Title: An act relating to session law publication.

Brief Description: Simplifying session law publication.

Sponsors: By Representatives Williams, Priest, Rodne and Haler; by request of Statute Law Committee.

Brief History:

Judiciary: 1/10/06 [DP].

Floor Activity:

Passed House: 2/7/06, 98-0.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

Majority Report: Do pass. Signed by Representatives Lantz, Chair; Flannigan, Vice Chair; Williams, Vice Chair; Priest, Ranking Minority Member; Rodne, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Kirby, Serben, Springer and Wood.

Staff: Edie Adams (786-7180).

Background:

After each legislative session, the Statute Law Committee (SLC) is responsible for compiling and publishing both temporary and permanently bound copies of the session laws. The session laws consist of all the bills that were enacted into law during the legislative session.

The SLC is required to have printed at least 3,000 temporary bound sets of the session laws within 75 days after adjournment of the legislative session. In addition, the SLC is required to have published and bound in good buckram at least 600 copies of the session laws.

The SLC is directed in one statutory provision to provide copies of the temporary session laws to certain persons and entities free of charge. In another provision, the SLC is directed to provide copies of the permanently bound session laws to certain persons and entities free of charge. In some instances, the SLC is to automatically provide the copies, whereas in other instances the SLC provides the copies at the request of the person or entity.

Surplus copies of both the temporary and permanently bound session laws may be sold by the SLC for a price that covers costs. Moneys received from the sale of the session laws is deposited into the General Fund.

Summary of Bill:

The requirement that the Statute Law Committee (SLC) publish 3,000 temporary and 600 permanently bound copies of the session laws is removed. The requirement that the permanent copies be bound in good buckram is also removed.

Instead, the SLC is required to have published and bound, within 75 days after adjournment of session, as many copies of the session laws as necessary. There is no longer a specific requirement that the SLC have published both a temporary and permanent set of session laws.

The statutes specifying the required distribution of the temporary and permanent session laws are repealed and replaced with one section that reorganizes and clarifies the list of entities and persons that are automatically entitled to specified copies of the session laws, and those that are entitled to specified copies upon request.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Not requested.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: Removing the requirement that specified numbers of session laws be printed will save approximately $40,000 per year. Requiring those specific numbers to be printed may have been a good idea 20 to 30 years ago, but because of the advent of the Internet and other reasons, sales of the books have gone down. Taking the specific numbers out will allow us to respond to market conditions. In addition, the removal of the requirement to publish both temporary and permanent sets will allow us to consider publishing only one version of the session laws in perfect binding, which is what is used for the RCWs.

Testimony Against: None.

Persons Testifying: Kyle Thiessen, Statute Law Committee.

Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: None.