Legislative Updates

HB: Concerning the audiology and speech-language pathology interstate compact.

Extends the public utility tax (PUT) and business and occupation (B&O) tax credits for hiring veterans to July 1, 2034. • Increases the maximum PUT and B&O tax credit an employer may claim for hiring a qualified employee to $3,000 per employee. • Increases the maximum total credit to $5 million per year for each of the PUT and B&O tax credits. • Expands eligibility for the PUT and B&O tax credits by removing the unemployment requirement for veterans and including the spouse of a veteran or an active-duty military member as a qualified employee.

SHB: Expands the definition of veteran for purposes of veterans' benefits in state pension systems, legal assistance, scoring criteria on civil service exams, and other programs, to include members that were awarded an expeditionary medal.

2SHB: Establishes requirements for certain state agencies and licensing authorities related to the professional licensing and employment of military spouses. • Allows a military spouse to terminate an employment contract without penalty after his or her service member spouse receives orders for a permanent change of station

SHB: Enacts the Counseling Compact.

Establishes an endorsement for mobile rapid response crisis teams and community-based crisis teams that meet staffing, vehicle, and training standards, as well as a performance payment program to support them. • Directs the University of Washington to develop recommendations for the creation of crisis workforce and resilience training collaboratives to offer voluntary regional trainings for personnel in the behavioral health crisis system. • Directs the Department of Health to develop informational materials and a social media campaign to promote the 988 crisis hotline and related crisis lines. Establishes liability protection for several entities and personnel for activities related to the dispatching decisions of 988 crisis hotline staff and the transfer of calls between the 911 line and the 988 crisis hotline. • Extends several dates related to reporting, designated 988 crisis contact center hubs, and funding the new crisis call center system platform.

SHB: Substitute bill removes provisions related to the disclosure of veteran discharge or separation documents.

Moves the director of nursing services position at each state veterans' home from WMS to EMS, which is exempt from civil service provisions. Repeals statutory references to the Soldiers' Home Colony, fundraising for the eastern Washington veterans' home, and a requirement to provide domiciliary and medical care.

SHB: Establishes the Purple Star Award (Award) to recognize school districts and schools that demonstrate educational and social-emotional supports to students of military service members. • Establishes related administrative duties for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), including authorizing the OSPI to collaborate with a qualifying entity in administering the Award.

SHB: Expands qualification for the senior citizen, disabled individuals, and qualifying veterans property tax relief program by increasing the calculation of income thresholds. • Makes adjustments to income thresholds for property tax relief programs every three years. • Allows individuals to continue to qualify for the senior citizen, disabled individuals, and qualifying veterans' property tax exemption if their income increases as the result of certain cost of living adjustments for tax year 2024

Enacts the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact.

SB: Adopts the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact (Compact) and its provisions. • Limits license reciprocity to those determined to be eligible by each member state of the Compact. • Directs states under the Compact to submit a list of eligible licenses that the state will grant to licensees coming from other Compact member states. • Requires member states to grant an equivalent license to active military members and military spouses who hold an eligible teaching license. • Specifies that member states have discretion in relation to recertification requirements. • Creates the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact Commission with certain administrative requirements. • Establishes that the Compact will come into effect on the date on which the Compact is enacted into law in the 10th member state.

2SHB: Establishes an advisory board within the Department of Health (DOH) to provide advice and recommendations to DOH, the Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), and the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), consisting of agency members and other specified members appointed by the Governor. • Creates an interagency work group of DOH, LCB, and WSDA to provide advice and recommendations, in regular updates, to the advisory board on developing a comprehensive regulatory framework for a regulated psilocybin system, and other specified topics. • Requires the Health Care Authority to establish a Psilocybin Task Force, which must provide a final report to the Governor and Legislature by December 1, 2023, on specified topics including, without limitation, clinical information on psilocybin use and regulatory structures for clinical psilocybin use in Washington and elsewhere. Grants DOH certain duties, functions, and powers relating to studies, research, and other information regarding the safety and efficacy of using psilocybin to treat mental health conditions; rule-making authority; and other specified powers relating to psilocybin

SB: Expands the definition of "period of war" for veterans' benefits in state pension systems, legal assistance, scoring criteria on civil service exams, and other programs, to include any armed conflicts where an expeditionary medal was awarded.

