Gov. Evers Pushes Long List of State Rule Changes
Citing WI Supreme Court ruling, he declares end to Legislature's 'abuse of power.'
Gov. Tony Evers visits UW-Eau Claire on March 10, 2025. Rich Kremer/WPR
Gov. Tony Evers is telling state agencies not to wait for Republican-led legislative committees to sign off on a backlog of administrative rules covering topics ranging from wolf management to professional licensing.
Some of the rules had been held up for years, but Evers argues a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling last month cleared the way for him to give final approval to the proposals without also getting a legislative committee’s OK.
Administrative rules are effectively the fine details of laws, written by subject matter experts at state agencies. When Republicans ran all of state government, they passed passed laws that scaled back the power of agencies to advance rules without the Legislature’s consent.
In an Aug. 12 letter to state agency leaders, Evers said a 4-2 ruling from the Supreme Court means there “no longer remains any statutory requirement to wait for legislative committee review before promulgating a rule once I have approved it.”
“I respectfully request that you analyze areas in which the Legislature’s prior abuse of power forestalled, delayed, or halted prior rulemaking in service of the people of our state,” Evers said.
In July, the Supreme Court struck down parts of state law that allowed the Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, or JCRAR, to indefinitely suspend rule changes. That case was based on a lawsuit from Evers which focused on a years-long blockade of social worker licensing rules banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth.
However, the ruling didn’t touch on other provisions requiring rules from agencies to go through what are known as “standing committees” — the legislative panels that focus on specific subjects ranging from agriculture to natural resources to insurance. Those provisions give committees other than JCRAR up to 60 days to review proposed rules.
According to WisPolitics, 27 proposed rules have been submitted to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau for publication, the final step before they take legal effect. Just more than half of those have gone through standing committees, only to be blocked by JCRAR. Several of the rule proposals haven’t gone through the committee process at all.
Wolf management plan, water quality standards included in rules stalled for years
Among the rules submitted to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication is an updated wolf management plan, which was first approved by the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board in October 2023.
Republicans have criticized the wolf management plan for not having a statewide population goal. Animal advocacy groups and Wisconsin Indian tribes have criticized it for not offering enough protections for wolves if the animals are removed from the endangered list and are allowed to be hunted again in the state.
Another Department of Natural Resources rule proposal would update Wisconsin’s antidegradation policy, which would modify regulations on pollution discharges into surface waters. It would also bring the state in line with updates to the federal Clean Water Act made in 2015. That rule change was also submitted to the Legislature in 2023 and has been stalled ever since.
Environmental groups celebrated the changes. Erik Kanter, the government relations director for environmental advocacy group Clean Wisconsin, said it would let the DNR catch up to the Clean Water Act.
“Every state surrounding Wisconsin went ahead and updated their own rules within one year, two years, maybe three years, of that change federally,” Kanter said. “It’s 10 years, and Wisconsin has not gone through the process of updating its own rules to comply with and match that federal requirement.”
A statement from Midwest Environmental Advocates spokesperson Peg Sheaffer said the legislative process prior to the court’s ruling allowed “small groups of legislators” to block popular environmental protections.
Republican lawmaker: ‘Litigation is always possible’
State Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee, who cochairs the JCRAR, said he thinks the Evers administration and state agencies are “stretching” the boundaries of what the Supreme Court’s ruling in July actually did. He said the standing committee process plays an important part in crafting proposed agency rules.
“I think it’s a mistake,” Neylon said of Evers’ directive. “I think the standing committees play an important role, and we can do things like request modifications, have public hearings, and we should still be able to do those important duties,” Neylon said.
He said Republican leaders in the state Assembly and Senate are discussing how to address Evers telling state agencies to skip legislative committees during the rulemaking process.
“Litigation is always possible, especially when you have a situation where it doesn’t seem like the law is being followed,” Neylon said. “That’s certainly something that we have to consider.”
Luke Berg, an attorney for the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said he thought there would eventually be more litigation to resolve the dispute. But in the short-term, he expected state agencies to follow the governor’s lead.
“And if the Legislature wants to stop them, they’re going to have to get the governor to sign a bill,” Berg said. “Of course, the governor also has to approve all the rules, so they would be asking the governor effectively to overrule himself, which as a practical matter seems very unlikely.”
In rule overhaul blitz, Gov. Tony Evers tells agencies not to wait for GOP committees was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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