last time, transferred its mission to the United Nations and disbanded.
 * August 14, 1946: Wisconsin's senior United States senator Robert M. La Follette Jr., after the dissolution of the Wisconsin Progressive Party, was defeated in the Republican Party primary by Wisconsin circuit court judge Joseph McCarthy.
 * November 5, 1946:
 * Walter Samuel Goodland re-elected Governor of Wisconsin.
 * Joseph McCarthy elected United States senator from Wisconsin.
 * Wisconsin voters ratified two amendments to the state constitution:
 * Removing audit powers from the Secretary of State.
 * Assigning audit powers to the Legislature.
 * Wisconsin voters also rejected an amendment to the state constitution:
 * Allowing public transportation to be used for students to attend private or parochial schools.

Major legislation

 * July 30, 1945: An Act ... relating to aeronautics, and making an appropriation, 1945 Act 513. Established Wisconsin's Aeronautics Commission.
 * August 27, 1945: An Act ... creating a Wisconsin department of veterans' affairs, providing educational aid, economic aid, medical, hospital, or other remedial care for World War II veterans and their dependents, transferring to said department certain powers, duties, and functions vested in the soldiers' rehabilitation board and adjutant general, and custodian of memorial hall, and making an appropriation, 1945 Act 580. Created the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.
 * 1945 Joint Resolution 2: Second legislative passage of a proposed amendment to the state constitution to abolish the office of justice of the peace in first class cities. This amendment was ratified by voters at the April 1945 election.
 * 1945 Joint Resolution 3: Second legislative passage of a proposed amendment to the state constitution to allow the state to take on debt to fund aeronautical improvements.
 * 1945 Joint Resolution 47: Second legislative passage of a proposed amendment to the state constitution to abolish term limits for Wisconsin sheriffs. This amendment was rejected by voters at the April 1946 election.
 * 1945 Joint Resolution 73: Second legislative passage of a proposed amendment to the state constitution to remove audit powers from the Secretary of State and transfer those powers to the Legislature. This amendment was ratified by voters in two separate questions at the November 1946 election.
 * 1945 Joint Resolution 78: Second legislative passage of a proposed amendment to the state constitution to allow public transportation to be used for students to attend private and parochial schools in addition to existing transportation for public schools. This amendment was rejected by voters at the November 1946 election.

Sessions

 * Regular session: January 10, 1945 –September 6, 1945
 * July 1946 special session: July 29, 1946 –July 30, 1946

Senate leadership

 * President of the Senate: Oscar Rennebohm (R)
 * President pro tempore: Conrad Shearer (R–Kenosha)
 * Majority leader: Warren P. Knowles (R–New Richmond)
 * Minority leader: Anthony P. Gawronski (D–Milwaukee)

Assembly leadership

 * Speaker of the Assembly: Donald C. McDowell (R–Soldiers Grove)
 * Majority leader: Vernon W. Thomson (R–Richland Center)
 * Minority leaders:
 * Leland McParland (D–Milwaukee)
 * Lyall T. Beggs (P–Madison)

Members of the Senate
Members of the Senate for the Sixty-Seventh Wisconsin Legislature:

Members of the Assembly
Members of the Assembly for the Sixty-Seventh Wisconsin Legislature:

Senate committees

 * Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Labor –M. R. Laird, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Committees – W. P. Knowles, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Conservation – T. G. Brown, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Contingent Expenditures – E. F. Hilker, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Corporations and Taxation – L. J. Fellenz, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Education and Public Welfare – W. A. Freehoff, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Highways – J. Miller, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on the Judiciary – G. W. Buchen, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Legislative Procedure – C. Shearer, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on State and Local Government – B. Gettelman, chair
 * Senate Standing Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs –R. Schlabach, chair

Assembly committees

 * Assembly Standing Committee on Agriculture – O. R. Rice, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce and Manufactures – E. Grassman, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Conservation – J. E. Youngs, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Contingent Expenditures – A. A. Lenroot, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Education – W. W. Clark, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Elections – C. E. Collar, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Engrossed Bills – H. Youngblood, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Enrolled Bills – F. E. Riley, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Excise and Fees – F. Pfennig, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Highways – H. A. Keegan, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Insurance and Banking – B. M. Engebretson, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on the Judiciary – V. W. Thomson, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Labor – G. Benson, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Municipalities – E. C. Krause, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Printing – J. C. Chapple, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Public Welfare – E. W. Hanson, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Rules – W. J. Nuss, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on State Affairs – A. E. Austin, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Taxation – J. A. Canniff, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Third Reading – F. L. Feierstein, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Transportation – A. Van De Zande, chair
 * Assembly Standing Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs – C. C. Christensen, chair

Joint committees

 * Joint Standing Committee on Finance –G. H. Hipke (Sen.) & J. Spearbraker (Asm.), co-chairs
 * Joint Standing Committee on Revisions, Repeals, and Uniform Laws –G. W. Buchen (Sen.) & C. F. Westfahl (Asm.), co-chairs

Senate employees

 * Chief Clerk: Lawrence R. Larsen
 * Sergeant-at-Arms: Harold Damon
 * Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms: Kenneth Hoard

Assembly employees

 * Chief Clerk: Arthur L. May
 * Assistant Chief Clerk: Joseph S. Einberger
 * Sergeant-at-Arms: Norris J. Kellman
 * Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms: J. Irvin Thomas