WDVA FN: SB: Moves the director of nursing services position at each state veterans' home from WMS to EMS, which is exempt from civil service provisions. • Provides certain limited instances in which the Washington Department of Veterans' Affairs may disclose a veteran's discharge papers. • Repeals statutory references to the Soldiers' Home Colony, fundraising for the eastern Washington veterans' home, and a requirement to provide domiciliary and medical care.

WDVA FN: SSB: Requires the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs to submit reports to the Legislature to determine the effectiveness of the veterans service officer program, and the veteran peer-to-peer training and support program in meeting veterans' needs. • States legislative intent to double appropriations for the programs, prioritizing smaller counties and counties with below-average rates of veterans receiving federal benefits. EFFECT OF CHANGES MADE BY STATE GOVERNMENT & ELECTIONS COMMITTEE (First Substitute): States the intent of the Legislature is to increase, rather than double, state appropriations for veterans service officer and peer mentoring programs.

SSB: Enters Washington into the Nurse Licensure Compact.

Confirming David Puente as the director of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs

Permits specified individuals who separate from service from positions covered by the Public Employees', School Employees', and Teachers' Retirement System Plans 2, but do not retire, the opportunity to participate in the retiree benefits of the Public Employees' Benefits Board. • Limits participation to individuals who separate from service on or after January 1, 2024, and who are at least age 55 with 20 years of service in the included state pension plans.

SHB: Changes the postretirement employment restrictions on benefits eligibility for Public Employees' Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, and School Employees Retirement System Plans 2 and 3 members that retired under the 2008 Early Retirement Factors (ERFs). • Permits 2008 ERF members to work in retirement system–covered employment for up to 867 hours per year without suspension of retirement benefits. • Adjusts benefits for individuals that chose the 3 percent per year early retirement reduction to the level of reduction in the 2008 ERFs for future benefit payments.

SHB: Mandates a public agency that is required to solicit public comment for a statutorily specified period of time, and to provide notice that it is soliciting public comment, to include in the notice the last day by which written public comment may be submitted. • Makes an agency that violates the requirement to include in a notice for public comment the last day by which written comment may be submitted subject to a civil penalty of $500 for the first violation and $1000 for any subsequent violation.

ESHB: Expands access to unemployment insurance benefits by adding circumstances where a person may voluntarily quit for good cause.

WDVA FN: 2SHB: Grants Washington Management Service (WMS) employees the right to collective bargaining, except for WMS employees in positions with salary bands three, four, and medical, and other specified WMS managers. • • Provides that bargaining over wages is limited to salary band levels. Provides that collective bargaining agreements with WMS employees may not take effect before July 1, 2025.

Operating Budget

Supplemental Operating Budget

Capital Budget

SHB: Creates an exception from examination and disclosure for a union representative and a union employee concerning any communication between the union representative or union employee made during union representation. • Applies the exception from examination and disclosure to employees of, and the organizations that represent: employees of college districts, public employees, faculty at public four-year institutions of higher education, civil service employees, ferry employees, port employees, and labor unions.

SHB: Requires certain public employers to provide exclusive bargaining representatives information, such as contact information, date of hire, salary, and jobsite location, of employees in bargaining units if the employer has that information in its records. • Allows an exclusive bargaining representative to bring a court action if a public employer fails to comply with the requirement to provide information.

ESHB: Requires all newly executed construction contracts for covered projects larger than 100,000 gross square feet to include specified environmental and manufacturer information beginning July 1, 2024. • Requires all newly executed construction contracts to include specified environmental and manufacturer information beginning July 1, 2026. • Specifies the Department of Commerce (Commerce) must continue to develop and maintain the publicly available database funded by the 2021-2023 Omnibus Operating Appropriations Act. • Requires Commerce to convene a technical work group by December 1, 2023.

E2SHB: Specifies that an employer must provide the employee's complete personnel file within 14 calendar days of a request from the employee, former employee, or their attorney, agent, or fiduciary. • Requires certain employers to redact specific information before providing personnel files. • Requires an employer to provide to a former employee, upon request, a statement of the employee's discharge date and reasons, if any, for the discharge. • • Creates a private cause of action with statutory damages. Requires the Department of Labor and Industries and the Employment Security Department to provide employers with information regarding the employer's obligations and the employee's rights.

