How to testify before the Wisconsin legislature

This page covers what's specific to Wisconsin. For the general steps of signing up and speaking, see the general guide.

How Wisconsin does it

Wisconsin has no online hearing-registration or remote-testimony system. To testify before an Assembly or Senate committee, you attend in person, fill out a paper "hearing slip" available at the hearing room, and wait to be called by the chair. The slip also has a checkbox to register support or opposition without speaking, and that position is logged in the committee's report to the full chamber. Anyone can also attend just to observe, without filling out a slip at all.

Speaking time is informally capped at about five minutes, shortened to roughly three when many people have signed up. Written copies of testimony are customarily brought to hand out, one per committee member, rather than uploaded anywhere in advance. For people who can't attend in person, WisconsinEye streams many hearings live and archives others, but that's for watching, not for submitting remote testimony. The most reliable way to get a position counted without attending is to contact the bill's sponsor or committee members directly.

Deadlines and numbers

• Sign-up: walk-in only, no advance registration, no published statewide deadline
• Speaker time limit: about 5 minutes standard, shortened to about 3 minutes when sign-up is heavy
• Session: 2025-2026 biennial session began January 2025, continues into January 2027, organized into floor periods rather than a fixed daily calendar

Where to go

• Testify-at-a-hearing guidance (hearing-slip process, time limits, etiquette): legis.wisconsin.gov/about/testify
• Committee Schedule tool: committeeschedule.legis.wisconsin.gov/
• Full session calendar and floor periods: docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2025/related/session_calendar/calendar
• Find your legislator: legis.wisconsin.gov

Rules

No official statewide deadline to register to testify is published. Wisconsin's process is walk-in on the day of the hearing, though major bills or budget hearings sometimes impose earlier cutoffs at the chair's discretion, so confirm this against the specific hearing rather than assuming. No current statewide written-comment submission portal was confirmed either, so a written copy handed to staff or sent directly to committee members is the reliable path. Route anything unconfirmed to /engage.