Introduced in the Assembly and referred to the Committee on State Affairs. SB15 enacted into law (2017 Wisconsin Act 57) on 08/09/2017, and published 08/10/2017.
The REINS Act, or the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, would require any proposed new regulation with estimated costs of compliance over $10 million to be approved by the state legislature, regardless of estimated benefits. Any regulation which does not gain approval from the legislature within 70 days would automatically fail. Passage of the bill would place a great burden upon the legislature to review and approve agency regulations on time and in a politically charged climate, and in many cases without the necessary technical expertise that state agencies possess. The bill, which has a federal counterpart, has therefore been predicted by many to grind the regulatory process to a halt. Ultimately, this will result in far fewer regulations, many of which may be sorely missed as environmental, safety, and health standards correspondingly fall.