ESHB: Removes obsolete salary schedule language related to comparable worth and locally competitive higher education salary schedules. • Removes several temporary salary freeze provisions dating from February 18, 2009, until July 31, 2013. • Eliminates annual reporting requirements from each state agency to the Office of Financial Management on the number of specified types of employees and the use of bonus or incentive awards. • Requires that state employees appointed on or after July 1, 2023, be paid only through electronic transfers of funds. • • Suspends the right of civil service exempt employees to revert to a classified position if the employee has been notified in writing that they are the subject of a specified workplace investigation.

ESHB: Repeals the requirement for state agencies to submit certain reports to the Legislature and/or Governor. • Modifies the frequency of certain reports from state agencies to the Legislature and/or Governor. • Permits state agencies to place certain information online rather than submit a report to the Legislature.

Establishes the Whistleblower Award and Protection Act, which sets forth parameters for granting awards to whistleblowers who provide information regarding securities fraud, and establishes prohibited acts of retaliation. • Allows whistleblower awards to be paid from the Securities Prosecution Fund and increases the fund limit to $1 million.

Requires owners of state campus district energy systems to develop a decarbonization plan by June 2024 and provide their final plan to the Department of Commerce (Commerce) for approval by June 2025 and every five years thereafter. • Establishes an alternative compliance pathway to meet the state energy performance standard for an owner of a state campus district energy system if the owner: (1) is implementing an approved decarbonization plan; (2) meets benchmarking, energy management, and operations and maintenance planning requirements; and (3) gets a request approved by Commerce once every five years. • Provides owners of nonstate owned campus district energy systems the option to pursue the alternative compliance pathway.

HB: Repeals the requirement for the Department of Enterprise Services (DES) to adopt rules establishing a reciprocity increase on bids from businesses in other states that grant in-state preferences by law, and for the Director of the DES to maintain a list of states with in-state preferences. • Extends the amount of time that a sole source contract must be filed and made available for public inspection from at least 10 business days before the proposed starting date of the contract to at least 15 business days. • Extends the time for an agency making an emergency purchase to submit its emergency contract to the DES from three business days to 10 business days

ESHB: Exempts from disclosure under the Public Records Act personally identifying information of certain agency employees or their dependents who are survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, or stalking.

WDVA FN: E2SHB: Implements certain membership requirements for statutory entities, defined as any multimember task force, work group, or advisory committee, that is: (1) temporary; (2) established by statute; (3) established for the specific purpose of examining a particular issue that directly and tangibly affects a particular underrepresented population; and (4) required to report to the Legislature on that issue. • Requires various reports by statutory entities and the Office of Equity (Office) on the effectiveness of the membership requirements under the act, among other information. • • Requires the creation and distribution of education materials such as a toolkit developed by the Office on best practices to support meaningful engagement, and the inclusion of the membership requirements under the act in the Bill Drafting Guide.

Permits a registered nurse, advanced registered nurse practitioner, or licensed practical nurse to practice in Washington for up to 30 days before obtaining a temporary practice permit if the person is licensed and in good standing in Alaska, California, Idaho, or Oregon, is authorized by the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission (Commission), and meets certain other requirements. • Requires the Commission to issue an expedited temporary practice permit to practice as a registered nurse, advanced registered nurse practitioner, or licensed practical nurse to a person who is licensed and in good standing in Alaska, California, Idaho, or Oregon and meets certain other requirements.

ESHB: Exempts certain home care aides and nursing assistants whose credentials have expired from late fees or renewal fees. • Extends the period of time allowed for long-term care workers to become home care aides or nursing assistants. • Changes licensing requirements for home care aides and nursing assistants.

2SHB: Expands timelines and testing opportunities for long-term care workers seeking certification as a home care aide. • Expands the list of family members who are exempt from having to become home care aides and reduces the training requirements for these caregivers. • Exempts certain home care aides and nursing assistants whose licensing credentials have expired from paying late fees or renewal fees. • Directs the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to study the feasibility and cost of paying the parents of medically complex children under 18 years old and the spouses or registered domestic partners of a person with complex medical needs. • Directs the DSHS to report annually on long-term care workforce data trends.

Imposes a $2 excise tax on each retail sale of smart wireless device with a selling price of more than $250. • Directs proceeds from the excise tax into the newly created learning device and technology account.

