Back in 2023 Assembly Bill 273 / Senate Bill 268 were presented and passed in a bi-partisan manner to create Act 73, which had various components to it, not just the vape law change, which this article is discussing.

Originally the bill had 4 co-authors in the Senate, 3 Republicans and 1 Democrat. The Democrat was Lena Taylor, who is no longer a Senator. The Republicans were Senator Wanggaard, Cowles and James. Cowles later removed himself as co-author after the amendment process and he is no longer in office. Wanggaard and James are still in office both these seats are ones to watch in the upcoming 2026 election cycle.

The Assembly side of the legislation saw 9 Democrats and 9 Republicans on the bill, with two more Democrats being added during the process and one Democrat withdrawing his co-sponsorship after the amendment process.

The Assembly Republicans were: Sprios, Macco, Steffen, Gundrum, O'Connor, Donovan, Wittke, Green and Summerfield. The Assembly Democrats were: Drake, Ohnstad, Consindine, Subeck, Baldeh, Palmeri, Goyke, Conley and C. Anderson. Joers and Jacobsen were added co-sponsors and C. Anderson withdrew his co-sponsorship.

The bill passed in the Senate 21 to 11 and 1 not voting. The bill passed in the Assembly 88 to 10 with 1 not voting. The bill was passed into law, Wisconsin Act 73 of 2025 on Dec 6th, 2023. The Wisconsin Legislative Council published an "Act Memo" reviewing the changes to state law.

In short, the bill, signed into law, essentially would ban and make hemp cannabis vape products such as CBD and THCa products illegal in Wisconsin in the near future.

As the deadline approached in 2025, a notice was sent to manufacturers of electronic vaping devices.

Over 3000 business owners in Wisconsin received this memo. Needless to say, many industries, including the hemp cannabis industry were not so excited about this and activism kicked into high gear resulting fast tracked legislation here in 2025 to "correct the problem".

Assembly Bill 234 / Senate Bill 257 was introduced on May 2, 2025 by Republican Senator Testin and Republican Assembly Representatives Zimmerman and Kurtz. The authors of the legislation, Senator Testin and Rep. Kurtz, provided written testimony on the bill, in part stating:

Senate Bill 257 is technical in nature and makes a slight change to the definition of an electronic vaping device from 2023 Wisconsin Act 73.

As part of Act 73, an electronic vaping device registry was created and the law requires every manufacturer of an electronic vaping device sold in the state to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or receive a pre-market tobacco product application (PMTA) approval and be registered by July 1, 2025.

However, Wisconsin businesses that are producing hemp-derived products are in a unique position where they do not qualify for FDA market authorization or PMTA because the products do not utilize any nicotine or tobacco. This means the impending deadline will essentially ban these products and force these businesses out of state or to close their doors entirely. After speaking with the authors of 2023 Wisconsin Act 73, it’s our understanding it was not the intent to include hemp-derived products in this registry.

Our offices reached out to the Department of Revenue (DOR) and asked they consider temporarily delaying enforcement of the July 1, 2025 deadline for the electronic vaping device registry only for hemp-derived vaping products. DOR was not willing to delay the enforcement and financial penalties. Therefore, working with stakeholders in this space, we drafted this bill to redefine electronic vaping devices to be specific to devices for inhaling an aerosolized or vaporized liquid that contains nicotine. Following the public hearing in the Assembly, our offices worked with the Governor’s office, DOR and the stakeholder groups to come up with the language in Senate Substitute Amendment 1. The sub retains the current law definitions for electronic vaping devices and instead exempts hemp [as defined by 94.55(1)] vapes. The amendment still requires the manufacturer to register the devices.

This ensures the companies in Wisconsin that produce hemp-derived products would be able to continue to operate. It’s important to acknowledge there is still a need for regulation for hemp-based products, and there is a group of legislators and stakeholders working on that very issue. Flowever, we felt like this needed to be separate due to the pressing nature of the deadline and the major impact it could have on businesses, jobs, and the hemp industry as a whole.

Assembly Bill 234 was sent to the Assembly Committee on State Affairs. Representative Rob Swearingen (R) is the chair of the committee and in the past, has been a very vocal critic of anything cannabis and this may have been the first time he allowed any public hearing on the subject under his watch. Rep. Chanz Green (R) is the co-chair and has been labeled hemp cannabis friendly by insiders. Representatives Zimmerman, Moses, Wittke, Spiros and new comer Piwowarczyk round out the Republican side of the committee and we know a fair deal about these individuals from my 2024 Election Coverage (thank you sponsors!) The Democrats have Representative Sinicki and new comers Kirsh and Roe as minority member assembly representatives.

Assembly Bill 234 held a public hearing on May 14th, 2025. The testimony for the bill starts at the 12:00 minute mark in the video archive.

The Assembly Committee on State Affairs passed Assembly Bill 234 by 8 Yes votes to 2 No votes. Republicans Spiros and Piwowarczyk were the NO votes.

Over on the Senate side of things, June 4th, 2025 a public hearing was held on the Senate Bill 257 in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Revenue chaired by Senator Testin, author of the bill. The co-chair is Senator Tomczyk with other Republican members being Marklein, Cabral-Guevara and Jacque. The Democrat members of the committee are veteran Spreitzer, Pfaff and new comer Keyeski.

During the public hearing, Republican Senator Andre Jacque questioned the marketing of "these hemp products" that are marketed as the same marijuana as what you can get in other legal states and that people see vending machines selling marijuana in grocery stores in Wisconsin. (you probably should watch the video vs my paraphrasing).

Committee Member Mark Spreitzer (D) asked many questions for clarification we thank him for some much needed guidance! I pointed out that Senator Keyeski (D) would likely win her seat during my 2024 election coverage, but I would also likely need to educate her and bring her up to speed as a first time elected official and I will point that out again.

Senate Bill 257 did pass out of the Committee on Agriculture and Revenue with only Senator Jacque being the lone NO vote.

The bill is now available for scheduling, which basically means it is out of committee. When a bill is voted out of committee, it is sent to the Assembly Rules Committee. This committee, comprised of legislative leadership in the Assembly, decides which bills are scheduled for a floor vote before the full Assembly. In the Wisconsin Senate, the Senate Majority Leader (currently Devin LeMahieu) is primarily responsible for scheduling bills for a vote.

We know for sure that some members of the majority in the Senate and Assembly do not like hemp cannabis, even vaping. So we do expect some NO votes on this legislation should it be called for a floor vote. This legislation will be a good test on how friendly the 2025-26 Republican legislature is to the Wisconsin hemp cannabis industry and sets the stage for the rest of the legislative cycle on the subject.

This action alert and letter writing campaign has been created. Passage of this bill exempting hemp cannabis products should be considered a win by the hemp cannabis industry, consumers and activists.