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Republicans on the Wisconsin Senate's labor committee ended a public hearing on contentious right-to-work legislation early and sent the bill on to the full Senate Tuesday, enraging dozens of people who had been waiting all day to speak and sparking a demonstration in front of the Senate chamber.

The daylong hearing began at 10 a.m. Sen. Stephen Nass, a Whitewater Republican and the committee's chairman, had planned for it to last until 7 p.m. But around 6:20 p.m. he announced he was ending the hearing due to what he called a "credible threat" that union members planned to disrupt the proceeding.

"We're not going to take a chance," Nass told the crowd.

Dozens of people who had waited hours to speak leapt to their feet, shouting profanities. Nass called a vote on the bill over the din but it was impossible to hear the roll over chants of "Shame!" Nass' office said later the vote was 3-1. Sen. Chris Larson, a Milwaukee Democrat, did not vote, instead accusing Nass of "wimping out."

Police escorted the three Republicans on the committee out of the room after the vote.

SEIU officials had planned to protest the hard stop at 7 p.m. but the effort was going to be peaceful, SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin Vice President Bruce Colburn told reporters later.

"This is just an example of them taking away workers' voice," he said. "What they did here was an act of political cowardice."

Throngs of union supporters migrated to the corridors outside the Senate chamber, chanting "Get up, get down, Madison's a union town" and "Hey-hey, ho-ho, right-to-work has got to go." They were still standing outside the chamber as the clock approached 7:30 p.m. The Senate was not in session.

The hearing breakdown marked the culmination of a tense day at the Capitol. About 2,000 construction workers, electricians, carpenters and other union members rallied against the bill on the building's steps and in the rotunda around midday.

The gathering paled in size and intensity to protests four years ago when Gov. Scott Walker pushed through his measure that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers. Those rallies lasted for weeks and grew as large as 100,000 people.

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Wisconsin Republicans cut right-to-work hearing short, advance bill

A partial agency shutdown looming, Senate Republicans offered Tuesday to permit a vote on Homeland Security funding legislation stripped of immigration provisions backed by conservatives but strongly opposed by President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats.

"We could have that vote very quickly," Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said as his party struggled to escape a political predicament of their own making involving an agency with major anti-terrorism responsibilities.

McConnell said he did not know how the Republican-controlled House would respond if a stand-alone spending bill passed the Senate. Underscoring the realities of divided government, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada initially said he wouldn't agree to the proposal unless it had the backing of House Speaker John Boehner, in a sign it would be likely to clear the House.

With House Republicans scheduled to meet privately Wednesday to discuss the issue, Boehner's office issued a statement that neither accepted nor rejected the proposal McConnell outlined to end weeks of gridlock.

"The speaker has been clear: The House has acted, and now Senate Democrats need to stop hiding. Will they continue to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security or not?" said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

Some House conservatives criticized the proposal, but one lawmaker allied with the leadership predicted it might win approval. Noting that a federal judge in Texas has issued an order blocking implementation of Obama's plan to shield millions of immigrants from deportation, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said the court had "effectively stopped the president's executive action," at least for now. "So I don't think we'd run the risk of shutting down Homeland Security," he added.

Even in the Senate, though, McConnell's plan had its GOP critics.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party favorite and potential 2016 presidential contender, called it a mistake. "Congress is obliged to use every constitutional check and balance we have to rein in President Obama's lawlessness," he said in a statement.

Senate Republican officials said McConnell's offer of a vote on a stand-alone funding bill also envisions a vote on a separate measure to repeal a directive from Obama last fall that shields about 4 million immigrants from deportation even though they live in the United States illegally. That measure would almost certainly fail in the Senate at the hands of Democrats.

At the same time, the proposal would eliminate an attempt by the House to repeal an earlier presidential order that allows tens of thousands of immigrants to remain in the country if they were brought here illegally as youngsters by their parents. Officials said Boehner's office had been informed of McConnell's plans before they were made public.

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In a bind, Republicans offer vote on Homeland Security bill

House Republicans warned that tough new regulations for online traffic, expected to be adopted Thursday, risk years of legal uncertainty and argued that the GOP's more restrained legislation was the best way to protect the Internet.

Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas) called the proposed rules by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler "net nonsense" and predicted that they would be struck down again by federal judges.

"It's not going to work," Barton said at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday. "It is going to be tested in court and it's going to fail in court."

Telecom companies twice before have won court orders blocking so-called net neutrality rules, largely on grounds that the FCC had overstepped its authority. The industry has vowed to sue again should the Democratic-controlled agency adopt Wheeler's proposal Thursday.

The FCC is taking a different and more controversial approach this time that is meant to withstand a legal challenge, but a lawsuit still could take three or more years to be resolved, experts said.

That has both sides worried. Some critics at the hearing said the lengthy legal battle could harm investment in broadband networks. Supporters said net neutrality protections would be at risk if a court tossed them out at a time beyond the 2016 election when the FCC could be controlled by Republicans.

"I'm concerned that if Congress does not act, all protection for network neutrality is at risk of being lost," said Rick Boucher, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia who now chairs the Internet Industry Alliance, a telecom industry trade group.

Wheeler has proposed such rules as prohibiting broadband providers from charging websites for faster delivery of their content. But enforcing those rules depends on classifying broadband Internet service as a more highly regulated service under Title 2 of the telecommunications law.

The proposal would put broadband in the same utility-like legal category as conventional phone companies, reversing an FCC decision in 2002 that classified broadband as a more lightly regulated information service.

But the move would address a key problem in the last court ruling, in January 2014. Federal judges said then that the FCC overstepped its authority by trying to treat Internet service providers as utilities without classifying them that way.

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House Republicans slam FCC net neutrality proposal, tout own bill

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