227.21 Publication of rules; incorporation by reference.

(1) The legislative reference bureau shall publish all rules that agencies are directed by this chapter to file with the legislative reference bureau under s. 227.20 in the register and shall publish all permanent rules that agencies are directed by this chapter to file with the legislative reference bureau under s. 227.20 in the code, as provided in s. 35.93.

(2)

(a) Except as provided in s. 601.41 (3) (b), to avoid unnecessary expense an agency may, with the consent of the attorney general, adopt standards established by technical societies and organizations of recognized national standing by incorporating the standards in its rules by reference to the specific issue or issues of the publication in which they appear, without reproducing the standards in full.

(b) The attorney general shall consent to incorporation by reference only in a rule of limited public interest and in a case where the incorporated standards are readily available in published form or are available on optical disc or in another electronic format. Each rule containing an incorporation by reference shall state how the material incorporated may be obtained and, except as provided in s. 601.41 (3) (b), that the standards are on file at the offices of the agency and the legislative reference bureau.

(c) An agency that adopts standards under par. (a) may provide the legislative reference bureau with one or more Web addresses to provide electronic access to the standards for publication in conjunction with the publication of the Wisconsin administrative code and register under s. 35.93.

(3) A rule promulgated jointly by 2 or more agencies need not be published in more than one place in the code.

(4) Agency materials that are exempt from the requirements of this chapter under s. 227.01 (13) may be published, either verbatim or in summary form, if the promulgating agency and the legislative reference bureau determine that the public interest would be served by publication.

History: 1985 a. 182; 1987 a. 403; 2001 a. 65; 2005 a. 249; 2007 a. 20, 96, 180; 2013 a. 20; 2015 a. 196.

Consent may not be given to incorporate by reference the U.S. Code or federal regulations, except rules meeting the definition of a technical standard. Material incorporated by reference cannot include future amendments thereto. 59 Atty. Gen. 31. See also 68 Atty. Gen. 9.