A Legislature Working Towards Equity — A Summary of 2021 Legislation
Following a tumultuous 2020 that saw massive racial justice protests in the streets, Governor Inslee and the Washington State Legislature set an ambitious equity agenda for the 2021 legislative session. In addition to approving big ticket budget items such as broadband expansion and fully funding Washington’s new Equity Office, bills that successfully passed both houses of the legislature touched on issues of police reform, education, environmental justice, healthcare, and beyond.
Earlier this month we highlighted the historic police reform measures that passed this year. Here we provide links and summaries to fifteen bills that aim to improve the lives of all Washington citizens. Most of the laws took effect on July 25, 2021.
HB 1016, entitled “Making Juneteenth a legal holiday,” became Ch. 295 of the Laws of 2021. This legislation establishes June 19th as a paid holiday for state workers beginning in 2022. The holiday will be celebrated “in remembrance of the day the slaves realized they were free as a reminder that individual rights and freedoms must never be denied.” We blogged about the new legal holiday here.
HB 1078, entitled “Restoring voter eligibility for all persons convicted of a felony offense who are not in total confinement under the jurisdiction of the department of corrections,” became Ch. 10 of the Laws of 2021. Effective January 1, 2022, this bill automatically restores the right to vote to felons who have been released from total confinement by the Department of Corrections. Introduced by Representative Tarra Simmons, who herself was incarcerated at one time, the bill aims to reduce recidivism and will give the franchise to a population that is unfairly impacted by mass incarceration policies.
HB 1335, entitled “Concerning review and property owner notification of recorded documents with unlawful racial restrictions,” became Ch. 256 of the Laws of 2021. Although race based restrictive housing covenants have been unenforceable since 1948, many deeds continue to contain racist language. This bill tasks the University of Washington and Eastern Washington University with finding existing covenants and informing property owners and county auditors of such. It also provides for a process to remove the covenants from the property’s chain of title and makes changes to seller’s disclosures for residential real property transactions.
HB 1336, entitled “Creating and expanding unrestricted authority for public entities to provide telecommunications services to end users,” became Ch. 294 of the Laws of 2021. HB 1336 and newly enacted SB 5383 (Ch. 293 of the Laws of 2021) give authority to cities, counties, public utility districts, and port districts to expand broadband to unserved areas. In an unusual move, Governor Jay Inslee signed both bills simultaneously with a pen in each hand, leading Secretary of State Kim Wyman to seek clarification on numbering and ordering the bills. Conflicts between the bills will be settled in favor of HB 1336.
HB 1356, entitled “Prohibiting the inappropriate use of Native American names, symbols, or images as public school mascots, logos, or team names,” became Ch. 128 of the Laws of 2021. As of late July, twenty four Washington schools continued to use a Native American themed mascot. By January 2022, under this legislation, these schools will need to change their mascot, or, in limited circumstances, consult with and receive permission from a Native American tribe to continue use of a Native American themed mascot.
HB 1365, entitled “Procuring and supporting appropriate computers and devices for public school students and instructional staff,” became Ch. 301 of the Laws of 2021. HB 1365 assists the state’s schools with attaining a universal 1:1 student to learning device ratio and provides for technology support, training, and digital literacy assistance for students and families. The bill is one of several measures the legislature passed to help bridge the digital divide in Washington.
SB 5044, entitled “Concerning professional learning, equity, cultural competency, and dismantling institutional racism in the public school system,” became Ch. 197 of the Laws of Washington. This bill mandates periodic cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion training for staff in Washington State school districts. The legislation provides statutory definitions of “cultural competency,” “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion” and aims to build on cultural competency efforts already underway in the state. The legislation has been met with some controversy.
SB 5052, entitled “Concerning the creation of health equity zones,” became Ch. 262 of the Laws of Washington. This legislation takes a geographic approach to addressing health disparities among disadvantaged populations in Washington. It will set up a program modeled after a successful Rhode Island program. Geographic areas or “zones” identified as experiencing health disparities and poor health outcomes and that are “populated by communities of color, Indian communities, communities experiencing poverty, or immigrant communities” will receive support in bringing together community coalitions to implement health equity projects.
SB 5126, entitled “Concerning the Washington climate commitment act,” became Ch. 316 of the Laws of Washington. SB 5126, in concert with SB 5141, promotes environmental justice and equity. Landmark legislation that sets in motion Washington’s cap-and-invest carbon market, SB 5126 also requires the Department of Ecology to “deploy an air monitoring network in high priority overburdened communities to collect sufficient air quality data” and adopt stricter air quality and emissions standards when needed. It also requires periodic environmental justice reviews “to ensure the cap and invest program achieves reductions in criteria pollutants as well as GHG emissions in overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution.” The momentous nature of the bill was accompanied by controversy as Governor Inslee issued partial vetoes of provisions tying implementation to a 5-cent gas tax increase and requiring tribal consent for some climate projects.
SB 5141, entitled “Implementing the recommendations of the environmental justice task force,” became Ch. 314 of the Laws of Washington. The Environmental Justice Task Force was created in 2019 (Chapter 415, section 221(48), Laws of 2019) and in a 2020 report recommended “strategies for incorporating environmental justice principles into future state agency actions across Washington…” Among other things, the legislation establishes the Environmental Justice Council which will “advise covered agencies on incorporating environmental justice into agency activities.”
SB 5194, entitled “Providing for equity and access in the community and technical colleges,” became Ch. 272 of the Laws of Washington. Recognizing that first-generation, disabled, and underrepresented minority students face obstacles in accessing and completing workforce training and degree programs at Washington’s community and technical colleges (CTCs), the legislature passed SB 5194 which requires all CTC’s to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic plans, implement student support infrastructure programming, and increase faculty and staff diversity.
SB 5226, entitled, “Concerning the suspension of licenses for traffic infractions,” became Ch. 240 of the Laws of Washington. This bill removes the state’s ability to suspend or revoke an individual’s driver license for failure to pay a traffic infraction for a moving violation. Critics of a late hour amendment to the bill say that the bill does not go far enough in eliminating punishment for “driving while poor.” The law is effective January 1, 2023. However, a Thurston County Superior Court judge has ordered the Department of Licensing to stop suspending licenses until the new law takes effect and also ordered the Department to reinstate suspended licenses for failure to pay or appear for moving violations. Information on this development can be found at Washington LawHelp.
SB 5227, entitled, “Requiring diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism training and assessments at institutions of higher education,” became Ch. 275 of the Laws of Washington. This legislation mandates each public institution of higher education in the state to provide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and antiracism professional development to faculty and staff. It additionally mandates DEI and antiracism programming for students, as well as periodic DEI campus climate assessments.
SB 5228, entitled, “Addressing disproportionate health outcomes by building a foundation of equity in medical training,” became Ch. 96 of the Laws of Washington. SB 5228 directs the two public medical schools in Washington State to develop and provide required curriculum to medical students on health equity aimed at providing “tools for eliminating structural racism in health care systems and to build cultural safety.” Each school must also implement and report on measures to increase the number of underrepresented students in their programs.
SB 5383, entitled, “Authorizing a public utility district to provide retail telecommunications services in unserved areas under certain conditions,” became Ch. 293 of the Laws of Washington. This is the broadband expansion bill passed by the Senate that addresses many of the same issues as HB 1336, but with a focus on authorizing expansion of retail telecommunications only to unserved areas. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the severe internet access issues experienced by public school students in both rural and urban areas. The hope is that SB 5383 and HB 1336 will prove to be one step in bridging the digital divide. (SC)
