ByHouse Consumer Protection & Business (originally sponsored by Representatives Leavitt, Van Werven, Orwall, Eslick, Barkis, Shewmake, Lovick, Harris, Sells, Kilduff, Tarleton, Fey, Irwin, Wylie, Doglio, Pellicciotti, Kloba, and Riccelli)

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that human trafficking is a serious problem in the United States and in the state of Washington. Polaris project, the largest anti-human trafficking organization in the United States, hosts the national human trafficking hotline. Since the hotline's inception in 2007, over fifty thousand human trafficking cases have been discovered. In 2018, the hotline identified over twenty-three thousand survivors of human trafficking nationally. Human trafficking is an international problem that will continue to exploit the most vulnerable individuals in a community if proper training and identification support is not provided to the community at large.

(2) The legislature also recognizes that human trafficking is prevalent within hotels and motels across the country and in Washington. In 2018, eighty-one percent of the active sex trafficking cases in the United States involved a victim who was compelled to provide a commercial sexual act at a hotel. In 2017, forty-five percent of youth victims surveyed reported having been exploited in hotels. There is evidence to suggest that training can be an effective way of raising awareness about human trafficking. According to the Washington-based anti-trafficking group businesses ending slavery and trafficking, hoteliers who received human trafficking awareness training reported a significant increase in the likelihood that they would call law enforcement if they suspected trafficking.

(2) Training must be provided to all employees no later than January 1, 2021, and to new employees no later than ninety days after they begin their employment.

(c) Guidance specific to the public lodging sector concerning how to identify individuals who may be victims of human trafficking including how implicit bias may interfere with the accurate identification of suspected victims of human trafficking;

(d) Guidance concerning the role of the employees in appropriately responding to suspected human trafficking, and the potential harms of involving law enforcement without the consent of the suspected victim; and

(e) The contact information of appropriate agencies, including a national human trafficking hotline telephone number and the telephone numbers of appropriate local law enforcement agencies.

(4) By January 1, 2021, every operator of a transient accommodation shall post in a location conspicuous to employees signage regarding human trafficking awareness, printed in an easily legible font in English and any other language spoken by at least ten percent of the employees.

(5) By January 1, 2021, every operator of a transient accommodation shall implement procedures for the voluntary reporting of suspected human trafficking to the national human trafficking hotline or to a local law enforcement agency, and a policy to act as a guide for all employees on human trafficking prevention.

(1)(a) No person shall operate a transient accommodation as defined in this chapter without having a valid license issued by the department. Applications for a transient accommodation license shall be filed with the department sixty days or more before initiating business as a transient accommodation. All licenses issued under the provisions of this chapter shall expire one year from the effective date.

(b) The department may not renew or issue a license to an applicant without first receiving written certification from the applicant that the human trafficking training requirements under section 2 of this act regarding training, signage, and procedures for reporting have been met.

(2) All applications for renewal of licenses shall be either: (a) Postmarked no later than midnight on the date the license expires; or (b) if personally presented to the department or sent by electronic means, received by the department by 5:00 p.m. on the date the license expires.

(3) A licensee that submits a license renewal application in accordance with this section and the rules and fee schedule adopted under this chapter shall be deemed to possess a valid license for the year following the expiration date of the expiring license, or until the department suspends or revokes the license pursuant to RCW 70.62.270.

(4) The license of a licensee that fails to submit a license renewal application in accordance with this section, and the rules and fee schedule adopted under this chapter, shall become invalid on the thirty-fifth day after the expiration date, unless the licensee shall have corrected any and all deficiencies in the renewal application and paid a penalty fee as established by rule by the department before the thirty-fifth day following the expiration date. An invalid license may be reinstated upon reapplication as an applicant for a new license under subsection (1) of this section.