Designating the bridge over the Skookumchuck river on state route number 507 as the Regina Clark memorial bridge.

Designates the bridge over the Skookumchuck river on state route number 507 as the Regina Clark memorial bridge.

-- 2019 REGULAR SESSION --
Jan 31	First reading, referred to Transportation.

by Representatives Young, Orcutt, Shea, Walsh, Irwin, Kraft, McCaslin, Sutherland, Graham, Schmick, Gildon, Volz, Van Werven, Smith, Barkis, Griffey, Eslick, and Caldier

Amending the Constitution to require a two-thirds majority vote of the legislature to raise taxes.

Requiring that all mandatory, regulatory, licensing, and disciplinary functions regarding the practice of law and administration of justice reside exclusively in the supreme court.

Proposes an amendment to the state Constitution to require all mandatory, regulatory, licensing, and disciplinary functions regarding the practice of law and administration of justice reside exclusively in the supreme court.

-- 2019 REGULAR SESSION --
Feb 1	First reading, referred to Civil Rights & Judiciary.

by Senators Walsh, Brown, Darneille, Keiser, Rolfes, and Schoesler

Concerning choice in service for individuals eligible to receive employment and day program services.

Finds that the public interest and the interest of individuals with developmental disabilities would best be served by a broad array of employment and day program services that: Promote active treatment; support these people in the community; include services provided by day training centers; and ensure autonomy, dignity, and choice.

Declares that services provided by a day training center are habilitative services for the purposes of Title 71A RCW regarding developmental disabilities, and may not be considered community access services nor be subject to the nine-month transition period.

Requires the secretary of the department of social and health services to ensure that the needs and choices of each individual receiving employment and day program services are being met through habilitative services, in an appropriate setting based upon the client's person-centered service plan, and appropriate to the client's needs.

Requires the department of social and health services to: (1) Work with counties and stakeholders to strengthen and expand services provided by day training centers which includes seeking funding from federal, local, and private sector sources; and

Expanding affordable, resilient broadband service to enable economic development, public safety, health care, and education in Washington's communities.

Creates the governor's statewide broadband office to encourage, foster, develop, and improve affordable, quality broadband in order to: (1) Drive job creation, promote innovation, improve economic vitality, and expand markets for businesses;

(2) Serve the ongoing and growing needs of education, health care, and public safety systems, industries and business, governmental operations, and citizens; and

(3) Improve broadband accessibility for unserved and underserved communities.

Requires the public works board to establish a competitive grant and loan program to award funding to eligible applicants to promote the expansion of access to broadband service in unserved and underserved areas.

Expands the purpose of the state universal communications services program to include the provision of all communications services, including voice and broadband services.

Creates the statewide broadband account.

Concerning basic skills assessments for approved teacher preparation programs.

Requires an applicant for admission to an approved teacher preparation program to: (1) Take the basic skills assessment, or an alternative or equivalent basic skills assessment, as determined by the professional educator standards board; and

Concerning the employer-employee relationship.

Establishes the employee fair classification act which addresses prevailing wages, wage deductions, the wage payment act, the minimum wage act, unemployment insurance, industrial insurance, and the employer-employee relationship.

Concerning first responder agency notifications to schools regarding potential threats.

Requires a first responder agency to: (1) Notify a school of a situation that may necessitate an evacuation or lockdown;

(2) Determine if other schools in the vicinity are similarly threatened; and

Concerning certain public facilities district's authorization to acquire, construct, own, remodel, maintain, equip, reequip, repair, finance, and operate one or more recreational facilities other than a ski area with voter approval.

Establishing a behavioral health innovation and integration campus within the University of Washington school of medicine.

Creates a behavioral health innovation and integration campus within the University of Washington school of medicine that will include inpatient treatment capacity and focus on inpatient and outpatient care for people with behavioral health needs while training a behavioral health provider workforce.

Concerning an ambulance transport quality assurance fee.

Provides for a safety net fee for certain ambulance transports to be used to augment funding from other sources, thereby supporting additional payments to ambulance transport providers for medicaid services.

Requires the state health care authority to establish the manner and format for ambulance transport providers to report required data.

Imposes a quality assurance fee for each ambulance transport provided by each ambulance transport provider subject to the fee.

Provides for termination and repeal, under the sunset act, of the authorization for ambulance transport quality assurance fees.

Requiring property sold in tax lien foreclosure proceedings to be sold as is.

Concerning mosquito control districts.

Concerning urban growth areas.

Concerning the distribution of connecting Washington funds to local and state transportation agencies.

Requires a certain net tax amount from the motor vehicle fund to be distributed to the transportation improvement board and the county road administration board.

Requires the state treasurer to: (1) Distribute, from the motor vehicle fund, 8.511 million dollars per biennium to the freight mobility investment account;

(2) Distribute the remainder to the connecting Washington account;

(3) Transfer from the multimodal transportation account, 7.35 million dollars to the complete streets grant program account; and

Providing code cities with the ability to annex unincorporated areas pursuant to a jointly approved interlocal agreement with the county.

