Click here to download the full Legislative Memo

Key findings:

1. Title-only bills are essentially blank paper introduced as placeholders so lawmakers can quietly fill in the text later in the legislative session.
2. Empty, title-only bills are not the norm across the country.  They exist to circumvent Washington’s state constitutional protection for transparency on new bills introduced in the last 10 days of session.
3. It would be better for Lawmakers to propose repeal of Article 2, Section 36 and replace it with meaningful legislative transparency protections.
4. Ending the use of title-only bills would be more honest with the public.
5. Also, ending the practice of title-only bills would help lawmakers fulfill their promise to "[i]ncrease public participation, understanding, and transparency of the legislative process.”

Introduction

To inform the public about policy changes being considered by our elected representatives in Olympia, Washington Policy Center research staff regularly provide independent analysis of key bills under consideration.

Lawmakers have a practice, however, of introducing so-called title-only bills, measures that have all the attributes of formal legislation – an assigned bill number, sponsor names, date of introduction, referral to committee – but the actual text is left blank. 

Two recent examples of this practice are SB 6005 (Relating to revenue) and SB 5980 (Relating to greenhouse gas emissions).  Though covering seemingly unrelated topics, the bill analysis for each is the same.

Click here to download the full Legislative Memo