Washington State House of Representatives Office of Program Research | BILL ANALYSIS |
Judiciary Committee |
HB 1058
This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent. |
Title: An act relating to editorial standards for the publication of the Revised Code of Washington.
Brief Description: Revising editorial standards for the RCW.
Sponsors: Representatives Goodman and Rodne; by request of Statute Law Committee.
Brief Summary of Bill |
|
Hearing Date: 1/12/09
Staff: Courtney Barnes (786-7194)
Background:
The Office of the Code Reviser (Code Reviser) was created in 1951. The Code Reviser is a legislative agency whose responsibilities include:
codifying, indexing, and publishing the Revised Code of Washington, including harmonizing the statutes through administrative changes or suggested legislation;
drafting bills on behalf of legislators, legislative committees, joint committees, state elected officials, and agencies;
acting as the repository for various documents related to administrative rulemaking; and
publishing a variety of rulemaking-related publications, including the Washington Administrative Code and the Washington State Register.
The Code Reviser codifies into the Revised Code of Washington all enacted laws of a general and permanent nature. The Code Reviser is allowed to edit and revise these laws for consolidation into the code to the extent deemed necessary or desirable by the Code Reviser. The Code Reviser may only make changes that are authorized by statute and do not change the meaning of the law.
Summary of Bill:
The provision is removed that gives the Code Reviser the authority to divide long sections of a law into two or more sections. The Code Reviser may alphabetize definition sections when doing so will not change the meaning or effect of such sections.
Unless it may be necessary to retain the following information to determine the full intent of the law, the Code Reviser is given the authority to:
omit severability clauses;
remove annotations that have appeared in the published Revised Code of Washington for more than ten years; and
omit section captions, part headings, subheadings, tables of contents, and indexes appearing in legislative bills.
Annotations that have appeared in the published Revised Code of Washington for more than ten years will be retained and available in the electronic copy of the Revised Code of Washington, which is available on the Code Reviser's website.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.