Permits a code city to annex unincorporated territory under an interlocal agreement.

Improving managed care organization performance in caring for medicaid clients.

Requires the state health care authority to: (1) Contract with an external quality improvement organization to annually analyze the performance of managed care organizations that provide services to certain clients in comparison to managed care organizations in other states, based on performance outcomes in each performance measure; and

(2) Notify managed care organizations of any required remissions of funding for the preceding plan year no later than January 30th of each year.

Concerning agency obligations.

Revises the growth management act regarding the program of technical assistance created by the department of commerce, and the adoption of guidelines by the department, to guide the classification of agricultural lands, forestlands, mineral resource lands, and critical areas.

Requires technical assistance or guidance provided by the department or other state agency to include a section analyzing the effects of implementation.

Requires the developed guidelines to include analyses of the effect of the guidelines on lands within the city or county.

Concerning whitetail deer population estimates.

Increasing the availability of quality, affordable health coverage in the individual market.

Requires the state health benefit exchange, in consultation with the insurance commissioner, the state health care authority, an independent actuary, and other stakeholders, to establish up to three standardized health plans for each of the bronze, silver, and gold levels.

Requires the state health care authority, in consultation with the state health benefit exchange, to contract with one or more health carriers to offer silver and gold qualified health plans on the state health benefit exchange for plan years beginning in 2021.

Requires the state health benefit exchange, in consultation with the state health care authority and the insurance commissioner, to develop a plan to implement and fund premium subsidies for individuals whose modified adjusted gross incomes are less than five hundred percent of the federal poverty level and who are purchasing individual market coverage on the exchange.

Establishing guidelines for government procurement and use of automated decision systems in order to protect consumers, improve transparency, and create more market predictability.

Finds that: (1) Washington is a technology leader on a national and global level;

(2) Automated decision systems are rapidly being adopted to make or assist in core decisions in a variety of government and business functions; and

(3) The automated decision systems are often deployed without public knowledge, are unregulated, and vendors selling the systems may require restrictive contractual provisions that undermine government transparency and accountability.

Concerning the procurement and use of facial recognition technology by government entities in Washington state and privacy rights relating to facial recognition technology.

Prohibits state agencies, local government agencies, or officials of the agencies from obtaining, retaining, accessing, or using: (1) A facial recognition system; or

Authorizing the use of automated license plate recognition systems.

Authorizes the following to use an automated license plate recognition system: (1) A law enforcement agency or parking enforcement agency for locating vehicles on a watch list;

(2) A parking enforcement agency for enforcing time restrictions on parking spaces;

(3) A transportation agency for providing real time traffic information to the public, traffic modeling purposes, and traffic studies such as origin and destination studies, ramp meter efficiencies, and determining construction delays and route use;

(4) A transportation agency for commercial vehicle systems at Washington state patrol enforcement sites and weigh stations; and

(5) An agency for controlling access to secured areas.

Concerning medical debt.

Establishing criminal penalties for unauthorized use, presentation, transfer, or acquisition of supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits.

Concerning special education.

Addresses the education of students with disabilities.

Requires each school district to: (1) Provide professional development regarding special education; and

(2) Convene an ongoing special education advisory committee to increase parental and family involvement and be a partner with the school district to provide effective special education programming.

Requires the superintendent of public instruction to adopt rules for required reporting of the school district that align with the federal individuals with disabilities education act reporting requirements.

Provides a recognition award for a school district that meets or exceeds system-wide performance goals or measurements.

Requires the state board of education, in collaboration with the office of the superintendent of public instruction, to decide on the details of the recognition award.

Requires a representative from the division of vocational rehabilitation to attend each individualized education program meeting to assist certain students with transition planning.

Requires each school district and teacher preparation program to include mandatory coursework on special education and related services that includes: (1) Why some students with disabilities need special education or related services; and

Concerning certificates of parental improvement.

Requires the department of children, youth, and families to develop and implement a process by which an individual, with a founded finding of child abuse or neglect or whose child was found by a court to be dependent, may petition the department for issuance of a certificate of parental improvement.

Studying outcomes for children in the early childhood education and assistance program.

Requires the state institute for public policy to prepare an updated report of the 2014 early childhood education and assistance program outcome evaluation report.

Requires the department of children, youth, and families and the office of the superintendent of public instruction to provide the state institute, at no cost, with all data necessary to complete the report.

Analyzing child care costs and affordability.

Requires the department of children, youth, and families to convene and facilitate a child care affordability and accessibility work group to examine regulatory and licensing costs and the associated effects on child care affordability and accessibility for multiple and single-parent families.

Concerning intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disability.

Requires the department of social and health services to: (1) Assess residents receiving services from an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disability to determine if the resident is benefiting from the active treatment; and

Expanding community-based behavioral health facilities through issuance of state bonds.

Concerning free speech at institutions of higher education.

