HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 1952

BYRepresentatives Pruitt, Vekich, Heavey, Holm, Sanders and Doty

Requiring that special effort be made by the conservation corps to recruit residents with sensory, mental, or physical handicaps.

House Committe on Trade & Economic Development

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. (16)

      Signed by Representatives Vekich, Chair; Wineberry, Vice Chair; Beck, Braddock, Cantwell, Doty, Fox, Hargrove, Heavey, Holm, Kremen, McLean, Moyer,  Rasmussen, Schoon and J. Williams.

House Staff:Bonnie Austin (786-7107)

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON TRADE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

FEBRUARY 3, 1988

BACKGROUND:

The Washington Youth Conservation Corps was created to provide work experience and training for young people from the ages of eighteen to twenty- five.  Participants in the Corps work on the conservation, rehabilitation, and enhancement of the state's natural, historic, and recreational resources. Emphasis is given to projects relating to: timber, fish and wildlife management plans; watershed management plans; the 1989 centennial celebration; Puget Sound water quality; the U.S.-Canada fisheries treaty; and recreational facilities which provide public access to and environmental education about natural resources.

Projects are selected by the Washington Conservation Corps Coordinating Council.  The Council is composed of representatives from the following state agencies:  Employment Security, Ecology, Wildlife, Fisheries, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Parks and Recreation.

SUMMARY:

SUBSTITUTE BILL:  The upper age requirement for participation in the Washington Conservation Corps may be waived for participants who have sensory, mental, or physical handicaps.

Special effort shall be made to recruit participants who have sensory, mental, or physical handicaps.

SUBSTITUTE BILL COMPARED TO ORIGINAL:  The original bill permitted a waiver of both the upper (25) and lower (18) age requirements.  The substitute bill only permits a waiver of the upper age requirement.

Fiscal Note:      Requested February 1, 1988.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Representative Pruitt; Vernon Young, Pierce County Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    The stigma surrounding mental illness makes it difficult for mentally ill people to obtain meaningful work.  Since most mental illnesses become evident in the late teens or early twenties, and since it takes several years for people to learn how to cope with their illness, they are usually over twenty-five before they can take advantage of this program.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.