(The Center Square) – A group of bills dubbed the Red Tape Reset are on the move after passing a Senate committee with a 3-2 vote on a party line.
The set of bills include regulatory sunsetting, regulatory budgeting, a one rule per scope statement and a proposal challenging the validity of administrative rules.
The bills were the subject of an Oct. 9 joint public hearing on regulatory reform.
“When agencies are creating new regulations that raise costs, they’ll have to offset them,” said Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin. “This is really about accountability and restoring balance.”
The bill aims to cut down on the 165,000 restrictions currently in state law with the sunsetting bill requiring all chapters of administrative code be reviewed, updated or allowed to expire every seven years.
“Red tape hurts real people,” Bradley said. “… The bills in the red tape are just going to clear the path so that they can move forward.”
The budgeting bill requires any new administrative code regulation with an economic impact to be offset by the repeal or revision of existing regulations of equal or greater impact.
The single scope bill blocks allowing agencies to use a single scope statement to create multiple regulations over time.
The challenge bill would require courts to award attorney fees and costs to plaintiffs who successfully challenge unlawful administrative rules.
The bills come as a Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty study estimated that a 20% reduction in regulatory restrictions in the state would increase Wisconsin’s economy by $23 billion by 2037.