Requires the restrictions on speech and use of public space at a public or private institution of higher education to be clear and published and provide for ample alternative means of expression.

Considers outdoor areas of campus to be traditional public forums for individuals, organizations, and guest speakers.

Authorizes a public or private institution of higher education to create and enforce restrictions that are: (1) Reasonable and content-neutral regarding time, place, and manner of expression; and

(2) Narrowly tailored to a significant institutional interest.

Concerning family and medical leave program coverage.

Concerning the designation and support of projects of statewide significance.

Requires a person to apply to the department of commerce for a proposed development project to receive designation as a project of statewide significance.

Requires a project of statewide significance to be completed after January 1, 2020, and be a private development with private capital investment in: (1) Manufacturing;

(2) Research and development;

(3) A computer data center;

(4) Renewable energy generation; or

(5) Facilities to store and handle goods moved through the state's ports including grain elevators, cranes, and cargo handling facilities.

Requires the office of regulatory assistance to assign a regional assistance lead to each project of statewide significance.

Requires state agencies to enter into agreements with the office of regulatory assistance and the project proponents as required by the fully coordinated permit process.

Requires the employment security department to share available information with the department of revenue concerning the number and location of employees employed by persons claiming the tax credit.

Creating a state revenue reform task force.

Creates the legislative task force on state revenue reform to review the state tax system and make recommendations to the legislature on a comprehensive state revenue reform plan.

Protecting patient care.

Prohibits a health care entity from the following, if a health care provider is acting in good faith, within the provider's authorized scope of practice, and within the relevant standard of care: (1) Limiting the provider's provision of medically accurate and comprehensive information and resources to a patient regarding his or her health status;

(2) Limiting the provider's provision of information regarding the death with dignity act; or

(3) Prohibiting the provider from providing health services in cases in which failure to provide the service would violate the accepted standard of care or when the patient presents a certain medical condition.

Retaining productive farmland.

Requires the state conservation commission to develop a form and process for an agricultural land assessment to be completed by a state agency before the acquisition of an interest in real property when the interest includes agricultural land.

Increasing the types of commercial driver waivers allowed for military veterans.

Concerning sustainable recycling.

Creates the recycling development center, within the department of ecology, to provide or facilitate basic and applied research and development, marketing, and policy analysis in furthering the development of markets and processing for recycled commodities and products.

Requires the department of ecology to: (1) Enter into an interagency agreement with the department of commerce to perform or contract for certain activities;

(2) Create and implement a statewide recycling contamination reduction and outreach plan based on best management practices for recycling, developed with stakeholder input; and

(3) Provide technical assistance and create guidance to help local jurisdictions determine the extent of contamination in their regional recycling and to develop contamination reduction and outreach plans.

Requires each county and city comprehensive solid waste management plan to include a contamination reduction and outreach plan.

Authorizes certain local governments to apply to the department for financial aid for the preparation and implementation of the contamination reduction and outreach plans.

Creating a pilot project to establish an enhanced 211 drug line in certain counties.

Creates a pilot project to establish an enhanced 211 drug line in the WIN 211 south sound region, which encompasses Lewis, Pierce, and Thurston counties.

Requires the pilot project to provide residents of the counties with easy public access, ideally available 24/7, through the 211 telephone service for referral for opioid and other drug crisis services.

Concerning the proposed department of natural resources' marbled murrelet long-term conservation strategy.

Prohibits the board of natural resources from adopting a marbled murrelet long-term conservation strategy until the required analysis, mentioned below, has been finalized and made available for public review.

Providing multiple pathways to a meaningful high school diploma.

Modernizing resident distillery marketing and sales restrictions.

Modernizes certain alcoholic beverage control restrictions regarding resident distillery marketing and sales.

Establishes a tasting room license that is available to distillery and craft distillery licensees and authorizes the operation of an off-site tasting room, in addition to a tasting room attached to the distillery's or craft distillery's production facility.

-- 2019 REGULAR SESSION --
Jan 23	First reading, referred to Labor & Commerce.

by Senators Bailey, O'Ban, and Kuderer

Urging federal legislation to prohibit the sale of tobacco and vapor products to anyone under the age of twenty-one.

Urges federal legislation to prohibit the sale of tobacco and vapor products to anyone under the age of twenty-one.

-- 2019 REGULAR SESSION --
Jan 28	First reading, referred to Health & Long Term Care.

by Senators Fortunato, King, Hawkins, Sheldon, Padden, Bailey, Brown, Warnick, Honeyford, Wilson, L., Holy, Becker, and O'Ban

Amending the state Constitution so that certain sales and use tax revenue collected from new and used car purchases are used for highway purposes.

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution to require the legislature to enact a four-year balanced budget.

Amending the Constitution to provide a homestead property tax exemption.

Proposes an amendment to the state Constitution to provide a homestead property tax exemption.

-- 2019 REGULAR SESSION --
Feb 1	First reading, referred to Ways & Means.