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Bills from the 2025–26 session

Senate Bill 776

Repealing the dry cleaner environmental response program, creating the revitalize Wisconsin program, granting rule-making authority, and making an appropriation. (FE)

Topics: Environmental protection, Natural Resources, Department of: Environmental protection

Stopped in committee

It never got a ⁠, so it never came up for a vote. The last day for votes this session was Mar 19, 2026. To try again, a lawmaker would have to start a new bill.

  1. Introduced, passed

    Dec 12, 2025

  2. Committee, stopped here

    Stopped here. No public hearing was held.

  3. Senate vote, not reached

  4. Assembly vote, not reached

  5. Governor, not reached

  6. Law, not reached

Latest entry in the official record, Mar 23, 2026: “Failed to pass pursuant to ⁠”

It never got a hearing in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs. The committee's chair at the time was André Jacque. Chairs decide which bills get a hearing. See every bill that never got a hearing this session.

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The same bill was also filed in the Assembly as AB 780. That version died when the session ended.

What it would have done

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

This bill eliminates the existing dry cleaner environmental response program and its associated fund and council and creates the revitalize Wisconsin program, which is administered by the Department of Natural Resources.

This bill creates the revitalize Wisconsin program, which is administered by DNR and which provides aid, in the form of grants or direct services to local governments, dry cleaners, and private parties, to address the discharge of a hazardous substance or the existence of environmental pollution on the government’s or person’s property. Aid may be provided for sites for which the site’s owner or operator applied for assistance under the dry cleaner environmental response program before its repeal; brownfields; sites that are exempt from the state’s hazardous substance remediation laws (often called the “spills law”); sites that are subject to the spills law but that are owned by private parties; and sites that are a public nuisance or a tire dump, for which expansion or redevelopment is adversely affected by actual or perceived discharge or environmental pollution.

Read the full summary

The bill provides that DNR may not award aid to an applicant under the revitalize Wisconsin program if the applicant caused the discharge or environmental pollution, unless the applicant is a dry cleaner that applied for assistance under the dry cleaner environmental response program before its repeal. The bill also provides that DNR may require an applicant to provide a match, either in cash or in-kind services, for any aid that is awarded under the program.

Activities for which aid may be provided under the program include removing hazardous substances from contaminated media; investigating and assessing the discharge or environmental pollution; removing abandoned containers; asbestos abatement; and restoring or replacing a private potable water supply.

Who's behind it

6 senators are its ⁠. All 6 are Democrats.

16 more lawmakers ⁠.

See all 22 names

Authors (6)

Signed on in support (16)

What it would cost

State agencies filed a . Each opens as a PDF from the Legislature.

What happened

  1. Mar 23, 2026

    The session ended, and the bill died with it.

  2. Jan 13, 2026

    A state agency sent in its estimate of the cost.

  3. Dec 12, 2025

    Sent to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs.

  4. Dec 12, 2025

    Introduced in the Senate.

See the official record, word for word
  1. Dec 12, 2025 · Senate

    Introduced by Senators Smith, Spreitzer, Drake, Dassler-Alfheim, L. Johnson and Ratcliff; cosponsored by Representatives Madison, Anderson, Joers, Andraca, Arney, DeSmidt, Hysell, Miresse, Moore Omokunde, Palmeri, Sinicki, Stroud, Subeck, Tenorio, Udell and Vining

  2. Dec 12, 2025 · Senate

    Read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs

  3. Jan 13, 2026 · Senate

    Fiscal estimate received

  4. Mar 23, 2026 · Senate

    Failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1

Terms on this page

Committee

A small group of lawmakers that looks at a bill first. Most bills never leave committee.

More in the glossary

Public hearing

A meeting where anyone can speak to a committee about a bill, or send written comments.

More in the glossary

Senate Joint Resolution 1

The session's calendar. Any bill not passed by its last voting day dies.

Official term: Failed to pass pursuant to SJR 1. More in the glossary

Legislative Reference Bureau

The Legislature's nonpartisan office that drafts bills and writes the summary at the top of each one.

Official term: LRB analysis. More in the glossary

Author

A lawmaker who formally puts a bill forward. The text itself is drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Official term: Author, coauthor. More in the glossary

Signed on in support

Lawmakers who back a bill without being one of its authors, often from the other chamber.

Official term: Cosponsor. More in the glossary

Cost estimate

A state agency's estimate of what a bill would cost or save.

Official term: Fiscal estimate. More in the glossary

From the Wisconsin Legislature's official record, checked Sep 15, 2026. See the source

Committee

A small group of lawmakers that looks at a bill first. Most bills never leave committee.

Public hearing

A meeting where anyone can speak to a committee about a bill, or send written comments.

Senate Joint Resolution 1

The session's calendar. Any bill not passed by its last voting day dies.

Official term: Failed to pass pursuant to SJR 1

Legislative Reference Bureau

The Legislature's nonpartisan office that drafts bills and writes the summary at the top of each one.

Official term: LRB analysis

Author

A lawmaker who formally puts a bill forward. The text itself is drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Official term: Author, coauthor

Signed on in support

Lawmakers who back a bill without being one of its authors, often from the other chamber.

Official term: Cosponsor

Cost estimate

A state agency's estimate of what a bill would cost or save.

Official term: Fiscal estimate