BILL REQ. #:  H-3965.1 

Read first time 01/17/08.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to removal of obsolete rules from the Washington Administrative Code; and amending RCW 34.05.210.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 34.05.210 and 2007 c 456 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The code reviser shall cause the Washington Administrative Code to be compiled, indexed by subject, and published. All current, permanently effective rules of each agency shall be published in the Washington Administrative Code. Compilations shall be supplemented or revised as often as necessary and at least annually in a form compatible with the main compilation.
     (2) Subject to the provisions of this chapter, the code reviser shall prescribe a uniform numbering system, form, and style for all proposed and adopted rules.
     (3) The code reviser shall publish a register setting forth the text of all rules filed during the appropriate register publication period.
     (4) The code reviser may omit from the register or the compilation, rules that would be unduly cumbersome, expensive, or otherwise inexpedient to publish, if such rules are made available in printed or processed form on application to the adopting agency, and if the register or compilation contains a notice stating the general subject matter of the rules so omitted and stating how copies thereof may be obtained.
     (5) The code reviser may edit and revise rules for publication, codification, and compilation, without changing the meaning of any such rule.
     (6) When a rule, in whole or in part, is declared invalid and unconstitutional by a court of final appeal, the adopting agency shall give notice to that effect in the register. With the consent of the attorney general, the code reviser may remove obsolete rules or parts of rules from the Washington Administrative Code when:
     (a) The rules are declared unconstitutional by a court of final appeal and the agency that adopted the rule agrees with its removal; or
     (b) The adopting agency ceases to exist and the rules are not transferred by statute to a successor agency.
     (7) Compilations shall be made available, in written form to (a) state elected officials whose offices are created by Article II or III of the state Constitution or by RCW 48.02.010, upon request, (b) the secretary of the senate and the chief clerk of the house for committee use, as required, but not to exceed the number of standing committees in each body, (c) county boards of law library trustees and to the Olympia press corps library, and (d) other persons at a price fixed by the code reviser.
     (8) The board of law library trustees of each county shall keep and maintain a complete and current set of registers and compilations when required for use and inspection as provided in chapter 27.24 RCW. If the register is published exclusively by electronic means on the code reviser web site, providing on-site access to the electronic version of the register shall satisfy the requirements of this subsection for access to the register.
     (9) Registers shall be made available in written form to the same parties and under the same terms as those listed in subsection (7) of this section, unless the register is published exclusively by electronic means on the code reviser web site.
     (10) Judicial notice shall be taken of rules filed and published as provided in RCW 34.05.380 and this section.