While traveling to Olympia to testify on a bill on a holiday may not be a high priority for most Washingtonians, you may want to make an exception for next Monday. The title only bill, HB 2082 (Relating to commerce in liquor) is scheduled for a public hearing and executive action that day. Based on my best interpretation of that blank piece of legislation, it would provide every Washingtonian one free drink a week paid for by the per diem of lawmakers. Who could object to that?
You may ask how I was able to divine the real text of the title only bill realizing that there is not currently text in the proposal. Well, who's to say the bill won't eventually propose that?
In all seriousness, HB 2082 has been scheduled for a public hearing on Monday but the agenda notes that the hearing will actually be on a substitute bill and not the title only shell. Unfortunately for those deciding whether to travel to Olympia to testify on the bill, staff says the text of the substitute bill is still being drafted.
This is not the most transparent way to propose laws or involve the public in meaningful debate.
So what exactly is a title only bill?
They are essentially a blank bill with a title and a number, but with the text to be filled in later.
As noted by the Tacoma News Tribune:
Title-only bills provide lawmakers a way to get around their deadlines. Feb. 20 is the first of several deadlines for bills to advance through the legislative process. By creating and potentially advancing an empty vessel, lawmakers can later fill it up with anything they want.
The main deadline a title only bill allows the Legislature to circumvent is Article 2, Section 36 of the state constitution:
No bill shall be considered in either house unless the time of its introduction shall have been at least ten days before the final adjournment of the legislature, unless the legislature shall otherwise direct by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, said vote to be taken by yeas and nays and entered upon the journal, or unless the same be at a special session.
Currently 6 title only bills have been filed this session.
There is a better way.
Consider the reforms proposed by SB 6560/HB 2369 in 2013.
Along with improving public hearing notice requirements and banning title only bills, SB 6560 would have also forced the Legislature to make decisions the same way cities and counties do by not allowing a committee to “go at ease” and negotiate secretly on amendments before coming back to vote on them.
SB 6560 did not receive a public hearing last year and has not been re-introduced yet this session.
While the eventual real text and details of HB 2082 may be the most profound and important changes to "commerce in liquor" the state has ever seen, we won't know for sure until the details are actually made available.
In the meantime, good luck to the clairvoyants making the trip to Olympia on Monday to offer public comment.
