There is created a bureau to be known as the “Legislative Reference Bureau,” headed by the chief of legislative reference bureau. The legislative reference bureau shall be strictly nonpartisan and shall at all times observe the confidential nature of the reference or drafting requests received by it.
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Terms Used In Wisconsin Statutes 13.92

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
  • Caucus: From the Algonquian Indian language, a caucus meant "to meet together." An informal organization of members of the legislature that exists to discuss issues of mutual concern and possibly to perform legislative research and policy planning for its members. There are regional, political or ideological, ethnic, and economic-based caucuses.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Enrolled bill: The final copy of a bill or joint resolution which has passed both chambers in identical form. It is printed on parchment paper, signed by appropriate officials, and submitted to the President/Governor for signature.
  • Following: when used by way of reference to any statute section, means the section next following that in which the reference is made. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
  • Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
  • Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
  • Minor: means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years, except that for purposes of investigating or prosecuting a person who is alleged to have violated a state or federal criminal law or any civil law or municipal ordinance, "minor" does not include a person who has attained the age of 17 years. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Optical imaging: means transferring to a format employing an optical disc. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Person: includes all partnerships, associations and bodies politic or corporate. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Population: means that shown by the most recent regular or special federal census. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • State: when applied to states of the United States, includes the District of Columbia, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the several territories organized by Congress. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Town: may be construed to include cities, villages, wards or districts. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
  • Village: means incorporated village. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed; "year" alone means "year of our Lord". See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
   (1)   Duties of the bureau.
      (a)    Reference section. The legislative reference bureau shall perform reference services for all members of the legislature equally and impartially and to the limits of its facilities and staff. Such reference services shall be available also to public officials, students of government and citizens generally. In the performance of its reference services, the bureau shall:
         1.    Collect, index and make available in the most suitable form to legislators, other public officials, students of government and citizens generally, information relative to governmental subjects which will aid the legislature, other public officials and the citizens generally, to perform their duties in the most efficient and economical manner.
         2.    Maintain an adequate collection of public documents of Wisconsin and other states and carry out loan arrangements with libraries.
         3.    Maintain the drafting records of legislation introduced in prior sessions of the legislature and utilize such records to provide information on questions of legislative intent. Such records shall be retained in the offices of the bureau at all times.
         4.    Utilize the materials assembled in its collection and other suitable materials to prepare studies and reports providing pertinent information regarding subjects which are or may become items of concern to the legislature, other public officials or the public generally, and where warranted publish such reports and studies in the most expeditious manner.
         5.    Prepare copy for the biennial Wisconsin Blue Book.
         6.    Beginning with the date of the decennial federal census of population and ending on December 1 of the 2nd year commencing after such census, prepare and publish such street and ward maps of the municipalities in this state as are required to show the boundary lines of congressional and legislative districts based on that census. Following the final approval of the redistricting plans, the bureau shall transfer the maps used to show the district boundaries contained in such plans to the department of administration under s. 16.96 (3) (b).
      (b)    Drafting section. The legislative reference bureau shall provide drafting services equally and impartially and to the limits of its facilities and staff. In the performance of its drafting services, the bureau shall:
         1.    Prepare in the proper form all legislation to be introduced in the legislature. Only the following persons may use the drafting services of the bureau for this purpose:
            a.    Any member or member-elect of the legislature and, on behalf of each committee thereof, the chairperson.
            b.    Any agency, as defined in s. 16.70 (1e), created under ch. 13, 14, 15, or 758.
            c.    The chief clerk of either house of the legislature for requests pertaining to the operation of the legislature.
            d.    A party caucus of either house of the legislature.
         2.    Prepare in plain language an analysis of each original measure, to be printed with the measure when it is introduced. On the printed measure, the analysis shall be displayed single-spaced between the title and the enacting clause.
