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 02-25-2026

Legislative Update on AB961/SB938

Late Friday afternoon (February 20), the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) forwarded a request from the American Bookseller’s Association (ABA) for Wisconsin residents to contact their Assembly Representatives and ask they oppose AB961/SB938

In its current form, the bill would require digital distributors of media to display prominent “explicit content” warning labels on material that “predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest of children,” “is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for children” and “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, scientific or educational value for children.”  The bill calls for the warning label to be displayed on the front page of digital platforms. The label would need to appear for at least 10 seconds or until a user acknowledges the warning.

ABA had concerns that, although an amendment had already removed references to “print publications” (including books, magazines and pamphlets that contained explicit content), additional references to “print material” within a digital platform context remained throughout the bill.  

WLA’s Government Relations Advisor Steve Conway registered WLA as against passage.  

No WLA action is recommended at this time. WLA will continue to monitor AB961/SB938 and alert members if action is needed. WLA will also be reaching out to ARSL and ABA to open lines of communication so that WLA can provide accurate on-site information to assist future messaging regarding Wisconsin legislation.  

For any questions or concerns please reach out to the following contacts:

Peter Loeffel

Chair, LD & L Committee

Kara Sullivan

WLA Executive Director 

 

 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.