The board finds that failure to delay the effective date of CR04-095, from January 1, 2007, to July 1, 2007, will create a danger to the public health, safety and welfare. The extra six months are needed to allow the implementation of the rule to occur and to ensure the continued use of conscious sedation for dental patients.

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

On April 10, 2006, the Wisconsin State Legislature enacted 2005 Wisconsin Act 293, which amended s. 48.84, Stats., to require first-time adoptive parents to receive preadoption training before a child may be placed for adoption by a court pursuant to s. 48.833, Stats., or before a prospective adoptive parent may petition for placement of a child for adoption under s. 48.837, Stats., or before a proposed adoptive parent may bring a child into Wisconsin for an international adoption under s. 48.839, Stats. The Act further requires the Department to promulgate rules that establish the number of hours and topics covered in the training of first-time adoptive parents. The training must cover issues that may confront adoptive parents in general and that may confront adoptive parents of special needs or international children.

The Act requires the rules to be effective April 1, 2007. Because the rules apply not only to the Department which administers the special needs adoption program with the assistance of private agencies under contract with the Department, and with the cooperation of county human and social service agencies, but also to private agencies that handle domestic adoptions and international adoptions, the Department has invested a significant amount of time gathering information from agencies regarding what training is currently provided to preadoptive parents. The Department conducted written and follow-up telephone surveys with private agencies to determine what content was currently being taught, and the format used for training. The Department's Adoption Services Committee met over several months to determine the curriculum for special needs adoption, the competencies that would be required for all training programs, the number of hours and the documentation that would be required in the training. In addition, the Department reviewed the proposed Hague Convention (federal) training requirements for proposed adoptive parents of international children to assure that Wisconsin's training requirements for first-time pre-adoptive parents would meet or exceed those requirements.

As a result of this extensive collaboration with stakeholders, development of the proposed training requirements has been unusually long and now requires the training requirements to be implemented as an emergency rule in order to meet the legislated date of April 1, 2007, the date adoptive parents must begin receiving preadoptive training.

This emergency rules are substantially similar to the proposed permanent rules except in the hours of training required. Under the emergency order, adoption agencies are required to provide adoptive parents with 2 hours of orientation and 10 hours of training. The proposed permanent rule requires adoption agencies to provide 2 hours of orientation and 16 hours of training. Stakeholder agencies have indicated that the additional 5 months under the emergency rule will allow them to prepare all proposed adoptive parents to meet the orientation and training requirements under the proposed permanent rules.

The Commissioner of Insurance finds that an emergency exists and that a rule is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or welfare. Facts constituting the emergency are as follows:

These changes will modify the rule in light of the recent Supreme Court decisions, Rebernick v American Family Mutual Ins Company, 2006 WI 27 and Rocker v USAA Casualty Ins Company, 2006 WI 26. In Rebernick, the court held that s. 632.32 (4m), Stats, applies to personal umbrella policies. In Rocker, the court held that s. 632.32 (6) (a), Stats, applies to commercial general liability policies and commercial umbrella policies. These interpretations are inconsistent with current insurer practices and OCI's expectation of what would be covered in these types of policies.

Compliance with this interpretation would create significant, if not impossible compliance problems for insurers. Many insurers who write umbrella coverage do not write and are not even licensed to write automobile coverage. A second, difficult issue is that the limits for umbrella coverages are generally very high, $1,000,000. It is unclear how an umbrella policy would reconcile these limits with the underlying auto policy and underinsured motorist coverage. For this reason, OCI had previously by rule exempted umbrella policies from the similar requirements of the uninsured motorist coverages in s. 632.32, Stats. For similar reasons, the same revision is being made for commercial liability policies.

As provided in section 13 of 2005 Wis. Act 166, “Notwithstanding section 227.24 (1) (a) and (3) of the statutes, the department is not required to provide a finding of emergency for a rule promulgated under this subsection."

Section 1 of the proposed rule distinguishes between timber sales related tasks that can be contracted and functions that Department staff must perform to protect the resource and assure compliance with regulations and property master plans. The purpose is to divide technical activities that are appropriate for contracting from administration of finance, policy and compliance issues. The rule defines bidding and payment procedures for the contracted services, including prequalification of bidders based on experience with timber sales and related forest inventory work. Section 2 makes technical corrections in the definition of educational requirements for cooperating foresters. The change would make educational requirements for cooperating foresters and department foresters identical, including the allowance of training equivalent to that obtained at a college accredited by the Society of American Foresters.

As provided in section 13 of 2005 Wis. Act 166, notwithstanding s. 227.24, Stats., the Department is not required to provide a finding of emergency for this rule and the emergency rule will remain in effect until a permanent rule is promulgated.

Rule FR-11-07(E) specifies those emergencies on forested land under the jurisdiction of the department over which the chief state forester shall have management authority. This rule describes causes of unforeseen damage or threat of damage to trees that could lead the chief state forester to declare an emergency and assume management authority. Included in the list of damaging agents that could lead to the declaration of an emergency are those required by the legislature: invasive species, pest infestation, disease, and damage to timber from fire, snow, hail, ice, or wind. The rule states that when declaring and responding to an emergency, the chief state forester shall consider the purpose of and management plan for the affected property in his or her decisions. This rule, however, would allow the chief state forester to take actions not described in the management plan for a property if that were the most appropriate response to the emergency. Finally, this rule describes the processes by which the declaration of the state of emergency shall be made effective, canceled or modified.

