How to Read a Bill

WISCONSIN LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU

LEGISLATIVE SEMESTER TEACHER TRAINING, JUNE 25, 2025

SENIOR ATTORNEYS LIS SHEA AND ZACK WYATT

Legislative Reference Bureau

• Legal services
• drafting of all bills, resolutions, and amendments
• confidential, nonpartisan legal advice and services to legislators
• coverage of Assembly and Senate floor sessions
• Research and analysis
• confidential legal and public policy research
• maintenance of drafting files for introduced legislation
• extensive publications, including Wisconsin Blue Book
• General legislative services

Legislative Reference Bureau

• legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb/
• Legal services
• 608.504.5801
• lrb.legal@legis.wisconsin.gov
• Research and analysis
• 608.504.5802
• lrb.reference@legis.wisconsin.gov

How to Read a Bill

• Basic parts of a bill draft
• Reading statutory changes in a bill
• Understanding nonstatutory provisions

Finding a Drafting Attorney

• Attorneys have specific drafting areas
• LRB website lists attorney by name and areas
• Our front desk staff can direct you

Parts of a Bill

• Header
• Title
• Introduction information
• Catalog & relating clause
• Analysis
• Enactment clause
• Statutory material
• Nonstatutory material

Header

Legislative session

LRB number

Drafting attorney and editor

Title

• Preliminary drafts (/P1)
• Introducible drafts (/1)

Introduction information

Introduction date

Authors and cosponsors

Committee referral

Catalog & Relating Clause

• Joint Rule 52 (1): state, in the fewest words practicable, the subject to which the bill relates
• Joint Rule 52 (1) (d): The relating clause shall record any of the following:
• 1. Expressly granting rulemaking authority, or providing an exemption from rulemaking procedures, or providing an exemption from or extending the time limit for emergency rule procedures.
• 2. Requiring a referendum.
• 3. Expressly providing for a penalty.
• 4. Making, continuing, or renewing an appropriation.

Relating clause

Catalog

Analysis

• Plain language analysis, as required by s. 13.92 (1) (b) 2.
• Legal analysis by attorney who drafted the bill
• Describes current law and legal effect of the bill
• Describes important features (not necessarily everything)

Enactment Clause

• Required by Article 4, Section 17 of the Wisconsin Constitution

Body

• Statutes are divided into chapters by subject
• Bill shows what changes to make to what parts of the statutes
• Bill sections arranged in numerical order of the statutory provision affected

CHAPTER 1, 2, 3

SUBCHAPTER 1, II, III

Section 13.92, 20.005, 990.01

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Subsection (1), (2), (3m), (4t)

Paragraph (a), (b), (cm), (dt)

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‘Subdivision’ 1., 2., 3m., 4t.

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Subdivision paragraph a., b., c., d.

Body

• Amended text contains striking and scoring
• Stricken language is removed
• Underscored language is added
• Everything else is current law

Body

• Bill sections repealing or renumbering statutory sections do not show affected language
• Check current law to understand effect

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Body

• Bill sections creating new language contain no striking or scoring

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Body

• Bill may not contain everything necessary to understand a change.
• Check current law for introductory provisions or other context.

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Body

• Context matters!
• Length of bill does not correlate to complexity.
• Our goal is to make bills accurate, consistent, and clear.

Nonstatutory Provisions

• Joint Rule 53 (1): “law of continuing application is incorporated into the statutes”
• Joint Rule 53 (2) provides that certain provisions need not be put into the statutes.
• Nonstatutory provisions have the force of law.
• Four types:
• Nonstatutory provision
• Fiscal change
• Initial applicability
• Effective date

Nonstatutory Provisions

• Any provision narrow in scope and intended to be temporary
• Joint Rule 53 (2) also lists specific types

Fiscal Changes

• Change to amount an existing appropriation
• Generally boiler plate language

Initial Applicability

• Identifies events to which a change in law will apply
• Provides for clear transition from previous to new law

Effective date

• Default: one day after publication (two days after enactment)
• Specified date can change date on which act or part of act takes effect

Questions?