Incorporation of standards by reference into agency administrative rules and the nurse licensure compact (suggested as remedial legislation by the Department of Safety and Professional Services)

What it does

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Current law generally requires all permanent rules that are promulgated by state agencies to be published in the Wisconsin Administrative Code. However, current law allows an agency, in order to avoid unnecessary expense, to adopt standards established by technical societies and organizations of recognized national standing by incorporating the standards in its rules by reference to the specific issue or issues of the publication in which they appear, without reproducing the standards in full in their rules. Such incorporation by reference requires the consent of the attorney general and requires the rule incorporating the standard to state that the standards are on file at the offices of the agency and the Legislative Reference Bureau.

This bill deletes the requirement that the agency state that the standards are on file at the offices of the agency and instead requires only that the agency state that the standards are on file at the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Who's behind it

Law Revision Committee is its author⁠.