Three more bills authored by Rep. Gina Mosbrucker passed their respective House committees Monday on the first major deadline of the 2021 session.
Monday, Feb. 15 was house of origin “policy cutoff.” Policy bills that did not pass their respective committees in their house of origin by 5 p.m. Monday may be “dead” for the remainder of the session.
Just hours before the deadline, the House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee passed two of Mosbrucker’s bills.
House Bill 1315 is a redraft of legislation that passed the Legislature last year, but became a victim of 147 bill vetoes by Gov. Jay Inslee, who was attempting to save state dollars as the COVID pandemic hit. The bill would create a joint legislative task force to identify the role of the workplace in helping to curb domestic violence.
“According to the state Department of Health, one in eight Washington adults have reported having been injured by an intimate partner. These are just the numbers reported. We can logically assume there are many more unidentified domestic violence victims that have been too afraid to report their abuse,” said Mosbrucker.
“The workplace is often the only safe place a victim of domestic violence can go to share in confidence what is happening in their home. The task force created under this bill would look into the role businesses can play to see what they can do to help those domestic violence victims that are in their workplace and keep them safe,” added Mosbrucker.
The measure passed unanimously.
The committee also unanimously approved House Bill 1455 on Monday. The measure would require the Employment Security Department and the Department of Labor and Industries to examine their practices of disclosing individuals’ full Social Security numbers to nongovernmental third parties. This bill was authored by Mosbrucker in response to personal data breaches occurring within state agencies.
“Hundreds of thousands of Washington consumers, many of whom are our constituents, have had personal information they’ve provided to state agencies, compromised. Social Security numbers are the most personal, so much so that you cannot obtain this information through a public records act. Yet cyber criminals have figured out how to steal this information,” said Mosbrucker.
Mosbrucker’s third measure, House Bill 1354, also made the cutoff, passing the House Children, Youth and Families Committee, 11-2, on Monday. The bill establishes the Washington Youth Suicide Review Team to review circumstances related to suicides among youth up to age 25.
“The number of young people who have made a suicide plan and have carried it out are shocking. We need to do more than just show sympathy to the families. We need to find out why,” said Mosbrucker.
Under the bill, the new team is instructed to perform an in-depth review of each instance where a person under age 25 has died by suicide during the 2020 calendar year, excluding suicides on tribal reservations if the trial government opposes the review. A report is to be issued to the governor and the Legislature by June 1, 2023.
“I’m very grateful for the support of each of these bills. They all address some very difficult subjects, but they are so important to help the lives of all Washington citizens,” noted Mosbrucker. “I will continue working to get them passed in both chambers and on to the governor.”