(C) Minnesota Reformer This story was originally published by Minnesota Reformer and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Don’t mess with Rest [1] ['Michelle Griffith', 'More From Author', '- February'] Date: 2023-02-22 Footage from Tuesday’s Senate debates over a bill restoring voting rights to people still on parole and probation and another bill allowing undocumented residents to obtain a driver’s license is going viral. But the video clips gaining attention aren’t about the bills’ life-changing effects for thousands of Minnesotans. Instead, what got the internet’s attention: A veteran senator’s stern adherence to Senate parliamentary procedures. Sen. Ann Rest, a New Hope Democrat and the Senate’s president pro tem, oversaw the majority of the debate on Tuesday and admonished multiple senators for straying away from the strict — and sometimes bewildering — rules of the Senate. The Senate is the more formal of Minnesota’s two legislative chambers, where proper dress is required and until recently even the drinking of water was forbidden. Rest, elected to the House in 1984 and the Senate in 2000, is known for her traditionalism, her generally progressive politics notwithstanding. She joined a small, ad hoc group of women senators in 2021 to talk about Senate attire. Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, normally oversees Senate debate in his role as president, but he debated among his fellow senators on the floor as an author of the two bills. Champion was also on the receiving end of Rest’s flinty, yet passive aggressive, reminders to follow parliamentary rules, such as the requirement that senators address the president whenever speaking. Champion repeatedly said “members” in his remarks and not “madam president.” That drew a rebuke: “I will remind members — even those who usually stand in this place — that you need to direct your remarks to the president and not to the members,” Rest said while pointing at the seat usually occupied by Champion himself. Rest later got into a heated back-and-forth with Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, during discussion over the driver’s license bill. If a senator has a question about another senator’s bill, they have to ask the senate president if the author will “yield” to a question. If the author will yield, then that senator can ask the question. This is the "Don't f*** with me" energy that this new Senate minority caucus calls for from the President's desk. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/oEcxECu2pT — Dan Thomas-Commins (@DanTheRulesNerd) February 22, 2023 After the driver’s license bill’s chief author Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, DFL-Minneapolis, said she would answer Lucero’s question, he talked for a while about how his Pakistani wife has foreign citizenship documents. He was ultimately asking if his wife could theoretically use those documents to get a Minnesota driver’s license under Mohamed’s bill, but before he could ask, Rest interrupted and the two got into a heated argument. “Sen. Lucero, I think we’ve gone far afield from your original request for her to yield to a question,” Rest said. “I’m going to allow that and I’m gonna ask her if she will answer, but I am not going to allow you to speak for 10 minutes before you get to a question. Don’t try that again.” Lucero responded to Rest’s warning. “I’m not intending to test you,” Lucero told Rest. “I’m not intending to push your buttons or do anything deliberately to make you upset —” “Ask the question, sir!” Rest interjected. “To ask my question, I need to lay a foundation …. And it may have taken 10 minutes to get to my question, but it’s very legitimate and I do not appreciate the threat,” Lucero said. Ask, and ye shall receive! Lucero throws a tantrum in response to a reasonable correction, and somehow I have replies on here calling Sen. Rest "out of control" and "unprofessional." 🤔 https://t.co/uSrcxLeCW9 pic.twitter.com/RLGWylLd7u — Dan Thomas-Commins (@DanTheRulesNerd) February 22, 2023 It would be uncouth to mention Rest’s age. Put it this way: She was born during World War II. If senators don’t like the way Rest runs the room, they’re unlikely to say so publicly: She is currently chair of the powerful Senate Taxes Committee and vice chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. Rest on Tuesday adhered strictly to the rule of senators addressing the president directly; some senators appeared surprised at the reminders, like Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. “Senator Gruenhagen, you are to address the president and not another member,” Rest interrupted him during a long speech. “I’m looking right at her!” Gruenhagen exasperatedly told the senator sitting next to him. In addition, Rest repeatedly held up her hand to silence members when they were speaking out of turn. She corrected senators — even those in her own caucus — if they strayed from parliamentary procedures. Some of her scoldings were akin to the way a teacher would instruct a disobedient student. Sen. Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, bore the brunt of Rest’s reprimand when he asked Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, a question directly, instead of to the president. “Where are you standing, Senator Pratt?” Rest asked him after Pratt told Dibble he could talk. “At my desk,” Pratt replied. “You’re not standing up here, are you?” Rest questioned. “No, madam president.” “So you can’t call on Senator Dibble,” Rest said. Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, was captured on video laughing and pumping her fist after the exchange. Rest did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment about overseeing Tuesday’s Senate debates. [END] --- [1] Url: https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/02/22/dont-mess-with-rest/ Published and (C) by Minnesota Reformer Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/MnReformer/