Dec. 11, 2023 – Following a busy fall floor period, legislators have begun the process of wrapping up their work over what is expected to be an active January and February floor session. There is always a sense of urgency by legislators at this time to get their priorities and business done as quickly as possible to avoid being caught up in any last-minute session wrangling that may impact the passage of pending legislation.
Currently, the legislature has their final floor periods of the session scheduled from Jan. 16 to Jan. 25 and Feb. 13 to Feb. 22. An additional three floor days are scheduled from March 12 to March 14, but if we use past schedules as a model, they might only use these days for limited action, or one house might meet just to take up bills that have been amended or passed one house and not the other.
State Bar Practice Sections Issues on Track for Consideration
Since Sept. 1, 2023 there have been over 700 legislative proposals introduced and the legislature is on track for almost 2,000 total bill introductions. Many of those bills are vetted and reviewed by State Bar lobbying sections that have voluntarily chosen to participate in the State Bar’s lobbying program. Sections can determine positions of support or opposition and work on their own proactively drafted legislation with legislative sponsors on issues that are relevant to their practice areas.
Cale Battles, is the senior government relations coordinator with the State Bar of Wisconsin. He can be reached by email, or by phone at (608) 250-6077.
Lynne Davis, is a government relations coordinator with the State Bar of Wisconsin. She can be reached by email, or by phone at (608) 852-3603.
Devin Martin, is the grassroots outreach coordinator with the State Bar of Wisconsin. He can be reached by email, or by phone at (608) 250-6145.
The State Bar has several active lobbying positions on pending issues and a number of additional lobbying interests on legislative topics. A handful of issues that sections have lobbied on have become law including:
2023 Wisconsin Act 36 on adopting changes to federal Internal Revenue Code for state tax purposes (supported by Taxation Law Section),
2023 Wisconsin Act 46 clarifying the responsible party for costs incurred by utility relocation delays (supported by Construction Law Section) and
2023 Wisconsin Act 61 that strengthens the criminal code to better protect citizens from sexual predators (supported by the Criminal Law Section).
Summary of Legislative Bills of Interest Being Considered by Legislature
Below is a short summary of proposals that might be of interest to State Bar members. Most of the proposals listed have positions taken by either the State Bar’s Board of Governors or by one of the Bar’s 13 active lobbying practice sections.
For questions or more information on pending legislation please feel free to contact State Bar Government Relations Coordinators, Lynne Davis (ldavis@wisbar.org) or Cale Battles (cbattles@wisbar.org). For grassroots advocacy questions please contact Devin Martin (dmartin@wisbar.org). To stay up date on budget news please
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