SB 417

This bill ratifies and enters Wisconsin into the Enhanced Nurse Licensure

Compact (enhanced compact). The enhanced compact replaces the original Nurse

Licensure Compact (original compact), which was ratified in Wisconsin in 1999.

Under both versions of the compact, a nurse, whether a registered nurse or a licensed

practical nurse, who is licensed in a state that has adopted the compact (party state)

may practice in any other party state without needing to separately obtain a license

in that other party state. Significant provisions of the enhanced compact, as

compared to the original compact, include all of the following:

1. Under the enhanced compact, party states grant multistate nursing licenses,

with the compact setting out minimum qualifications that an applicant must satisfy

in order to be granted a multistate license, including that an applicant submit to a

background investigation. Under the enhanced compact, a multistate license is

recognized by each party state as authorizing a nurse to practice, under a multistate

licensure privilege, in that party state. The enhanced compact also provides that

party states may grant single-state licenses, which authorize practice only within

the issuing state. The enhanced compact does not affect the requirements

established by a party state for the issuance of a single-state license.

Under the original compact, a license issued by a home state to a resident in

that state is simply recognized by each other party state as authorizing a multistate

licensure privilege to practice in that party state, with the qualifications for

obtaining a license to be determined under each party state's laws.

2. The enhanced compact establishes an Interstate Commission of Nurse

Licensure Compact Administrators (commission), which consists of the heads of each

party state's board that licenses nurses, or their designees. The commission has

various powers and duties granted in the compact, including overseeing the

administration of the compact, enforcing the compact, adopting bylaws,

promulgating binding rules for the compact, and employing an executive director

and employees. Under the original compact, the compact is administered by compact

administrators, with the administrator for this state designated as the secretary of

safety and professional services or his or her designee.

3. The enhanced compact includes various provisions regarding resolutions of

disputes between the commission and party states and between party and nonparty

states. The enhanced compact requires the commission to attempt to resolve

disputes related to the compact that arise among party states and between party and

nonparty states, after which such disputes would be handed through arbitration.

Under the original compact, disputes are simply to be handled through arbitration.

4. The enhanced compact includes a process for termination of a party state

from the compact that has defaulted in the performance of its obligations under the

compact. No such provisions are included in the original compact.

Pursuant to the terms of the enhanced compact, the enhanced compact became