BILL REQ. #: S-0080.1
| State of Washington | 60th Legislature | 2007 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/08/2007. Referred to Committee on Government Operations & Elections.
AN ACT Relating to women's suffrage day; amending RCW 1.16.050; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 The legislature recognizes and finds that:
(2) July 19, 1848, was the first Women's Rights Convention where
American women declared themselves equal under the law;
(3) These convention participants signed and adopted a Declaration
of Sentiments and Resolutions that called for women to have equal
rights in voting, property, education, and other matters;
(4) Citizens who are bound by the law should have a voice in
creating these laws as voting is a defining right of United States
citizenship;
(5) As president of the National Woman Suffrage Association,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was determined to give women the right to vote,
make the divorce process easier, and end discrimination in employment;
(6) Many supporters organized marches, picket lines, and other
forms of protest in congressional districts and the nation's capital
for the right to vote;
(7) The women's suffrage movement inspired and empowered thousands
of Americans including young people and working-class women across the
nation;
(8) In 1893, individual states began to grant women the right to
vote beginning with Colorado, followed by Utah, Idaho, Washington,
California, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Illinois, Nevada, and Montana;
(9) In 1920, the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution was
adopted and women were granted the right to vote; and
(10) The nineteenth day of July should be recognized as Women's
Suffrage Day to honor great American women for their past, present, and
future accomplishments of furthering equal rights of all American
women.
Sec. 2 RCW 1.16.050 and 2003 c 68 s 2 are each amended to read as
follows:
The following are legal holidays: Sunday; the first day of
January, commonly called New Year's Day; the third Monday of January,
being celebrated as the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King,
Jr.; the third Monday of February to be known as Presidents' Day and to
be celebrated as the anniversary of the births of Abraham Lincoln and
George Washington; the last Monday of May, commonly known as Memorial
Day; the fourth day of July, being the anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence; the first Monday in September, to be known as Labor
Day; the eleventh day of November, to be known as Veterans' Day; the
fourth Thursday in November, to be known as Thanksgiving Day; the day
immediately following Thanksgiving Day; and the twenty-fifth day of
December, commonly called Christmas Day.
Employees of the state and its political subdivisions, except
employees of school districts and except those nonclassified employees
of institutions of higher education who hold appointments or are
employed under contracts to perform services for periods of less than
twelve consecutive months, shall be entitled to one paid holiday per
calendar year in addition to those specified in this section. Each
employee of the state or its political subdivisions may select the day
on which the employee desires to take the additional holiday provided
for herein after consultation with the employer pursuant to guidelines
to be promulgated by rule of the appropriate personnel authority, or in
the case of local government by ordinance or resolution of the
legislative authority.
If any of the above specified state legal holidays are also federal
legal holidays but observed on different dates, only the state legal
holidays shall be recognized as a paid legal holiday for employees of
the state and its political subdivisions except that for port districts
and the law enforcement and public transit employees of municipal
corporations, either the federal or the state legal holiday, but in no
case both, may be recognized as a paid legal holiday for employees.
Whenever any legal holiday, other than Sunday, falls upon a Sunday,
the following Monday shall be the legal holiday.
Whenever any legal holiday falls upon a Saturday, the preceding
Friday shall be the legal holiday.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to have the effect of
adding or deleting the number of paid holidays provided for in an
agreement between employees and employers of political subdivisions of
the state or as established by ordinance or resolution of the local
government legislative authority.
The legislature declares that the twelfth day of October shall be
recognized as Columbus Day but shall not be considered a legal holiday
for any purposes.
The legislature declares that the ninth day of April shall be
recognized as former prisoner of war recognition day but shall not be
considered a legal holiday for any purposes.
The legislature declares that the twenty-sixth day of January shall
be recognized as Washington army and air national guard day but shall
not be considered a legal holiday for any purposes.
The legislature declares that the seventh day of August shall be
recognized as purple heart recipient recognition day but shall not be
considered a legal holiday for any purposes.
The legislature declares that the second Sunday in October be
recognized as Washington state children's day but shall not be
considered a legal holiday for any purposes.
The legislature declares that the sixteenth day of April shall be
recognized as Mother Joseph day and the fourth day of September as
Marcus Whitman day, but neither shall be considered legal holidays for
any purpose.
The legislature declares that the seventh day of December be
recognized as Pearl Harbor remembrance day but shall not be considered
a legal holiday for any purpose.
The legislature declares that the nineteenth day of February be
recognized as civil liberties day of remembrance but shall not be
considered a legal holiday for any purpose.