HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  SB 5018

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                        Law & Justice

Title:  An act relating to making technical corrections to the Revised Code of Washington.

Brief Description:  Making technical corrections to the Revised Code of Washington.

Sponsors:  Senator Roach; by request of Statute Law Committee.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:

Law & Justice:  3/25/97 [DPA].

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON LAW & JUSTICE

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.  Signed by 11 members:  Representatives Sheahan, Chairman; McDonald, Vice Chairman; Sterk, Vice Chairman; Costa, Ranking Minority Member; Constantine, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Carrell; Cody; Lambert; Lantz; Radcliff and Sherstad.

Staff:  Trudes Hutcheson (786-7384).

Background:  In a given legislative session, two or more bills may amend the same section of the Revised Code of Washington without reference to the others.  This is often called Adouble@ or Amultiple@ amendments.  Usually there are no substantive conflicts between the multiple amendments to a section of the code.  Sometimes, however, even though there is no substantive conflict, merging multiple amendments may require some restructuring of a section for grammatical or other reasons.  In addition, one bill may amend a section, and another bill may repeal that section.  When both bills pass, the code reviser may decodify the section which was repealed and make a note of it in the code. 

Over the years, changes in the designations of various agencies and entities have been made in the code.  Occasionally, older and now obsolete references to previous designations remain.

The Statute Law Committee reviews the code and recommends legislation to make technical corrections, including reconciling multiple amendments and deleting obsolete references in the code.

Summary of Amended Bill:  Various sections of the code are reenacted to merge multiple amendments made in previous legislative sessions.  Sections are amended to reinsert language inadvertently deleted.

Amended Bill Compared to Original Bill:  The amended bill reinserts a sentence that was inadvertently omitted when reenacting a section to give effect to multiple amendments.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date of Amended Bill:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  The bill makes technical and grammatical corrections to the code.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  Dennis Cooper, Code Reviser.