Yesterday, a split state Supreme Court overturned the Legislature’s power to suspend administrative rules, ending decades of lawmakers having the power to at least temporarily block agency regulations.
In a 4-3 decision, the court found the statutes giving those powers to the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirement of bicameralism and presentment, which mandates any law to pass both houses of the Legislature and be presented to the governor.
The ruling stems from a challenge Dem Gov. Tony Evers filed to two actions by JCRAR: indefinitely blocking commercial building code rules administered by the Department of Safety and Professional Services and suspending for more than three years the rule the Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board issued that served as a de facto ban on conversion therapy.
The rulemaking process includes multiple steps, from the Governor proposing a framework for the regulation to submitting it to the Legislature for review and then publication. Prior to the court’s ruling, JCRAR had several options to halt rules from taking effect.
It could meet and take executive action to introduce legislation in each house of the Legislature to support the objection. If the bill becomes law, the agency can’t promulgate the rule unless a later law expressly authorizes it to do so. That option remains even after the court’s decision.
The ruling overturned the committee’s option to indefinitely object to a rule. Under that process, the rule was barred from moving forward unless specifically authorized by the Legislature.