Passed by the House April 14, 2023 Yeas 96 Nays 0 Speaker of the House of Representatives Passed by the Senate April 11, 2023 Yeas 49 Nays 0 President of the Senate	CERTIFICATE I, Bernard Dean, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1783 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth. Chief Clerk Chief Clerk
Approved	FILED
	Secretary of State State of Washington

ByHouse Appropriations (originally sponsored by Representatives Sandlin, Maycumber, Couture, Chapman, Dent, Eslick, and Volz)

AN ACT Relating to supporting economic development in distressed areas through hiring of grant writers; adding a new section to chapter 43.330 RCW; and creating a new section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that access to economic development assistance from government and philanthropic sources typically requires careful and skilled writing of grant applications. The legislature finds that trained and skilled grant writers are scarce, and particularly difficult to find in distressed areas with higher rates of unemployment that need economic development assistance. Therefore, the legislature intends to provide the department of commerce with the authority and resources necessary to ensure each county associate development organization can recruit and retain a grant writer.

(1) Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, by July 1, 2024, the department shall establish a grant program to support associate development organizations in the recruiting, hiring, and retention of grant writers. The department must award grants on an annual basis and must prioritize grants for distressed areas as defined under RCW 43.168.020.

(3) Associate development organizations that receive awards under this section must provide information on the use of the funds, including a description of the associate development organization's recruiting and hiring efforts and, if applicable, the number and types of grants applied for by the grant writers funded by the state, in their annual reports to the department required under RCW 43.330.082.

(4) Beginning December 31, 2026, the department must include information on grant award funding and use in its reports to the legislature on associate development organizations contracts required under RCW 43.330.082.