MacIver News Service

Assembly Republicans held a press conference last week to discuss their new initiative, Right the Rules. According to Representative Dan LeMahieu, Co-chair of the Joint Committee for Review Administrative Rules, Right the Rules is an attempt to perform a comprehensive regulatory review of the Administrative Code. Presently, the Administrative Code consists of 18 volumes and 1, 768 chapters.

LeMahieu, says that the goal is to make the Administrative Code “more user friendly to the business community.” They want to make regulations understandable and up-to-date, making it easier for businesses to comply and thereby encouraging job growth.

The JCRAR has created a website Right the Rules and the public is invited to give suggestions and leave comments on regulations they have concerns about.

The review process started with the legislature dividing all the chapters among the different committees in the Assembly. Each committee chairman will look at their assigned chapters and decide if the regulations are working by “protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Wisconsin.” If there is a need for change, everyone will vote on that specific regulation, which will have to pass through both houses and Governor Walker in order to change the statute.

LeMahieu said that is a “very aggressive project.”

Chairman of Consumer Protection, Jeremy Thiesfeldt has found a number of rules and regulations that he believes are hindering, rather than helping businesses in Wisconsin. Many codes are “superfluous and archaic.” For example, Thiesfeldt said that “older regulations have no reference to the digital age whatsoever.”

One regulation even states that the “packaging of eggs has to be with the smaller side down.”

Republicans hope is that this is not a partisan issue and they are optimistic everyone in the legislature will cooperate in “getting rid of unnecessary regulations to better Wisconsin.” The process will take the entire session, and depending on how many chapters a committee was assigned, it could take much longer.