After eight years of lawsuits from and against the Republican-controlled state legislature, a pair of Wisconsin Democrats are proposing a cap on legal fees.

State Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D–Green Bay, and Sen. Chris Larson, D–Milwaukee, on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require the full Assembly, the full Senate, or the full legislature to sign-off on hiring outside attorneys before the Assembly, the Senate, or the legislature could hire lawyers for cases that legislative staff attorneys can’t hire.

Rivera-Wagner and Larson say their proposal would limit “unchecked, single-leader decisions that have cost taxpayers millions.” (RELATED: Wisconsin Lawmakers Looking To Repeal Governor Evers 400 Year Bill)

“Right now, Majority Leaders in the Assembly and Senate—can spend unlimited public dollars on private law firms without input from the rest of us or the people we represent. That’s not how democracy should work,” Rivera-Wagner said in a statement.

“For too long a small group of partisan elites have had a blank check to spend millions of your tax dollars chasing election conspiracies, taking power away from the Governor, and promoting gerrymandering,” Larson added.

The legislation comes after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story that showed the legislature has spent more than $25 million on lawsuits since 2017, just before Gov. Evers took office.

Many of those attorneys handled cases between Gov. Evers and lawmakers, many of them were challenges brought by the governor against legislation or the legislature itself. Those include the governor’s 400-year veto, and the challenges to legislative rule making.

There was also, of course, the Gableman case where the legislature paid former Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman nearly $2 million to handle the failed investigation into the 2020 election in Wisconsin.

The push also comes as Democrats in Madison hope to be able to win the majority in the State Senate for the first time since 2010. (RELATED: UW Regents Unanimously Approve Third Straight Tuition Increase)

This article was originally published with The MacIver Institute.