Scope statements
Architects, Landscape Architects, Professional Engineers, Designers and Land Surveyors
Subject
Sanctions for cheating on examinations for land surveyors.
Objective of the Rule. The proposed rule will increase the penalties for cheating on examinations.
Policy analysis
The proposed rules will authorize the board to prohibit examinees from writing for as many as the next six scheduled examinations after the examination during which the cheating occurred. The number of examinations the examinee would be prohibited from writing would be determined by the board and based upon the seriousness of the cheating offense.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
25 hours.
Architects, Landscape Architects, Professional Engineers, Designers and Land Surveyors
Subject
Changing the “principles and practice examination" to the jurisprudence examination.
Objective of the Rule. To change the name of the examination that relates to temporary permits for land surveyors.
Policy analysis
In
Clearinghouse Rule 02-090 the examination was stated as being “principles and practice examination." It should be the “jurisprudence examination." This amendment will correct the name.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
5 hours.
Chiropractic Examining Board
Subject
Minor changes to all rules. Objective of the Rule. To remove inconsistencies, correct oversights and conform rules to current practices.
Policy analysis
No new policies are contemplated at this time. The board wishes to undertake a review of all its rules in order to identify inconsistencies, omissions, and language that does not reflect current practices or processes in the department. It is possible that the review will identify the need to change existing policies or incorporate new policies into the rules, and a decision will have to be made as to whether the effects are significant enough to initiate a separate rule promulgating process.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
a. 25 hours of legal counsel time conferring with board members to identify the changes, and 10 hours of legal counsel time drafting and redrafting the changes.
b. 20 hours of one board member's time to identify the changes, plus 4 hours x 6 board members = 24 board member hours spent discussing and redrafting the changes, for a total of 44 board member hours.
c. 40 hours of paralegal's time preparing scope statement, rules at different stages of promulgation, notice of submittal, clearinghouse letter, hearing notice, review for small business impact, preparing report to the legislature, summarizing hearing testimony and written comments, proofreading drafts of rules for publication in the code.
Elections Board
Subject
Create s. ElBd 6.06, regarding funding Elections Board implementation of the federal Help America Vote Act.
Policy analysis
Under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, this state is eligible to receive federal financial assistance for the purchase of voting equipment, compliance with federal requirements for the conduct of federal elections and other election administration costs, implementation of a state-wide voter registration system, construction of barrier-free polling places, and training of election officials to enable greater participation of individuals with disabilities in federal elections. To be eligible for most of this federal assistance, this state must make expenditures from state moneys equal to at least 5% of the amount spent by this state for the same purposes for which federal assistance is received.
The Wisconsin Legislature requires the Elections Board to adopt an administrative rule to specify the amount to be allocated for each specific purpose from the Help America Vote Election Fund before spending any money from the fund for that fiscal year. The Board proposes to adopt rules specifying amounts and purposes for fiscal years 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
10 hours for each rule.
Financial Institutions - Securities
Subject
Rules to conform Wisconsin's existing Securities Law rules requirements concerning broker-dealer books and records to new, federally-mandated standards under the federal Securities Exchange Act.
Policy analysis
Objective of the rules. To adopt permanent rules to be in effect upon expiration of identical emergency rules issued by the Division on May 2, 2003 to conform Wisconsin's Securities Law rules requirements concerning broker-dealer books and records to federally-mandated standards adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission") under the federal Securities Exchange Act that became effective on May 2, 2003.
Congress in its passage of the National Securities Markets Improvement Act (“NSMIA") in 1996 prohibited state securities regulators from establishing or enforcing under their state securities laws or rules, record-keeping requirements for securities broker-dealers that are inconsistent with, or not required by, the Commission.
Following passage of NSMIA, the Commission commenced a rule-making process that spanned a several-year period (including a 1998 reproposal of the entirety of the proposed rules for a new public comment period), culminating in adoption in late 2001 of an extensive series of broker-dealer books and records rules for effectiveness commencing May 2, 2003. The Commission?s revised books and records rules cover a comprehensive series of areas, including: (1) customer account records; (2) order ticket information; (3) customer complaints; (4) mandated reports and audits; (5) compliance manuals; (6) records maintenance, retention, production and access; and (7) records required to be maintained at a firm's home office and at “local" offices.
Because of the preemptive effects of federal law under NSMIA, all of the existing provisions of the Wisconsin administrative rules in chapter SEC 4 under the Wisconsin Securities Law dealing with broker-dealer books and records covering the information categories (1) to (6) described above are superseded by the federal rules established by the Commission that became effective May 2, 2003. Additionally, certain existing Wisconsin Rule of Conduct provisions tied to the existing Wisconsin books and records rules needed to be revised appropriately.
Consequently, it is necessary to adopt permanent rules to revise and amend Wisconsin's broker-dealer books and records rules to conform to the federal rules that now have become effective, and to remove inconsistent requirements contained in the existing Wisconsin books and record-keeping rules. A subcommittee of the North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA"), an organization comprised of the securities administrators of all 50 states, including Wisconsin, has reviewed the impact of the Commission's books and record-keeping rules on existing state securities law licensing rules, and recommended that states utilize the incorporation-by-reference-of-the federal-rules treatment as was set forth in the Order Adopting Emergency Rules, and which treatment also will be used to adopt the rules in permanent form.
Description of existing relevant policies and new policies proposed to be included in the rule and an analysis of policy alternatives
(1) The entirety of the existing Wisconsin general books and records requirement for licensed broker-dealers as set forth in rules s.
DFI-Sec 4.03 (1) to
(4) (that particularizes the types of required books and records, and prescribes records retention periods), will be repealed and recreated to incorporate by reference the new, superseding, federal rules adopted by the Commission contained in sections 17a-3 and 4 under the Securities Exchange Act. A new sub. (1) will require a firm to retain the books and records cross-referenced in federal SEC rules 17a-3 and 4, and a new sub. (2) will incorporate by reference the records preservation and retention requirements in federal rule 17a-4. New subsections (3) and (4) will replace the current Wisconsin rules in s.
DFI-Sec 4.03 (3) and
(4) [that prescribe branch office records and retention requirements], with language which provides that the books and records required to be prepared and maintained at broker-dealer offices triggering the definition of “branch office" under current rule s.
DFI-Sec 1.02 (7) (a), are the same records prescribed under the new federal provisions in new federal Rule 17a-3, and must be held for the retention periods specified in new federal Rule 17a-4.
(2) Current Wisconsin rule s.
DFI-Sec 4.03 (6) [which permitted broker-dealers to utilize alternative records to satisfy the principal office and branch office records required in existing rules s. DFI-Sec 4.03 (1) and (3)], will be repealed because under NSMIA, states no longer have the authority to permit alternative forms of broker-dealer records different from the records prescribed by federal law.
(3) The existing Wisconsin Rule of Conduct provision in s.
DFI-Sec 4.05 (5) [requiring broker-dealers to provide customers with prescribed new account information and subsequent amendments to such information] will be amended to both substitute a cross-reference to the new federal provision on that subject in rule 17a-3(a)(17) under the federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and to repeal language in the Wisconsin rule inconsistent with federal provisions.
Statutory authority