         3.    As a service to the senate and assembly, and as directed by the chief clerks thereof, enroll all measures passed by the legislature.
            a.    Promptly after the passage of any bill, any joint resolution amending the constitution, or any other resolution determined by the chief clerks to require enrollment and, in the case of a bill, before it is presented to the governor for approval, the chief clerk of the house in which the measure originated shall deliver the jacket to the bureau which shall enroll the proposal and return the jacket and the required number of copies, including a camera-ready copy of any proposed constitutional amendment and each resolution requiring newspaper publication, to the chief clerk. The camera-ready original of the enrolled proposal shall be retained in the bureau.
            b.    Of the copies delivered to the chief clerk, one copy shall be used as the official enrolled measure to be authenticated as provided by the rules and, in the case of an enrolled bill, be submitted to the governor for the governor’s approval. The remaining copies shall be distributed as provided by the rules and as determined by the chief clerks.
            c.    Each enrolled proposal, or printed copy thereof, shall carry a heading “State of Wisconsin” as do bills and joint resolutions.
            d.    After passage of any bill that, if enacted, would create congressional districts under ch. 3, in enrolling the bill for presentation to the governor for approval, the legislative reference bureau shall attach to the bill an appendix containing the population statistics for the congressional districts created under the bill; a statewide map of the congressional districts created under the bill; a map of the congressional districts created under the bill that are in Milwaukee County; and, for any city, village, or town that, under the bill, is divided among 2 or more congressional districts, except a city or village located in more than one county if the district line follows the county line, a detail map illustrating the division of the city, village, or town among the congressional districts.
            e.    After passage of any bill that, if enacted, would create legislative districts under ch. 4, in enrolling the bill for presentation to the governor for approval, the legislative reference bureau shall attach to the bill an appendix containing the population statistics for the legislative districts created under the bill; a statewide map of each type of legislative district created under the bill; a map of the legislative districts created under the bill that are in Milwaukee County; and, for any city, village, or town that, under the bill, is divided among 2 or more legislative districts, except a city or village located in more than one county if the district line follows the county line, a detail map illustrating the division of the city, village, or town among the legislative districts.
         4.    Publish each act on its date of publication as prescribed under s. 35.095 (1) (b). The bureau shall enter the act number, date of enactment, and date of publication of each act on the copy and deliver it to the contract printer for reproduction of printed copies. The publication shall identify material deleted from existing law by stricken type, and material inserted into existing law by underscored type. In any act published “vetoed in part”, the material subject to the veto shall be displayed in full but shall be identified by distinguishing marks. The bureau shall make printed copies available as soon as possible following publication of the act. The number of copies printed, and the quality of paper used, shall be as provided in the joint rules and as further determined by the joint committee on legislative organization.
         5.    Prepare a biennial list of numerical cross-references in the statutes to other parts of the statutes.
         6.    Publish the “Laws of Wisconsin” under s. 35.15.
      (bm)    Revision of statutes. The legislative reference bureau shall prepare the Wisconsin statutes for publication under s. 35.18 (1), and for this purpose it:
         1.    Shall formulate and prepare a definite plan for the order, classification, arrangement, and publication of the statutes, and prepare and at each session of the legislature present bills to the law revision committee of the joint legislative council containing such consolidation, revision, and other matter relating to the statutes as time permits.
         2.    May renumber any chapter or section of the statutes for the purpose of revision, and shall change reference numbers to agree with any renumbered chapter or section. Where the term “preceding section” or similar expressions are used in the statutes the bureau may change the same by inserting the proper section or chapter reference.
         3.    May, where the application or effect of a statute, by its terms, depends on the time when the act creating the statute took effect, substitute the actual effective date for the various forms of expression which mean that date, such as “when this act (or chapter, or section) takes effect”, or “after (or before) the effective date of this act (or chapter, or section)”, in publishing the Wisconsin statutes under s. 35.18 (1).
         4.    May delete useless words such as “of the statutes”, “of this section”, “hereof”, “immediately above”, “inclusive” and the like, where such words appear immediately after a chapter, section or subsection reference.
