The Minnesota Senate will keep its rule forbidding members from looking at one another during floor debate and will continue to ban everyone from having drinks on the Senate floor.

The issues arose Monday during the passage of the rules to govern the Senate.

On a 15-44 vote, the Senate decided to keep its current requirement that all speakers must gaze at the Senate president.

“I find this particular rule of the Senate, dare I say, antiquated,” said Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove.

But Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, disagreed. When you can look at the senator speaking, he said, debates could become longer and more personal.

“Our decorum would probably not be as Senate-like as we would like to have it,” Bakk said.

A bipartisan majority agreed with Bakk.

On Monday, the Senate also considered whether senators and staff should be permitted water on the Senate floor.

“It’s not pop, it’s not beer,” said Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake. “It’s just H2O.”

Unlike in the Minnesota House, food and drink is banned from the Senate floor. Bakk said any drinks could damage the Senate’s historic desks and noted that there is water available just a few steps from where senators sit.

Once that proposal failed, Westrom moved that perhaps pregnant and nursing mothers — and only them — be allowed to have water. Nope, not even them, said the Senate on a 10-51 vote.

Follow Rachel E. Stassen-Berger at twitter.com/RachelSB.