AB 274

This bill provides for the expiration of each chapter of the Wisconsin Administrative Code after seven years, unless the chapter is readopted by the agency through the readoption process established under the bill.

Under current law, an agency may promulgate administrative rules when it is granted rule-making authority under the statutes. Once promulgated, administrative rules remain in effect indefinitely unless repealed or amended by the agency or suspended by the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules.

This bill provides that each chapter of the code expires seven years after a rule that creates, or repeals and recreates, the chapter takes effect or after the chapter is readopted. The bill requires JCRAR to establish a schedule for the expiration of all existing code chapters that are in effect on the effective date of the bill. Under the bill, in the year before a code chapter is set to expire, an agency may send to JCRAR and the appropriate standing committees a notice of its intention to readopt the chapter. If no member of JCRAR or the standing committees objects to the readoption notice, the chapter is considered readopted without further action. If any member of JCRAR or either standing committee objects to readoption of the chapter, the chapter expires on its expiration date unless the agency promulgates a rule to readopt the chapter using the standard rule-making process. Under the bill, JCRAR may extend the effective date of the chapter that is set to expire for up to one year to accommodate readoption of the chapter through the standard rule-making process. The bill also requires agencies to avoid in rules the use of words and phrases that are outdated or that are now understood to be derogatory or offensive.