Audio and video feeds can be found here. Bill status, full text and roll call record can be found here. The roll call record for the amendment and the 3rd Reading vote are both now online and can be found here.

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12:35 PM - The Senate Republicans just requested a twenty minute caucus to discuss Sen. Gary Forby’s amendment that would include ComEd in the one-year rate rollback and freeze. Forby’s bill is up next.

1:04 PM - Members are starting to trickle back to their seats. Caucus appears to be over.

1:05 PM - “The Senate will come to order.”

1:09 PM - Here it comes.

1:11 PM - Republicans request a roll call. GOP Sen. Risinger rises to support the amendment. That’s the best indication that the Repubs did not take a caucus position against the proposal.

1:13 PM - I accidentally turned off comments. Oops. They’re back on now.

1:15 PM - Democratic Sen. Clayborne, who has been negotiating with the utilities and generating companies, predicts that if the Forby bill passes, the new law will get “bogged down in litigation.

1:21 PM - Sen. Garrett, a Democrat who said yesterday she was pleased with ComEd’s concessions on rates for condominium public areas, is praising ComEd and blasting Ameren. Asks for a “No” vote.

1:24 PM - Sen. Crotty, another Democrat and previous supporter of extending the rate freeze: “I’ve never been a huge proponent of ComEd,” and adds that Ameren has not been a good corporation. This looks like the new rationale for voting against Forby’s bill.

1:28 PM - Democratic Sen. Sullivan: If this amendment is not adopted, there will be no real discussion on electric rates.

1:30 PM - Dem Sen. Schoenberg: “This has become an exercise in leverage.” “We are settling for pennies on the dollar if we exclude ComEd from this bill.”

1:33 PM - Senate Majority Leader Halvorson said she was one of those who “encouraged” Forby to add ComEd to the bill. Praises ComEd for providing lots of money for “true relief” and thinks it would be “irresponsible” to go ahead with amendment. “I think we should never take the easy way out.”

1:35 PM - Senate President Emil Jones is the last speaker on the amendment. Says he probably voted for the original freeze bill, but now he thinks it was a “mistake.”

1:40 PM - Forby is closing. “Now that they got what they want, to Hell with Forby.” “I need your help.” On Emil Jones: “He’s my president and I think the world of him.” “They talked about Lisa Madigan, they’ve run her down pretty good today.” “If we don’t work together, you’re gonna see some bigtime issues” (as he turns toward Jones). “We can work something out, I’m ready to work something out.”

1:46 PM - Roll call. 33 Yes, 24 No. Amendment is adopted.

Parliamentary action. There was a motion to reconsider the vote on the amendment.

1:48 PM - Sen. Righter asks if there will be a vote on that motion. Answer: The suspension of the amendment automatically occurs when the motion is filed. Righter moves to table the motion. Righter requests immediate caucus.

1:52 PM - Forby is being asked if he wishes to proceed. Forby asks whether his amendment is part of this bill. He is told it is not. “Don’t you think this is a little ridiculous?”

DeLeo: Would you like to proceed or hold it on 3rd Reading?

1:53 PM - Forby: “I would like to leave this on 2nd Reading for now.”

Senate stands in recess to call of the chair.

EXPLANATION - What happened is they used a parliamentary maneuver to put a hold on the amendment even though it was approved by a majority. This is rare, and it’s even rarer that a Democratic Senate President would do that to one of his own members.

FURTHER EXPLANATION - From the Senate’s rules…

A motion to reconsider a record vote on the adoption of an amendment to a bill may be made only on Second Reading. An amendment adopted by the Senate on a record vote may not be tabled by motion until its adoption has been reconsidered.

So, they can’t table the motion until there is a vote to reconsider. Jones will control when that vote will take place.

I’m no parliamentary expert, but there doesn’t seem to be anything in the rules that requires a timetable for a vote on a motion to reconsider. Still checking.

MORE EXPLANATION It looks to me like this amendment has been effectively shackled by Jones, at least for now. I’m not sure if there’s a way to force a vote on the motion to reconsider. Well, there is, but I doubt the motion will be recognized by the presiding officer.

2:14 PM - Senate Repubs are coming back from caucus.

A BIT MORE EXPLANATION - The motion to reconsider means that Forby’s amendment is not considered alive (for want of a better word) until that motion to reconsider is voted on. And since Sen. Hendon made the motion, it’s up to Hendon to call for the vote. Hendon is an ally of Emil Jones.

2:18 PM - Righter: Inquiry of the chair.

Righter requests a roll call vote. Denied. The motion was filed in writing and will be put on the calendar. Righter moves to go to that order of business on the calendar and was told that they would get back to him.

2:21 PM - Forby: “If I live (to be) a hundred years old, I never will forget this day.”

Forby is moving the bill forward without the ComEd amendment attached.

2:22 PM - “I ask for your vote on this Ameren bill… No matter what happens I appreciate the people that did vote with me on this.”

2:32 PM - Putting out an extra. Keep up the good work in comments.

2:41 PM - Notice that, so far, not a single Senate Democrat has stood up to Jones and defended Forby.

2:43 PM - Democratic state Sen. Silverstein is now sticking up for Forby, calling the actions of the day “shenanigans,” before he was cut off by the presiding officer.

2:59 PM - From a stock guy: Ameren sold off about a percent on the amendment, now coming back but not all the way yet… 50.23, down 26 cents on the day, up 50 cents from the low… ComEd (Exelon) up 60 cents, but up over a buck from today’s low.

3:06 PM - DeepFriedOnAStick makes a good point in comments…

Why the heck is Forby moving forward with the bill? Why doesn’t he wait a week and the let pressure continue to build on Jones to allow a vote on the motion?

