Prefiled 12/30/08. Read first time 01/12/09.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to editorial standards for the publication of the Revised Code of Washington; and amending RCW 1.08.015 and 1.08.017.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 1.08.015 and 1961 c 246 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     Subject to such general policies as may be promulgated by the committee and to the general supervision of the committee, the reviser shall:
     (1) Codify for consolidation into the Revised Code of Washington all laws of a general and permanent nature heretofore or hereafter enacted by the legislature, and assign permanent numbers as provided by law to all new titles, chapters, and sections so added to the revised code.
     (2) Edit and revise such laws for such consolidation, to the extent deemed necessary or desirable by the reviser and without changing the meaning of any such law, in the following respects only:
     (a) Make capitalization uniform with that followed generally in the revised code.
     (b) Make chapter or section division and subdivision designations uniform with that followed in the revised code.
     (c) Substitute for the term "this act," where necessary, the term "section," "part," "code," "chapter," or "title," or reference to specific section or chapter numbers, as the case may require.
     (d) Substitute for reference to a section of an "act," the proper code section number reference.
     (e) Substitute for "as provided in the preceding section" and other phrases of similar import, the proper code section number references.
     (f) Substitute the proper calendar date for "effective date of this act," "date of passage of this act," and other phrases of similar import.
     (g) Strike out figures where merely a repetition of written words, and substitute, where deemed advisable for uniformity, written words for figures.
     (h) Rearrange any misplaced statutory material, incorporate any omitted statutory material as well as correct manifest errors in spelling, and manifest clerical or typographical errors, or errors by way of additions or omissions.
     (i) Correct manifest errors in references, by chapter or section number, to other laws.
     (j) Correct manifest errors or omissions in numbering or renumbering sections of the revised code.
     (k) ((Divide long sections into two or more sections, and)) Rearrange the order of sections to conform to such logical arrangement of subject matter as may most generally be followed in the revised code, and alphabetize definition sections, when to do so will not change the meaning or effect of such sections.
     (l) Change the wording of section captions, if any, and provide captions to new chapters and sections.
     (m) Strike provisions manifestly obsolete.
     (3) Create new code titles, chapters, and sections of the Revised Code of Washington, or otherwise revise the title, chapter and sectional organization of the code, all as may be required from time to time, to effectuate the orderly and logical arrangement of the statutes. Such new titles, chapters, and sections, and organizational revisions, shall have the same force and effect as the ninety-one titles originally enacted and designated as the "Revised Code of Washington" pursuant to the code adoption acts codified in chapter 1.04 RCW.

Sec. 2   RCW 1.08.017 and 1955 c 235 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The reviser may omit from the code all titles to acts, enacting and repealing clauses, preambles, declarations of emergency, severability, and validity and construction sections unless, in a particular instance, it may be necessary to retain such to preserve the full intent of the law. The omission of validity or construction sections is not intended to, nor shall it change, or be considered as changing, the effect to be given thereto in construing legislation of which such validity and construction sections were a part. Any section so omitted, other than repealing, emergency, severability, or validity provisions, shall be referred to or set forth as an annotation to the applicable sections of the act as codified.
     (2) The reviser may remove annotations that have appeared in the published Revised Code of Washington for more than ten years, unless in a particular instance, it may be necessary to retain such to preserve the full intent of the law. Any annotations removed under this subsection shall be retained and available in the electronic copy of the Revised Code of Washington available on the code reviser web site.
     (3) Section captions, part headings, subheadings, tables of contents, and indexes appearing in legislative bills shall not be considered any part of the law, and the reviser may omit such provisions from the Revised Code of Washington and annotations unless, in a particular instance, it may be necessary to retain such to preserve the full intent of the law.