         5.    May delete useless words in statutory references such as “any of the provisions of” or “any of the requirements of” and the like when they appear immediately before a reference to a chapter, section, subsection or paragraph of the statutes.
         6.    May delete the word “hereby” wherever used in connection with the verbs “consents”, “grants”, “gives” or “declares” or other verbs.
         7.    May substitute the word “deems” for the words “may deem”.
         8.    May substitute the word “may” for the phrase “is hereby authorized to” or similar phrases.
         9.    May substitute “this state” for the phrase “the state of Wisconsin”.
         10.    May change an incorrect form of a pronoun to the correct form.
         11.    May insert the USC citations for federal acts.
         12.    May delete surplus words and modernize language in penalty provisions to correspond to current drafting style. No such change shall have the effect of increasing or decreasing any penalty.
         13.    Shall, whenever any statute is affected by any act of the legislature, and may, at the bureau’s discretion, ensure that the statutory language does not discriminate on the basis of sex by making the following corrections, which shall have no substantive effect:
            a.    Delete any masculine or feminine pronoun or adjective, except where the statute clearly applies to one sex only, and replace it, if necessary, with terminology which does not discriminate on the basis of sex.
            b.    Replace words of male or female gender, such as man, wife and widow, with terms such as person, spouse and surviving spouse, except where the statute clearly applies to one sex only.
            c.    Make other corrections to remove from the statutes or to replace terminology which discriminates on the basis of sex.
         14.    Shall prepare for introduction in the legislature legislation substituting English terms for Latin terms in the statutes.
         15.    Shall identify for deletion by the legislature provisions that have no legal effect.
         16.    Shall include an index of statutes of limitation and statutes establishing procedures for assertion of claims against governmental units or their employees in ch. 893 of each biennial edition of the Wisconsin statutes.
      (c)    Drafting records; when confidential. While the legislature remains in session the drafting section shall maintain the files for all drafting requests received during such session, but after final adjournment the drafting records to legislation introduced shall be turned over to the reference section under par. (a) 3. Records of drafting requests which did not result in legislation introduced shall remain confidential at all times and may be maintained by the drafting section in such form as will facilitate its operations.
      (e)    Legislative documents. Payments for the following costs shall be administered by the legislative reference bureau:
         1.    Providing printing and duplicating services to the legislature and its service agencies.
         2.    Printing of legislative proposals or amendments and, when so ordered by either house, engrossed or enrolled proposals, under s. 35.05.
         3.    Publication of the Laws of Wisconsin under s. 35.15 and acts under s. 35.095.
         4.    Printing of the Wisconsin Blue Book under s. 35.24.
         5.    Microfilming, optical imaging or electronic formatting of reference materials and legislative drafting records under par. (a) 1. and 3.
         6.    Acquisition of materials and information for legislative service agency libraries and legislative document production.
      (f)    Archives.
         1.    The legislative reference bureau shall permanently maintain each act published under s. 35.095 (3) (a) on the Internet in an electronic file format that the legislative reference bureau determines to be appropriate to allow for the continued usability of the previously published acts and may change the electronic file format over time to assure continued usability.
         2.    The legislative reference bureau shall maintain a permanent database of the statutes published under s. 35.18 (1) (b) in an electronic file format that the legislative reference bureau determines to be appropriate to allow for the continued usability of the previously published statutes and may change the electronic file format over time to assure continued usability.
         3.    The legislative reference bureau shall permanently maintain each Wisconsin administrative register published under s. 35.93 (2) on the Internet in an electronic file format that the legislative reference bureau determines to be appropriate to allow for the continued usability of the previously published registers and may change the electronic file format over time to assure continued usability.
         4.   
            a.    The legislative reference bureau shall permanently maintain each chapter of the Wisconsin administrative code published under s. 35.93 (3) on the Internet in an electronic file format that the legislative reference bureau determines to be appropriate to allow for the continued usability of the previously published chapters and may change the electronic file format over time to assure continued usability.
            b.    The legislative reference bureau shall print one or more copies of each administrative code chapter published under s. 35.93 (3) and preserve the printed copies as a permanent archive. The legislative reference bureau may print and distribute additional copies to other agencies or persons as it considers to be appropriate for archival purposes.