3:08 PM - Senate President Emil Jones is speaking now. “The House is the reason why those rates are so high for many of the people downstate.”

3:15 PM - Forby to close. Asks for an aye vote. 35-20

The roll call record for the amendment can be found here.

3:25 PM - Democrats voting “No” on Forby’s ComEd amendment: Bond, Clayborne, Collins, Crotty, Cullerton, DeLeo, Delgado, Garrett, Halvorson, Harmon, Hunter, Koehler, Lightford, Link, Martinez, Meeks, Munoz, Noland, Raoul, Ronen, Sandoval, Viverito, Emil Jones. Jacobs and Trotter are listed as “Not Voting.”

Democratic targets who voted “No” were Bond and Noland.

3:33 PM - Paul has been at the Statehouse while I stayed in the office and blogged and put out two “extras”. He’s now busily collecting comments. Hopefully, we’ll post some here later this afternoon, perhaps with audio clips.

3:39 PM - The 3rd Reading roll call is now online and can be found here.

3:44 PM - Democrats who initially voted NO on the ComEd amendment and then voted YES on the Ameren-only 3rd Reading roll call: Clayborne, Collins, Cullerton, DeLeo, Delgado, Garrett, Harmon, Link, Meeks, Ronen, Viverito.

Jacobs, who didn’t vote on the ComEd amendment voted YES on Third Reading.

Halvorson (Majority Leader), Hendon (who filed the motion to reconsider), Trotter (who is out of town) and Emil Jones (Senate President) did not vote on Third Reading.

3:50 PM - Republicans who initially voted YES on the ComEd amendment and then voted NO on the Ameren-only Third Reading roll call: Althoff, Burzynski, Cronin, Hultgren, Murphy, Pankau, Radogno, Sieben, Syverson.

3:54 PM - The AP story has been up for a bit. Hadn’t had time to notice…

Legislation that would have rolled back electric rates across Illinois was sidetracked Friday by maneuvering in the state Senate.

Supporters of a one-year rollback scored an important victory when the Senate voted 33-24 earlier Friday to amend the legislation so that it would include millions of ComEd customers in northern Illinois. Backers then planned to call the revised bill for a vote.

But an ally of Senate President Emil Jones used a rare parliamentary maneuver to suspend the ComEd amendment that had just been added. Jones, a Chicago Democrat who opposes cutting ComEd rates, now can hold the amendment in legislative limbo forever.

“Don’t you think this is a little ridiculous?” the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, asked when he realized what had been done.

4:09 PM - Paul has comments from Sen. Gary Forby…

* Why he decided to go ahead with Ameren only instead of keeping on 2nd reading - “I’d rather have something than nothing at all.”

* Did he feel betrayed by own caucus? - “I was disappointed. If I didn’t have the votes than I wouldn’t have felt that bad, but I did. I’m not sure I’m going to say I felt betrayed.”

* On why he didn’t accept the Ameren deal - “I do what my people want me to do. My people wanted me to freeze the rates.”

* On potential political fallout - “I’m going to work just as hard this election as I have on other ones. I’m not worried about that part.”

4:12 PM - Quotes from Sen. James Clayborne…

“Both sides use rules to maneuver. It has happened before, just maybe not that particular rule.

“I had no part in it.”

“We are in the Major Leagues. We are suppose to think everything out. I guess Sen. Forby just got outmaneuvered.”

“He could have postponed it and allowed it to come back.”

4:22 PM - Comments by Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan…

On the absence of ComEd language - “We’ll address that in a House committee. That’s what the beauty of amendments are.”

“It’s a good step forward. The Senate has now voted on a statewide freeze. I’m going to look at it positively… It will take a couple of weeks to get it done, but we’re hopeful.

* More from the AP…

The maneuver stunned the sponsor of the rollback legislation, a member of Jones’ Democratic majority.

“This is not fair, ladies and gentlemen. I want to tell you right now, it’s not fair,” said Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton. […]

But moments after the Senate voted to add ComEd to the legislation, a Jones ally took the rare step of making a motion to reconsider the vote. Under the Senate’s complex rules, that immediately nullified the previous vote and put the amendment into limbo.

As president, Jones controls whether the ComEd amendment ever emerges from that limbo. Forby was then forced to either push ahead with the Ameren-only measure, or wait and take the chance that Jones would never allow it to come up for a vote again.

* Pantagraph…

Now, a measure to roll back rates for only Ameren customers moves to the House, where leaders immediately slammed the door on approving it without ComEd being included.

“No, it’s a statewide issue so we’ve got to deal with it in a statewide manner,” said House Speaker Michael Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. […]

“The Ameren Illinois utilities believe this legislation, if enacted, violates the United States Constitution and is not in the best interest of its Illinois residential or business electric customers, or the state’s economy as a whole,” read an Ameren statement released Friday.

* Small Newspapers…

“I think I had a fast one pulled on me,” Sen. Forby said afterwards. […]

Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said Friday’s maneuvering was “raw, naked political power,” but said Sen. Jones may have done Sen. Forby a favor since his real fight is with Ameren.

* Daily Herald…

“My goal was to find immediate relief for my constituents, and that’s what I voted for,” state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, said afterward. “Is it a perfect situation to be in? No. But I don’t know what freezing ComEd rates really does for my consumers right now.” […]

Not even AARP was impressed, given the way things played out in the Senate.

“Whether you are 22 or 92, residential customers know when they are getting a raw deal,” said Bob Gallo, the senior group’s Illinois director.

* If you were looking for Tribune coverage of Friday’s atrocities, you were out of luck. There’s nothing. Nada. Not a single story from the paper’s Statehouse reporters. The website carried an AP analysis, but since I don’t buy dead tree versions of newspapers, I’m not even sure if that made it into the paper. Why would the Trib ignore such a huge story?