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The Joint Finance Committee late Wednesday night passed an amended version of the budget repair bill despite Democratic claims the bill addressed none of the concerns brought up in more than 24 hours of consecutive public hearings and protests that shut down roads around the Capitol.

Gov. Scott Walker introduced a budget repair bill last Friday to address the state’s current fiscal year $137 million budget shortfall. The bill severely limits public employees collective bargaining rights and asks them to pay more toward their pension and health care premium.

Republican members of the committee introduced an amendment to the bill containing 11 changes to provisions in the budget repair bill and to other unrelated bills. The chairs of the JFC said the amendment contains changes inspired by the public hearings.

“We gave an opportunity for everyone to have their say throughout the course of the committee process,” JFC chair Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, said. “Some of the ideas brought forward are actually contained in the amendment […].”

The amendment modified the budget repair bill provision that would have allowed the Department of Health to create and enforce rules even if they conflicted with laws passed by the Legislature. The change would still allow the DHS to create rules, but the rules would become void after Jan. 1, 2015 unless the Legislature formally adopted them.

If passed, the amended bill would increase medical assistance benefits funding by an additional $42.7 million, which would save $7.2 million over two years and also remove a provision prohibiting state employees with limited-term appointments who work more than 600 hours a year from receiving state employee health insurance and participating in the Wisconsin Retirement System.

Republicans said the changes made to limited-term employee benefits were a direct result of testimony heard Tuesday.

“A gentlemen talked about working as an ‘LTE’ and had concerns about changing the process of how we offer benefits to ‘LTEs’,” Vos said. “He said it would negatively effect the state. We’re taking that section of the budget repair bill out.”

Other changes to the bill included allowing a wetland in Brown County to become a part of a tax incremental financing district, specifying how the process of selling state power plants would take place and requiring local governments to establish a civil service grievance system, which Republican leaders said would help citizens who lose bargaining rights have a voice.

“This does not restore collective bargaining in any way, but it addresses a concern that there was a gap created at the local level for the purpose of grievances related to those topics,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said.

Democrats said they were appalled that of all the changes Republicans made, none of them repealed the budget repair bill provision that would limit the authority of unions to collectively bargain for working conditions.

The Democrats offered an amendment that would have repealed all non-fiscal policy issues out of the budget repair bill, which included collective bargaining authority, but all 12 Republicans voted it down.

“[Republicans] said their amendment is in response to what we heard yesterday, but in the 17 hour hearing yesterday I didn’t hear people talking about power plants or group insurance membership,” Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, said. “I heard people come in crying and desperately asking to come and save them.”

The amended bill is scheduled to be taken up by the Legislature today.