The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) is a nonpartisan agency that provides legal advice, legislative drafting services, and public policy research and analysis to the Wisconsin Legislature, and reference services to the legislature, state agencies, and the public.
[2] LRB staff also maintain and update the official Wisconsin statutes and the rules of the legislature.
The Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Committee on Legislative Organization acts as the governing body overseeing the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau and selects the director, who employs and oversees all bureau staff.
The Legislative Reference Library was a first-of-its-kind Progressive Era innovation which sought to utilize the expertise of the University of Wisconsin and the resources of Wisconsin's state law library to improve the quality and consistency of the lawmaking process in the Legislature.
The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library became a model for the Congressional Research Service, which opened in 1914.