THE PRUNE ACT

The PRUNE Act — Periodic Review and Update of Needless Expenses

Regulatory Review & Sunset Initiative

Wisconsin's regulatory code has grown for decades with almost no systematic process for removing rules that are outdated, redundant, or doing more harm than good. Regulations get added. They rarely get removed. The result is an ever-growing burden on small businesses, tradespeople, farmers, and entrepreneurs who spend time and money complying with rules written for a different era — rules that nobody has looked at in years, and that nobody in government has any incentive to question.

The PRUNE Act changes that by building a permanent, structured review process into Wisconsin's regulatory system.

The Review Cycle

Every regulation on the books is reviewed on a four-year rolling schedule tied to the legislative session. Each year, the regulations enacted or last reviewed four years prior come up for mandatory review. This means the review process is continuous and manageable — not a once-in-a-generation regulatory cleanup that never actually happens. New regulations are automatically entered into the review cycle from the moment they are enacted. Existing regulations are phased into the schedule so that within one full cycle, every regulation on the books has been reviewed.

The Wisconsin Regulatory Review Commission

Reviews are conducted by a newly created Wisconsin Regulatory Review Commission — a bipartisan body that operates independently of the agencies whose regulations it is reviewing. Agency self-review is not review. When you ask a bureaucracy to evaluate its own rules, the answer is always that the rules are necessary. The WRRC removes that conflict of interest entirely.

The commission evaluates every regulation against three questions:

• Does it still serve the purpose for which it was created?

• Does the benefit it provides justify the burden it imposes?

• Does it pass a small business impact test — meaning a small business can reasonably comply without dedicated legal or regulatory staff?

If a regulation fails any of these tests, the commission issues a formal finding and sends it to the legislature with a recommendation to amend, consolidate, or repeal. The legislature must act on that recommendation within the same session — it cannot be ignored or indefinitely tabled.

What Happens After Review

Regulations do not automatically expire — but they cannot simply sail through review unchallenged either. Every regulation that comes up for review must be affirmatively justified by the agency that enforces it. The burden of proof is on the regulation, not on the businesses and individuals subject to it. A regulation that cannot be justified gets flagged for legislative action. One that passes review is re-entered into the cycle for review four years later.

The Small Business Impact Test

Any regulation that a small business cannot reasonably understand and comply with — without hiring an attorney, a compliance officer, or a regulatory consultant — fails the test. Wisconsin's small businesses are the backbone of the Fox Valley economy. They should not need a legal team just to follow the rules.

The Bottom Line:

The PRUNE Act doesn't eliminate necessary regulation. It eliminates the assumption that every regulation is necessary forever. By reviewing rules on a continuous four-year cycle through an independent bipartisan commission, Wisconsin builds a regulatory environment that stays current, stays fair, and stays accountable to the people who have to live under it.