The State Emergency Response Board finds that an emergency exists and that the attached rule is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health safety or welfare. A statement of the facts constituting the emergency is:

It is necessary to provide adequate protection against the risks to life and property inherent in the transportation of hazardous materials in commerce.

This emergency rule is being promulgated to allow continuation of the Wisconsin hazardous materials transportation registration program established in s. 166.20(7g), Stats. The State Emergency Response Board (SERB) promulgated a rule, ch. ERB 4, to implement the program. The original rule had a sunset date of June 30, 1995. A revised ch. ERB 4 was promulgated December 1, 1995, but was superseded by statutory changes to s. 166.20(7g), Stats., enacted in the Department of Transportation (DOT) biennial budget.

The emergency rule will enable the DOT to collect registration fees for the billing period July 1, 1995 through June 30, 1996. This was agreed upon as a necessary step by several agencies including SERB, Division of Emergency Government and DOT in consultation with Legislative Council and Joint Committee For Review of Administrative Rules staff. Through this collection, DOT will meet the statutory requirement to collect an annual registration fee for the transport of hazardous materials. These fees are deposited to the State Transportation Fund to partially offset the DOT appropriations funding the level A and level B hazardous materials emergency response teams in Wisconsin. The legislature has supported the emergency response team system in Wisconsin by adopting legislation to authorize teams and fund them through a combination of fees and the State Transportation Fund.

The SERB, the Department of Military Affairs-Division of Emergency Government and the Department of Transportation are jointly developing a permanent rule to reflect the statutory fee structure enacted by the legislature in the DOT 1995-97 biennial budget. It is expected a revised permanent rule will be promulgated later this year.

The Department of Employment Relations finds that an emergency exists and that rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety of welfare. A statement of the facts constituting the emergency is:

Many state agencies are undergoing reorganizations, either at the directive of the Governor and State Legislature or on their own initiative. These organizational changes are occurring to promote efficient and effective administration of state agencies, improve delivery of services and improve coordination of similar programs. Numerous permanent postilions in the classified civil service are being restructured because of a reduction in force due to a lack of work or funds or owing to material changes in duties organization. Incumbents of those positions will soon face critical career decisions and alternatives that involve new duties, classification and/or physical location of their work site.

This emergency rule allows employes who have been notified that they are “at risk” of layoff to maintain their current rate of pay if they voluntarily demote under certain circumstances within an agency. “At risk” means the employe has received written notification that layoffs may occur in the agency and the employe's position may be affected by they layoffs. The employe may be allowed to retain his/her present rate of pay only if the demotion is to a position no more than three pay ranges or counterpart pay ranges lower than the pay range of the position from which the employe is demoting.

If the option of maintaining the employe's pay rate is not available to the employe and the agency, employes will be forced to choose between options that may result in a reduction in pay, transfer or demotion to a less desirable location or position, or the employe may eventually be laid off. These consequences may adversely affect employe morale, undermine the efficient use of human resources and reduce the benefits of the agency reorganization. Retention of an employe's current rate of pay can be used by the agency as an incentive for employes to move to positions they might otherwise not choose.

For these reasons and because employe layoffs may occur before the Department could promulgate permanent rule, the Department believes a finding of emergency is warranted to preserve the welfare of individual employes and the civil service system.

The Wisconsin Gaming Commission finds that an emergency exists and that a rule is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. A statement of the facts constituting the emergency is:

The previous fee of $50 per performance made simulcasting cost prohibitive, and as a result, prevented the expansion of employment and residual economic benefits. The emergency rule will allow for the increased economic activity.

The Legislature in s. 182 (1) of 1993 Wis. Act 446 directed the Department to promulgate rules under s. 48.67 (1), Stats., as amended by Act 446, for licensing treatment foster homes, to take effect on September 1, 1994, by using the emergency rule-making procedures under s. 227.24, Stats., but without having to make a finding of emergency. They will remain in effect until replaced by permanent rules.

This rule-making order implements s. 48.67 (1), Stats., as amended by 1993 Wis. Act 446, which directs the Department to promulgate rules establishing minimum requirements for issuing licenses to treatment foster homes, including standards for operation of those homes.

Treatment foster care is a family-based and community-based approach to substitute care and treatment for children who are medically needy or emotionally disturbed and for some developmentally disabled children, and could be an alternative to institutionalization for some children. Treatment foster care is provided in a foster home by foster parents who meet education and training requirements which exceed the requirements for regular foster care, and by social service, mental health and other professional staff.

A number of public and private agencies have recently begun providing “treatment foster care,” but since there are no standards currently for this type of care, those programs vary considerably in the type and quality of services they provide. These rules establish minimum standards that agencies, professional staff and foster parents would have to meet in order to claim that they are providing treatment foster care.

The rules require treatment foster homes to comply with ch. HSS 56 for regular foster homes except when there is a conflict between a provision of these rules and ch. HSS 56, in which case these rules take precedence.

The rules cover making application to a licensing agency for a treatment foster home licensee, licensee qualifications, licensee responsibilities, respite care for foster parents, responsibilities of the providing agency, the physical environment of a treatment foster home, care of the children and training for treatment foster parents.