   (2)   Duties of the chief. The chief of the legislative reference bureau shall:
      (a)    Employ, supervise and train the personnel assigned to the chief.
      (b)    Supervise all expenditures of the legislative reference bureau.
      (c)    Serve as editor of the biennial Wisconsin Blue Book.
      (d)    Cooperate with the legislative service agencies of other states and foreign countries toward the better exchange of information.
      (f)    Attend, personally or through a professional employee under sub. (1) (b) designated by the chief, all meetings of the commission on uniform state laws under s. 13.55 and the midwest and national meetings in which the commission participates.
      (h)    Recommend to the joint committee on legislative organization prices for subscriptions to the legislative document distribution service under s. 35.87, including any portion of the service provided separately.
      (i)    Serve as editor of the Wisconsin statutes. If 2 or more acts of a legislative session affect the same statutory unit without taking cognizance of the effect thereon of the other acts and if the chief finds that there is no mutual inconsistency in the changes made by each such act, the chief shall incorporate the changes made by each act into the text of the statutory unit and document the incorporation in a note to the statutory unit. For each such incorporation, the chief shall include in a correction bill a provision formally validating the incorporation. Section 990.07 is not affected by decisions made by the chief under this paragraph.
      (j)    Prior to the end of each even-numbered year, report to the law revision committee those reported opinions of the attorney general, and those reported decisions of any federal district court, or any state or federal appellate court, in which Wisconsin statutes or session laws are stated to be in conflict, ambiguous, anachronistic, unconstitutional, or otherwise in need of revision.
      (jg)    Prior to the end of each even-numbered year, report to the joint committee for review of administrative rules regarding rules in the Wisconsin administrative code that the chief has identified as possibly being in need of revision.
      (jm)    Attend all scheduled meetings and serve as the nonvoting secretary of the committee for review of administrative rules under s. 13.56. The chief of the legislative reference bureau may designate an employee to perform the duties under this paragraph.
      (k)    Approve specifications and scheduling for computer databases containing the Wisconsin statutes and for the printing of the Wisconsin statutes as prescribed in ss. 16.971 (6) and 35.56 (5).
      (L)    In cooperation with the law revision committee, systematically examine and identify for revision by the legislature the statutes and session laws to eliminate defects, anachronisms, conflicts, ambiguities, and unconstitutional or obsolete provisions. The chief shall prepare and, at each session of the legislature, present to the law revision committee bills that eliminate identified defects, anachronisms, conflicts, ambiguities, and unconstitutional or obsolete provisions. These bills may include minor substantive changes in the statutes and session laws necessary to accomplish the purposes of this paragraph. The chief may resubmit to the law revision committee in subsequent sessions of the legislature any bill prepared under this paragraph that was not enacted.
   (2m)   Publication costs. Payments for the following costs shall be administered by the legislative reference bureau:
      (a)    Publication of the Wisconsin statutes under s. 35.18 (1).
      (b)    Publication of the Wisconsin town law forms under s. 35.20.
      (d)    Publication of the Wisconsin administrative code and register under s. 35.93.
   (3)   Treatment of certain legislative reference bureau employees.
      (a)    Notwithstanding s. 230.08 (2) (fc), those employees holding positions in the classified service at the legislative reference bureau on June 16, 1998, who have achieved permanent status in class before that date, shall retain, while serving in the unclassified service at the legislative reference bureau, those protections afforded employees in the classified service under ss. 230.34 (1) (a) and 230.44 (1) (c) relating to demotion, suspension, discharge, layoff or reduction in base pay. Such employees shall also have reinstatement privileges to the classified service as provided under s. 230.33 (1). Those employees of the legislative reference bureau holding positions in the classified service on June 16, 1998, who have not achieved permanent status in class in any position at the legislative reference bureau on that date are eligible to receive the protections, privileges and rights preserved under this subsection if they successfully complete service equivalent to the probationary period required in the classified service for the position which they hold on that date.
