HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 2359

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.

Brief Summary of Substitute Bill

Amends form year designations throughout the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) by removing references to a specific century and instead providing a general instruction to insert the year as follows: "(year)."
Removes obsolete language in various sections of the RCW and corrects technical errors.

Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 13 members: Representatives Jinkins, Chair; Kilduff, Vice Chair; Rodne, Ranking Minority Member; Shea, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Goodman, Haler, Hansen, Kirby, Klippert, Kuderer, Muri, Orwall and Stokesbary.

Background:

Duties of the Statute Law Committee.

The primary responsibilities of the Statute Law Committee (Committee) and the Code Reviser (Reviser) are to periodically codify, index, and publish the RCW and to revise, correct, and harmonize the statutes by means of administrative or suggested legislative action. The Committee, or the Reviser with the approval of the Committee, must periodically make written recommendations to the Legislature concerning deficiencies, conflicts, or obsolete provisions in the RCW.

Form Year Designations.

Throughout the RCW are provisions directing that certain forms, in substantially the form specified in the particular statute, be filed or used. A few examples of such forms include:

notice of sale;
writ of garnishment;
declaration of completion of garnishment; and
lien notice.

Generally, somewhere in the form there is a space where the reference to a date is to be inserted. In many of the statutory forms, in the space for the date the century is specified, such as "19__" and "20__."

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Summary of Substitute Bill:

A variety of forms throughout the RCW are amended to remove references to the twentieth century. Rather than specifying "19__" in the space where the date is to be inserted, the form language provides a general instruction to insert the year as follows: "(year)."

Certain obsolete and expired provisions are removed from the RCW. Other corrections are made to resolve conflicts in expiration dates and to harmonize multiple amendments to different versions of the same RCW section.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:

A section is removed from the portion of the original bill repealing expired provisions. The removed provision struck a subsection describing an expired statutory exemption.

A section is added to merge multiple amendments to an RCW section that originated from two separate 2015 bills, each enacted without reference to the other.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) This is by request of the Statute Law Committee (Committee), which is a three branch of government committee that oversees the Code Reviser's Office and tends to the code. It is the mission of the Committee to find and correct obsolete provisions of the code, and that is what this bill does. This is a non-controversial technical corrections bill. This is the third time it has been proposed. The changes made last year are not in this version. In this version, just the year is changed, and no surrounding language is changed. Everything else is purely technical.

(Opposed) None.