The Legislature in s. 9126 (27x) (b) of 1995 Wis. Act 27 directed the Department to promulgate rules required under s. 254.151, Stats., as created by Act 27, using emergency rulemaking procedures, but exempted the Department from the requirement under s. 227.24 (1) and (3), Stats., to make a finding of emergency. They will take effect on publication in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

These rules implement the requirement in s. 254.151, Stats., as amended by 1995 Wis. Act 27, that the Department establish criteria by rule for the award of grants to fund educational programs, including programs for health care providers, about the dangers of lead poisoning or exposure to lead; to fund lead poisoning or lead exposure screening, care coordination and follow-up services, including lead inspections, for or on behalf of children under the age of 6, not covered by third-party payers; to fund administration and enforcement activities of local health departments that, under s. 254.152, Stats., are designated by the Department to be its agents for administration and enforcement of ss. 254.11 to 254.178, Stats.

The grant program was established in mid-1994. The requirement that the Department's criteria for awarding grants be set out in rules was added by Act 27 in mid-1995. The amount available in the appropriation for grant awards is $879,000 for each year of the 1995-97 biennium.

The rules identify who may apply or a grant, describe the application process, provide for preliminary review of applications by the Department for compliance with format and content requirements set out in the relevant request for proposals (RFP), provide for evaluation of applications by one or more review committees appointed by the Department and specify 14 criteria for use in that final review, note that the Department will award grants based on the recommendations of the review committee or committees and taking into consideration other specified factors and describe the awards process and conditions that are imposed when grants are awarded.

The Department of Health and Social Services finds that an emergency exists and that the adoption of rules is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. The facts constituting the emergency are as follows:

Actions that emergency medical technicians (EMTs) are authorized to carry out in providing emergency medical care in prehospital and interfacility settings are now specified in s. 146.50 (6m), Stats. A recent session law, 1993 Wis. Act 251, repealed that statute effective January 1, 1996 and directed the Department to have rules in place on that date that specify what those actions are. The Department has separate chapters of rules for licensing EMTs-basic, EMTs-intermediate and EMTs-paramedic. This emergency order amends ch. HSS 111, rules for licensing EMTs-intermediate, and ch. HSS 112, rules for licensing EMTs-paramedic, to specify the actions that EMTs-intermediate and EMTs-paramedic may carry out.

Through separate permanent rulemaking orders, the Department is revising chs. HSS 111 and 112 in their entirety in order to specify the authorized actions of EMTs-intermediate and EMTs-paramedic and, at the request of the new Emergency Medical Services Board under s. 146.58, Stats., to update the chapters. However, those rulemaking orders have not yet been transmitted to the Legislative Council for review and therefore will not likely take effect until July 1, 1996 at the earliest. Consequently, the Department, in order to have the rules that specify the authorized actions of EMTs-intermediate and EMTs-paramedic in effect by January 1, 1996, when s. 146.50 (6m), Stats., will be repealed, is publishing the authorized actions subsections of the proposed revised permanent rules by this emergency order. This must be done because s. 146.50 (6n), Stats., which takes effect on January 1, 1996, provides that EMTs-intermediate and EMTs-paramedic may undertake only those actions that are authorized in rules promulgated by the Department. If those rules are not in effect on that date, ambulance services will not be able to provide emergency medical services using EMTs-intermediate or EMTs-paramedic and consequently there will be reduced availability of emergency medical services and a threat to public safety.

The Legislature in s. 12 (1) of 1995 Wis. Act 12 permitted the Department to promulgate the rules required under s. 49.19 (11s), Stats., as created by Act 12, by using emergency rulemaking procedures but without having to make a finding of emergency. They will take effect on January 1, 1996.

Under s. 49.19, Stats., a family can apply and be determined eligible for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. If a family is determined eligible, the AFDC benefit amount is based, in part, on family size. The maximum amount of AFDC benefits a family can receive currently increases when an additional child is born.

On January 1, 1996, Wisconsin will implement the AFDC Benefit Cap Demonstration Project, authorized under s. 49.19 (11s), Stats., as created by 1995 Wis. Act 12. The purpose of this demonstration is to test whether eliminating the increase in the AFDC grant when an additional child is born will encourage families on welfare to delay having more children until they are financially able to support them.

Under the demonstration project, a family will not receive an automatic increase in the AFDC grant when an additional child is born. Starting on January 1, 1996, a child born to a current or new recipient more than ten month after first receipt of benefits will be counted in the family size for AFDC assistance standard purposes but not for purposes of benefit determination. An exception will be made for a child born as a result of rape or incest. The benefit cap will first apply to children born on or after November 1, 1996. A child born on or after that date, although not counted in the family size for the purpose of determining the amount of the grant, will be counted for Medical Assistance and food stamp purposes, and the family will be entitled to receive other social service assistance for the child.

These are the rules for implementation of the AFDC Benefit Cap Demonstration Project. The rules describe how the Department will choose AFDC recipients who must participate in the demonstration, and outline the Department's responsibilities in administering the demonstration project.