Right-to-Repair legislation also moves on to its next committee after withstanding smear campaign on small businesses
State Director Patrick Connor reports from Olympia on the small-business agenda for the legislative and political week ending February 10
Small Business Day, March 16
NFIB has rescheduled Small Business Day at the Capitol to Thursday, March 16. Click here for additional information or to register.
NFIB thanks our Small Business Day partner, the Puyallup Sumner Chamber of Commerce, for inviting State Director Patrick Connor to speak to its government affairs committee this week. We look forward to seeing these great chamber members at Small Business Day 2023.
Back at the Capitol
Policy committees are holding fewer public hearings and more executive sessions as we approach the February 17 Policy Cut-Off. Bills approved by policy committees are sent either to a fiscal committee, namely the House Appropriations Committee or Senate Ways & Means Committee, for further consideration of a bill’s cost, or to their respective Rules Committee if the bill has little or no budget impact.
Labor
The Senate Labor & Commerce Committee this week approved a few bills opposed by NFIB and other business groups.
- SB 5061, Employee personnel records
The prime sponsor, Sen. Patty Kuderer, herself an employment law trial attorney, declined to accept any meaningful amendments offered during negotiations by NFIB or others in the business community. The bill was sent to the Senate Ways & Means Committee for further action. NFIB continues to oppose the private right of action, redaction prohibition, and reason for discharge declaration sections of the bill. - SB 5109, Wage replacement benefits for undocumented workers
Undocumented workers are ineligible under federal law to receive unemployment insurance benefits. This bill seeks to create a state-funded program that would provide wage replacement for discharged undocumented workers in amounts equivalent to unemployment insurance benefits. The funding source for this $100 million program (rising to $140 million in 2026-27), is unclear. The bill was sent to the Senate Ways & Means Committee for further review. NFIB opposes the bill. - SB 5217, Ergonomics
This version would grant limited authority to the Department of Labor & Industries to engage in targeted rulemaking affecting one industry per year. The selected industry must have at least twice the musculoskeletal injury rate than the statewide average for all industries. The bill would also allow workers’ compensation funds to be granted to specific employers in those targeted industries so they could purchase equipment to meet new compliance requirements. Since workers’ comp funds, not the state’s general fund, would be tapped for these expenses, the bill bypassed Ways & Means and went directly to the Rules Committee. NFIB opposes the bill.
On a slightly more positive note, the Senate Labor Committee this week heard SB 5476, an agriculture overtime bill, to allow 50 hours during harvest to be paid at straight time, before overtime would begin to apply. This is widely viewed as a courtesy hearing for the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Curtis King, but the bill is not expected to advance.
Meanwhile, the House Labor Committee also approved various employer-opposed bills Friday, February 10. Among them, a slightly improved version of HB 1217, a wage complaints measure. Prime sponsor Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self added a small business representative to the work group and delayed the final report until September 2024. She refused to “gut” the provision establishing a 12% annual interest rate penalty, which NFIB had asked be moved into the study section as a mandatory topic for consideration. This approach does not portend a productive or amicable process for the forthcoming work group, assuming the bill continues to advance.
Regulatory
- HB 1392, Right to Repair certain consumer electronic devices
This NFIB-backed bill was approved this week by the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee on a party line vote. Republicans voted against the bill, siding with Apple. Big Tech trade group, TechNet, of which Apple is a member, emailed committee members a blog post claiming half of small repair shops snoop on customers’ data. As it turns out, the “study” in question was based on visits to 12 (yes, just one dozen) of the more than 1,600 computer repair shops in Ontario, Canada. In addition to being statistically invalid, the study actually calls out Apple and its repair subcontractor Best Buy for repeatedly violating customers’ rights and those firms’ own privacy policies. A simple Google search revealed a dozen instances over as many years where Apple, Google and other tech giants were sued by their own customers for data privacy violations. Small repair shops are hardly the problem here, but Apple and TechNet had no problem attempting to smear them while omitting their own blatant misconduct. Republicans on the committee appear to have eaten what Apple served up. - HB 1534, Contractor bonds and homeowner recovery fund
The House Labor Committee this week held a public hearing on this bill that resulted from a multi-year stakeholder process in which NFIB was a participant. The bill attempts to provide better protection from unscrupulous, fly-by-night contractors who defraud homeowners. The bill would modestly increase general and specialty contractor bonds for the first time in decades, and use fines levied against unregistered contractors to create and sustain a homeowner recovery fund. NFIB joined BIAW, the state’s homebuilders, and other business groups supporting this legislation. - SB 5056, Property crimes
NFIB joined the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs and the Washington Retail Association supporting this legislation to allow courts to consider sentence enhancements for criminals who habitually commit property crimes. Retail stores and other small businesses have increasingly suffered significant losses at the hands of these repeat offenders. The bill received a public hearing, was amended and approved, then sent to the Senate Rules Committee this week.
Prior Weekly Reports and Related Information
- January 7—Small Business Day in Olympia, March 16
