Legislative Alerts

BILLS WE'RE WATCHING

OVERVIEW

Every legislative proposal has both a Senate Bill Number and an Assembly Bill Number. To advance through the Wisconsin legislative process, each bill must be introduced in both the Senate and the Assembly by at least one member of each body. Additional Senators and Assembly Representatives are solicited and may be added as coauthors and cosponsors throughout the process. A bill’s Senate page on the Wisconsin Legislature website includes a link to its Assembly page and vice versa.

Clicking on the bill numbers listed below will open the bill’s Senate and/or Assembly home page. There you will find a summary of the bill and full bill text link to analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, a list of coauthors and cosponsors, the committee to which it is assigned (linked to a list of committee members) and the history of the bill’s progress through the legislature. Clicking on “Wisconsin Ethics Commission information” goes to the Commission’s lobbying website page listing organizations registered for and against each bill.

For additional information, see also How a Bill Becomes Law (last updated 2016) and Wisconsin Citizen's Guide to the Legislature (2023).

WLA members will be notified when contact with legislators is urgent for any of the bills listed below.

WLA is Monitoring These Bills

Updated 04-02-24

The 2023-2024 session of the Wisconsin Legislature adjourned after the March 12 -14, 2024 floor period. The only library-related bill introduced for a floor vote in both houses was 2023 Senate Bill 707 / 2023 Assembly Bill 741 relating to national reading program grants. This bipartisan bill was passed by the Senate on February 13, 2024 and the Assembly on February 20, 2024, and signed into law by Governor Evers as Act 191 on March 22, 2024.

All other bills monitored by WLA during the 2023-2024 session died without a committee vote.

Please return to this page to monitor new content after the 2025-2026 session convenes following the inauguration of legislators on January 6, 2025.

ALA Advocacy Alert :

What's happening in Congress now? For the moment, lots of talking, not a lot of agreeing – but maybe soon! That's why we need you to contact your legislators about these issues:

Funding for Library Construction: Congressional Democrats continue to negotiate about their budget reconciliation bill, called the Build Back Better Act. On Oct. 28, House Democrats unveiled a new, $1.75 trillion draft. That version of the bill included $300 million in additional funding for the Emergency Connectivity Fund which can provide grants to libraries, but did not include funding for library construction or school construction. However, changes to that draft are expected! This is likely our last chance to urge that libraries be included in the Build Back Better Act. As a prominent voice in the Senate, it is important that Senator Baldwin hears from you and understands that funding for library construction must be included in the bill. To contact Senator Baldwin, please click here.

IMLS and LSTA/IAL Funding: Congress has not yet passed annual funding bills for the current fiscal year; instead, government programs are operating under temporary funding at last year's levels, called a continuing resolution, until Dec. 3. Thanks to all of your advocacy earlier this year, the proposed FY 2022 appropriations bills include significant increases for federal funding for libraries, including an additional $9 million for the IMLS-administered Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) in the House bill, and $3 million for the Department of Education-administered Innovative Approaches to Literacy Grant (IAL). In addition, the Senate draft includes $3 million for an important Information Literacy Taskforce. However, we need to ensure that these increases remain included as Congress works to reach their final agreement before the deadline. Please contact your federal Senators and Representatives and ask them to ensure these funding increases are included for libraries in FY 2022. To find the contact information for your Senators, please go here, and your Representatives, please go here.

For more information about ALA's advocacy campaigns, please visit their website.

Thank you so much for your continued advocacy,

Sherry Machones
WLA Federal Coordinator