However, Vicky Selkowe of Legal Action Wisconsin said, if signed, the new law “creates a statewide standard that is tied to the business model of third-party debt buyers.” While nationally there is a crackdown on third-party debt buyers, Wisconsin is making it easier for them to operate, she said.

The bill sailed through Senate and Assembly committees this past fall and last month, a marked contrast to the path a nearly identical bill followed before its failure in the last session.

Among the differences was that in 2014, the state’s Department of Financial Institutions dispatched a deputy secretary, Georgia Maxwell, to testify that the bill presented “areas of concern.”

Maxwell at that time said that though the department supported clarifying ambiguities, it “would not support legislation that unduly shifts onto consumers the burden of determining the accuracy of the debt they may, or may not, owe.”

DFI’s presence at hearings this time was “for information purposes only,” according to the legislative record.