Addressing fair dental insurance practices.

Requires a health carrier that offers a dental plan to maintain a documented utilization review program description and written utilization criteria based on prevention of dental disease and chronic disease implications.

Creating an office of the corrections ombuds.

Creates the office of the corrections ombuds within the office of the governor for the purpose of: (1) Providing information to inmates and their families;

(2) Promoting public awareness and understanding of the rights and responsibilities of inmates;

(3) Identifying system issues and responses for the governor and the legislature to act upon; and

(4) Ensuring compliance with relevant statutes, rules, and policies pertaining to corrections facilities, services, and treatment of inmates under the jurisdiction of the department of corrections.

Concerning natural resource management activities.

Authorizes the department of fish and wildlife to manage acquired lands using the best available land management techniques and develop mitigation actions where appropriate. The techniques may include: (1) Issuance or reissuance of grazing leases;

(2) Licenses or approvals to remove firewood;

(3) Issuance of leases for brush picking;

(4) Periodic use of chemical or mechanical means to maintain public and recreational land; and

(5) Issuance of rights-of-way, easements, and use permits to use existing roads in nonresidential areas.

Establishing a reporting process for the department of natural resources regarding certain marbled murrelet habitat information.

Requires the department of natural resources to provide a report to the legislature by December 1, 2018, and each December 1st until the year after the United States fish and wildlife service issues an incidental take permit on the state trust land habitat conservation plan for the long-term conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet.

Requires the report to include: (1) An economic analysis of potential losses or gains from any proposed marbled murrelet long-term conservation strategy selected by the board of natural resources; and

(2) Recommendations relating to actions that support family-wage timber and related jobs, strategies on loss of revenues to the trust beneficiaries, financing county services, and conservation measures for the marbled murrelet that also provide economic benefits to rural communities.

Concerning stem cell therapies not approved by the United States food and drug administration.

Requires a license holder, subject to chapter 18.130 RCW (the uniform disciplinary act), who performs a stem cell therapy that is not approved by the United States food and drug administration, to: (1) Provide the patient with a written notice informing him or her of the nonapproval before performing the therapy;

(2) Obtain a signed consent form before performing the therapy; and

Establishing the working families' child care access and affordability through regional employers act.

Creates the child care workforce conditional scholarship and loan repayment program for: (1) Awarding conditional scholarships to eligible students attending an institution of higher education who meet certain requirements; and

(2) Loan repayments for participants providing early learning services who meet certain requirements.

Requires the department of children, youth, and families to: (1) Consult with the department of commerce to develop a web site containing current resources for businesses regarding employer-supported child care; and

(2) Consult with the office of financial management to modify the bring your infant to work policy for use in state agencies.

Allows an employer with at least five but no more than one hundred employees a credit against business and occupation taxes and public utility taxes for qualifying contributions made to dependent care flexible spending accounts for eligible employees.

Concerning state board of health rules regarding on-site sewage systems.

Addresses the adoption of rules by the state board of health regarding inspections and failures of on-site sewage systems.

Declares an intent to ensure that only requirements that are reasonable, appropriately tailored, and necessary are imposed on the installation, operation, maintenance, or repair of on-site sewage systems.

Expanding the classes of persons who may provide informed consent for certain patients who are not competent to consent.

Concerning procedures in order to automatically register citizens to vote.

Establishes the automatic voter registration act of 2018.

Requires the department of licensing to implement an automatic voter registration system so a person who is eligible to vote and has received or is renewing an enhanced driver's license or identicard may register to vote or update voter registration at the time of registration or renewal, by an automated process.

Prohibits the department of licensing from sharing data files, used by the secretary of state to certify voters registered through the automated process, with a federal agency, or state agency other than the secretary of state.

Requires the state health benefit exchange to: (1) Provide directly to the secretary of state's office information required to register to vote or transfer a registration for certain consenting persons; and

(2) Study the feasibility of implementing automatic voter registration.

Requires the office of the secretary of state to conduct a study and prepare recommendations for creating: (1) An automatic voter registration process for residents who recently completed the naturalization process; and

(2) For an automatic pending voter registration process at birth.

Exempts the following from public inspection and copying under the public records act: Any investigative records or personal information supplied for the purposes of obtaining a driver's license or an identicard.

Concerning the use of perfluorinated chemicals in food packaging.

Prohibits, beginning January 1, 2022, a person from manufacturing, knowingly selling, offering for sale, distributing for sale, or distributing for food packaging to which perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals have been intentionally added in any amount. This prohibition takes effect only after the requirements below are completed.

Requires the department of ecology to: (1) Identify that safer alternatives are available, and the safer alternative determination is supported by feedback from an external peer review of the department's alternatives assessment; and

(2) Publish its findings in the Washington State Register on whether a safer alternative exists.

Concerning election ballot space and voter informations.

Rearranges the order in which certain positions or offices are placed in a primary consolidated ballot.

Removes a certain statement from being printed on top of each ballot to being displayed in a prominent position on the election page of each county web site and being printed in the ballot envelope, the materials that accompany the ballot, or the voters' pamphlet.

Prohibits a primary from being held for a metropolitan park district commissioner.

Requires the secretary of state to conduct a study to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of providing nonbinding advisory votes on the ballot, including: (1) A comparison of the costs of preparing ballots in elections that include advisory votes and elections where advisory votes do not appear on the ballot;

(2) An assessment of ballot design; and

(3) Cost savings of removing advisory votes from ballots.

Improving access to mental health services for children and youth.

Reestablishes the children's mental health work group to: (1) Identify barriers to and opportunities for accessing mental health services for children and families; and

(2) Advise the legislature on statewide mental health services for this population.

Provides a December 30, 2020, expiration date for the work group.

Expands the duties and responsibilities of the following: (1) The state health care authority;

(2) The department of social and health services;

(3) Behavioral health organizations;

(4) Regional service areas;

(5) The department of children, youth, and families; and

(6) The office of the superintendent of public instruction.

Expanding the provision of trauma-informed child care.

Requires the department of children, youth, and families to convene an advisory group to develop a five-year strategy to expand training in trauma-informed child care for early learning providers statewide and reduce expulsions from early learning environments.

Concerning Washington's economic development potential as a world leader in the responsible management of postconsumer materials.

Requires the department of commerce to: (1) Arrange for the completion of an economic analysis of recyclable material and solid waste processing, export, and disposal activities in the state; and

(2) Develop the analysis and recommendations in this act in consultation with a focused stakeholder work group.

Requires the department of ecology to: (1) Arrange for the facilitation of, and may participate in, efforts by the stakeholder work group to develop a public outreach strategy and campaign for reducing contamination, increasing quality, and maximizing the value of collected recyclable materials; and

Funding the business license account created in RCW 19.02.210 through a charge imposed by the secretary of state on annual report filings by certain legal entities.

Requires the secretary of state to collect eleven dollars from the following foreign or domestic legal entities when the entities file an annual report: For profit corporations and cooperatives, professional and public service corporations, limited liability companies, professional limited liability companies, and Massachusetts trusts.

Requires the amounts collected from these fees to be deposited in the business license account.

-- 2018 REGULAR SESSION --
Feb 14	First reading, referred to Appropriations (Not Officially read and referred until adoption of Introduction report).