Hours-long Senate GOP caucus wraps up…

The Senate, which has been at ease most of the day today for a closed-door GOP caucus, has just returned to the floor, midway through the noon hour. Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis thanked the minority party, saying, “I appreciate your patience,” and asked to recess the Senate to 4:30 p.m., at which point it’ll stay in session and consider bills until as late as 6 p.m. Meanwhile, the House has recessed until 1:15 p.m.

Davis said the GOP caucus is “just trying to find out what the will of the caucus is on a variety of matters, from the tax relief and savings,” to an update on budget numbers, to a brief discussion of ethics reform at the end, at which point the caucus ran out of time. “We hope to be able to readdress some of that in our next caucus meetings, which may even be tomorrow,” he said.