An Act Relating to: an enterprise-wide data and efficiency study. (FE)
SB 941 would create a temporary joint legislative Data Efficiency Study Steering Committee to oversee an outside, nonstate consultant’s comprehensive review of how Wisconsin state agencies share, manage, and use data. The committee would be made up of four legislators and two executive-branch representatives from the Departments of Revenue and Administration. Its job would be to coordinate the study, gather input from agencies and other stakeholders, and direct the consultant’s work.
The study is broad in scope. It would examine the legal, regulatory, and governance structures affecting interagency data sharing; identify technical, legal, and organizational barriers; review best practices from other states; and pinpoint high-value uses for enterprise-wide data and analytics. It would also recommend organizational changes, such as creating an enterprise-wide data and analytics office or appointing a chief data officer, and evaluate efficiency measures like shared platforms, technology consolidation, external data warehousing solutions, and even a standard template for state agency consumer-facing websites. The committee would have to submit a report with findings and recommended legislative, administrative, organizational, and funding actions by December 31, 2026, after which it would dissolve.
The bill does not directly change substantive program law or create new regulatory requirements for agencies. Instead, it establishes a temporary legislative study mechanism and requires state agencies to cooperate with the committee and consultant. Its practical effect would be to generate recommendations that could lead to future statutory, administrative, budgetary, or organizational changes affecting statewide data governance, analytics infrastructure, and agency web design standards.
The available record suggests the bill was framed as an efficiency and modernization measure, with support from its bipartisan authors and cosponsors. Because there were no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, there is no detailed public debate in the record to indicate strong opposition or support beyond the bill’s general purpose. The bill ultimately failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1, indicating it did not advance despite its study-oriented, nonbinding nature.
The main points of potential contention are likely to be the cost of hiring an outside firm, the scope of the study, and the possibility that the recommendations could lead to new centralized data authority in state government. Specific issues include whether Wisconsin should create an enterprise-wide data and analytics office or chief data officer, how much standardization should be imposed across agencies, and whether consumer-facing websites should be subject to a common template. Concerns may also arise over agency autonomy, data governance, privacy, and the fiscal implications of shared platforms or external warehousing solutions.