ESSB: Requires state contracts for public works, and goods or services to contain nondiscrimination clauses.

Operating Budget

Supplemental Operating Budget

Capital Budget

ESSB: Repeals the law prohibiting the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) from adopting rules related to ergonomics or musculoskeletal disorders. • Limits the adoption of new rules to no more than one set of rules for an industry or risk classification within a 12-month period and only for industries or risk classification where workers' compensation claims involved musculoskeletal injuries and disorders which are at a rate greater than two times the overall state claim rate for these types of injuries and disorders over a recent five-year period. Other limitations and exclusions are provided. • Requires certain reporting related to the potential rules and claims review by L&I. • Requires L&I, during rule making, to consider including options for an employer to demonstrate alternative control methods and to convene an advisory committee with employer and worker representatives in the impacted industry or rate classification. Allows L&I to provide certain funding to employers to purchase additional equipment needed to comply with newly adopted rules and up to three additional ergonomists to provide consultation to certain employers.

WDVA FN: 2SSB: Modifies small works roster requirements to address equity and efficiencies in public works procurement. • Updates and revises the small and limited works roster process to increase administrative efficiency. • Requires the Office of Minority and Women's Business Enterprises to adopt rules governing a public works small business certification plan. • Removes the requirement for the Department of Enterprise Services to survey which states provide a bidding preference on public works contracts for their resident contractors. • Requires the Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) to review construction cost escalation data for Washington State. • • Requires CPARB to make recommendations to the appropriate committees of the Legislature on adjustments to existing contracting thresholds

SSB: Amends the premium rate calculation in the Paid Family and Medical Leave Program (PFML) to be based on a specified formula rather than the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Account (Account) balance ratio on September 30th of the previous year. • Sets a maximum rate of 1.2 percent and removes the Employment Security Department's authority to assess a solvency surcharge if the Account balance ratio falls below a certain threshold. • Removes expired and outdated language in the PFML premium provisions.

2SSB: Excludes direct care registered nurses from the Department of Labor and Industries rule that claims based on mental conditions or mental disabilities caused by stress do not fall within the definition of occupational disease for workers' compensation purposes. • Limits the exclusion to a direct care registered nurse who has posttraumatic stress disorder that develops or manifests itself after the individual has been employed on a fully compensated basis as a direct care registered nurse in Washington State for at least 90 consecutive days.

2SSB: Establishes the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee as a subcommittee of the Emergency Management Council. • Creates the Technology Services Board Security Subcommittee within the Technology Services Board. • Expands the Department of Commerce's authority regarding energyrelated activities to include preparing and updating contingency plans for securing energy infrastructure against all physical and cybersecurity threats.

SSB: Allows certain retirees of the state's pension systems returning to work in a nursing position for a state agency to work up to 1040 hours while collecting a retirement benefit.

SSB: Requires a person who operates a nursing pool that employs, procures, or refers health or long-term care personnel for temporary employment in a hospital, nursing home, assisted living facility, enhanced services facility, or an adult family home to complete an annual registration with Department of Health (DOH), and disclose corporate structure and ownership, if any. • Establishes annual reporting requirements that certain nursing pools must submit to DOH that includes information on the average total hours worked and billed by nursing category, average amount charged and paid by nursing pools, the average amount of labor-related costs paid, the number of placements made within certain miles of the health or longterm care personnel's residence, and the total number of placements made.

2SSB: Establishes the new professions of certified peer specialist and certified peer specialist trainee to be certified by the Department of Health. • Specifies training and educational pathways and requirements to earn a certificate to engage in the practice of peer support services. • Directs the Health Care Authority to develop the trainings and examinations required to become certified. • Establishes training requirements for certified peer specialists practicing as peer crisis responders.

2SSB: Directs the state board for community and technical colleges to develop a plan to increase credential opportunities in nursing. • Requires development of an online Licensed Practice Nurse program at two community or technical colleges. • Modifies program approval and training requirements under the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission. • Creates the High School Student Certified Nursing Assistant Pilot Program. (Eliminates the creation of a Department of Veterans Affairs CNA training program.)

SSB: Authorizes certain interested parties to access specified information relating to an employee's paid family or medical leave claim, for the sole purpose of administering internal employer leave or benefit practices under established policies.