Gov. Jay Inslee signs Senate Bill 5338 during a ceremony April 7. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, was one of four bills signed by the governor in the past two weeks.
As the 2021 Washington State Legislative session draws to a close, Gov. Jay Inslee has started to sign numerous bills into law that have passed both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate, with lawmakers representing Clark County receiving four signatures from the governor over the past two weeks.
During the first major round of bill signings April 7, state Sen. Lynda Wilson’s SB 5338 received Inslee’s signature. The bill is intended to allow fire protection districts the authority to have safety and training courses, according to a staff summary of testimony. It seeks to rectify a recently-discovered issue with state law that prevented such training to take place.
In a release following the bill’s signing, Wilson, R-Vancouver, gave credit to Clark County Fire District 5 Commissioner Roy Rhine for bringing the legislation to her attention. Rhine testified before the Legislature as the bill made its way through, according to the staff summary.
The district has offered safety and training courses over the past 20 years, but a recent finding by the state auditor’s office stated the district “did not have statutory authority to do so.”
Fire District 5 operates the Northwest Regional Training Center, located north of Fourth Plain Boulevard on State Route 503, which has provided safety training to employees of the city of Vancouver. Without being able to provide training at the regional center, supporting testimony stated the cost of a piecemeal approach would triple.
“By clarifying that fire protection districts have the authority to provide workplace-safety training, this new law will allow that productive relationship to continue, and I have to believe it will benefit other fire districts in Washington as well,” Wilson said in the release.
SB 5338 received unanimous approval in both the state Senate and House of Representatives on its way to the governor’s desk. Fellow Clark County lawmaker, Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, also sponsored the bill.
A week later, Inslee signed into law a bill from Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, regarding forest roads. House Bill 1491 is designed to provide greater access for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on roads in forestland that “have functionally become United States Forest Service (USFS) roads,” stated a summary of public testimony in a House bill report.
The bill, signed April 14, specifically makes it so the DNR does not have to issue a right-of-way certificate for land the federal government claims the exclusive right over, according to the bill report. The legal risk to the DNR has prevented the department from granting rights-of-way to the USFS “for over a decade,” according to the report, with the forest service in turn refusing to grant its own easements on land that it has claimed.
Removing the need for the DNR to grant an easement will help the department “tremendously” in its forest health efforts, according to the bill report.
Two days later, two more bills brought forth by Clark County lawmakers were signed into law by Inslee.
Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, had House Bill 1063 get the governor’s signature April 16. The bill will grant a waiver for certain behavioral health credential renewals during the time of a governor-declared emergency.
The bill would waive requirements specifically for substance use disorder professional trainee certifications, and associate licenses for social workers, mental health counselors, as well as marriage and family therapists, according to the House bill report. Harris introduced the legislation after one of his constituents expressed they had a difficult time finishing their licensure hours during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Behavioral health care workers play a very important role in the overall health and well-being of our communities," Harris said in a release following the bill’s passage out of the Legislature April 6. "This piece of legislation will allow them to do their jobs and help people suffering from mental illness and other behavioral disorders."
HB 1063 passed both the House and Senate unanimously. The bill contains an emergency clause, the release stated, meaning it would go into effect immediately.
"This bill would provide some assistance to the health care workers who need it. I wish it would have moved a little quicker, but I'm happy to see it passed by the Senate," Harris said.
Sen. Rivers was able to get her bill regarding acupuncture and Eastern medicine signed this year, following a technical error in a version of the bill last year that resulted in a veto from Inslee.
Senate Bill 5018 allows acupuncture and Eastern medicine practitioners (AEMPs) to use local anesthetics, epinephrine, and oxygen in their practice, according to a Senate bill report. Testimony in support of the bill included in the report explained that local anesthetics are widely recognized as part of that type of therapy, and being able to use oxygen and epinephrine was important for patient safety.
The bill report notes that AEMPs will receive education and training based on requirements that the Washington State Department of Health will set.
Testimony included in the Senate’s bill report stated the bill is nearly identical to one that passed the Legislature in 2020, but was vetoed by Inslee over a drafting error that was corrected in 2021’s version.
In his veto statement, the governor expressed concern that the error would limit the ability for Eastern medicine practitioners to diagnose medical issues, limiting their scope of practice to therapeutic means. Currently those practitioners have been able to diagnose conditions, and the omission of that ability in the proposed legislation could have resulted in insurance companies denying claims, the statement read.