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

The World Health Organization for Animal Health (OIE) lists viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) as a "notifiable" disease, meaning that outbreaks must be reported immediately. VHS has been discovered in the Great Lakes, and is moving from the lower lakes (Ontario and Erie), where it has already caused large-scale fish kills, via Huron, where it has been present since 2005, to the upper lakes (Michigan and Superior). Lake Michigan is connected to the Mississippi River by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and Illinois River, allowing fish and fish diseases to reach the Mississippi drainage. Twenty-seven species of Wisconsin fish have been identified as susceptible by the OIE or USDA APHIS, including most of our most important recreational and commercial species. The VHS virus can be transported from affected areas to areas where it is not yet present via live fish, fish eggs, refrigerated or frozen dead fish, or water where infected fish have been present. The presence of VHS virus in the Great Lakes is therefore a threat to the public health or safety or to the environment.

A rule was adopted creating ch. Opt 8, relating to continuing education.

2005 Wisconsin Act 297 section 58 states in part:

“(3) Continuing education rules. (b) …Notwithstanding section 227.24 (1) (a), (2) (b), and (3) of the statutes, the optometry examining board is not required to provide evidence that promulgating a rule under this paragraph as an emergency rule is necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or welfare and is not required to provide a finding of emergency for a rule promulgated under this paragraph."

Chapter Opt 8 is being created to incorporate the continuing education requirements that optometrists must complete in order to renew their registrations. As a result of the changes made to ch. 449, Stats., by 2005 Wisconsin Act 297, all optometrist will now be required to complete 30 hours of continuing education. Previously, only optometrists who were certified to use diagnostic pharmaceutical agents (DPA) and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (TPA) were required to complete continuing education course work.

Section 9140 (1q) of 2005 Wisconsin Act 25 states in part: “Notwithstanding section 227.24 (1) (a), (2) (b), and (3) of the statutes, the department is not required to provide evidence that promulgating a rule under this subsection as an emergency rule is necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or welfare and is not required to provide a finding of emergency for a rule promulgated under this subsection."

2005 Wisconsin Act 25 created Subchapter VII of chapter 440, Stats., Substance Abuse Counselors, Clinical Supervisors, and Prevention Specialists. This Act transferred the certification and regulation of Alcohol and other Drug Abuse (AODA) counselors from the Department of Health and Family Services to the Department of Regulation and Licensing, effective 2006. This proposed rule-making order creates rules relating to definitions, requirements for certification, supervised practice, scope of practice, education approval and professional liability insurance for substance abuse professionals.

The Legislature, by Section 7 of 2005 Wis. Act 363, provides an exemption from a finding of emergency for the adoption of the rule.

Section 348.07 (1), Stats., historically has limited vehicle lengths on Wisconsin highways to 65 feet. Section 348.07(2), Stats., allowed vehicles meeting the specifications of that subsection to operate without permits despite exceeding the 65-foot limit of subsection (1).

2005 Wis. Act 363 amended s. 348.07, Stats., and essentially made 75 feet the default permitted length on the state trunk highway system. Wisconsin's old default 65-foot overall length limit still applies on all local roads but only applies to state trunk highways that are designated as 65-foot restricted routes by the Department. This emergency rule making establishes a preliminary list of such “65-foot restricted routes."

Prior to Act 363, s. 348.07 (4), Stats., permitted the Department to designate “long truck routes" upon which no overall length limits apply. The Department designates the state's long truck routes in s. Trans 276.07. This rule making does not affect those longstanding designations.

The new “default" 75-foot overall length limit applies on state highways that are neither designated as 65-foot restricted routes under this rule making nor long truck routes under s. Trans 276.07.

Definitions have been added to the rule to make it easier to identify the nature of designations made by the Department in Ch. Trans 276.

In drafting this rule the Department noticed several items that it believes may be of special interest to the legislature and which, in the Department's view, deserve special legislative attention. First, Act 363 did not grant any authority for 75-foot vehicles using the new 75-foot routes to leave those routes to reach fuel, food, maintenance, repair, rest, staging, terminal or vehicle assembly facilities or points of loading or unloading. The Department does not believe this oversight was intentional and, on an emergency basis, has designated the intersection of each 75-foot route and any other highway as a long truck route under its authority in s. 348.07 (4), Stats. This will permit trucks to exceed the 65-foot default length limit on local roads to access such facilities and make deliveries. The Department encourages the legislature to consider statutorily establishing access rights for vehicles using 75-foot restricted routes.

The second consequence of Act 363 the Department has discovered in drafting this emergency rule is that one statute that formerly restricted double-bottom tractor-trailer combinations to the state's long-truck network was repealed by the deletion of the reference to s. 348.07 (2) (gm), Stats., by the Act's amendment of s. 348.07 (4), Stats. Under the amended statute, as revised by Act 363, it might appear to a reader that double bottom trucks of unlimited length may operate upon any highway in the state, including local roads and streets, without permits. Section 348.08 (1) (e), Stats., however, continues to provide that double-bottom trucks be restricted to highways designated by the department under s. 348.07 (4). WisDOT believes this provision continues to limit double-bottom operation to long truck routes designated by the Department under s. 348.07 (4), Stats. WisDOT would suggest the deleted reference to (2) (gm) in 348.07 (4), Stats., be re-inserted into the statute to avoid confusion.