Evers seeks to bypass JCRAR to implement new rules

The Evers administration is pushing to have new rules put into place without first submitting them to JCRAR, citing a state Supreme Court ruling that nixed the committee’s power to indefinitely suspend proposed regulations.

Gov. Tony Evers cited that ruling in a letter to cabinet secretaries last week directing them to “submit rules that have made it through that relevant part of the process to the Legislative Reference Bureau for finalization and publication.”

It is the latest example of the Dem guv seeking to bypass a legislative committee after a string of state Supreme Court rulings that have nixed various oversight powers. The court this summer ruled the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules could no longer indefinitely suspend proposed regulations.

In his letter, Evers wrote that ruling means the “Legislature must act through legislation if it wishes to suspend, delay, or veto an administrative rule. There no longer remains any statutory requirement to wait for legislative committee review before promulgating a rule once I have approved it. This is good and important news as it means we can—and must—continue the people’s work in earnest.”

LRB Director Rick Champagne said the agency received 28 rules from a half-dozen agencies on Thursday seeking to have them published in the register. Once the next round of rules are published, the agency will then update the code in September before those regulations take effect Oct. 1.

Champagne noted the Supreme Court ruling didn’t address the power of standing committees to review administrative rules. LRB was working through the list of 28 proposed rules to determine which ones had cleared that process before proceeding to publish them.

Under the rule-making process, standing committees have 30 days to review a proposed rule after receiving it. The committees can extend that an additional 30 days.

Champagne said the agency has until later this week to complete that review to be ready for next week’s register.

JCRAR was slated to vote via paper ballot tomorrow to take up a request from the Department of Public Instruction to extend an emergency rule on pre-student teaching requirements for supplementary area licenses.

But Mike Mikalsen, an aide to committee Co-chair Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said the vote was canceled as Republican lawmakers work with leadership in deciding a response. He said the court didn’t strike down the entire administrative rule process, and “it looks as though once again Gov. Evers has chosen the path of lawlessness when it comes to administrative rules.”