      (b)    Notwithstanding s. 230.08 (2) (fc), those employees holding positions in the classified service at the revisor of statutes bureau on October 27, 2007, who have achieved permanent status in class before that date, if they become employed by the legislative reference bureau under 2007 Wisconsin Act 20, section 9130 (1f) (d) 1. or 2., shall retain, while serving in the unclassified service at the legislative reference bureau, those protections afforded employees in the classified service under ss. 230.34 (1) (a) and 230.44 (1) (c) relating to demotion, suspension, discharge, layoff, or reduction in base pay. Each such employee shall also have reinstatement privileges to the classified service as provided under s. 230.31 (1) and any other reinstatement privileges or restoration rights provided under an applicable collective bargaining agreement under subch. V of ch. 111 covering the employee on October 27, 2007.
   (4)   Wisconsin administrative code.
13.92(4)(a)    (a) The legislative reference bureau shall compile and publish the Wisconsin administrative code as provided in s. 35.93 (3). Whenever the legislative reference bureau receives notice under s. 227.40 (6) of the entry of a declaratory judgment determining the validity or invalidity of a rule, the legislative reference bureau shall insert an annotation of that determination in the Wisconsin administrative code under the rule that was the subject of the determination.
      (b)    The legislative reference bureau may do any of the following:
         1.    Renumber any provision of the Wisconsin administrative code and, if it does so, shall change cross-references to agree with the renumbered provision.
         2.    Change the title of any rule.
         3.    Insert the proper cross-reference wherever “preceding section” or a similar term is used in the code.
         4.    Delete surplus words such as “of this rule”, “of this code”, “of the statutes”, “hereof” and “immediately above”.
         5.    Delete any masculine or feminine pronoun or adjective, except where the rule clearly applies to only one sex, and, if necessary, replace it with sex-neutral terminology.
         6.    Change any incorrect agency name or address.
         7.    Change any incorrect cross-reference to a federal or state statute, rule or regulation.
         8.    Delete “hereby” when it is used in connection with a verb such as “consents”, “grants”, “gives” or “declares”.
         9.    Substitute “deems” for “may deem”.
         10.    Substitute “may” for a phrase such as “is hereby authorized to”.
         11.    Substitute “this state” for “the state of Wisconsin”.
         12.    Change any incorrect form of a word to the correct form.
         13.    Insert the U.S. code citation for the citation to a federal act.
         14.    If the application or effect of a rule, by its terms, depends on the time when the rule takes effect, substitute the actual effective date for a phrase which means that date, such as “when this rule takes effect”, “on the effective date of this rule” or “after the effective date of this rule”.
         15.    Delete obsolete rules promulgated by an agency that no longer exists.
         16.    Delete severability provisions.
      (bm)    If 2 or more rules filed under s. 227.20 or modified under s. 227.265 affect the same unit of the Wisconsin administrative code without taking cognizance of the effect thereon of the other rules and if the legislative reference bureau finds that there is no mutual inconsistency in the changes made by each such rule, the legislative reference bureau shall incorporate the changes made by each rule into the text of the unit and document the incorporation in a note to the unit. For each such incorporation, the legislative reference bureau shall include in a correction bill a provision formally validating the incorporation. Section 227.27 (2) is not affected by printing decisions made by the legislative reference bureau under this paragraph.
      (c)    The legislative reference bureau may insert in the Wisconsin administrative code a note explaining any change made under par. (b) or (bm).
      (d)    Sections 227.114, 227.116, 227.135, and 227.14 to 227.24 do not apply to any change made by the legislative reference bureau under par. (b) or (bm).
      (e)    The legislative reference bureau shall prepare and keep on file a record of each change made under par. (b) or (bm).
      (f)    The legislative reference bureau shall notify the agency involved of each change made under par. (b) or (bm).

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