H-2768.1
HOUSE BILL 2352
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2026 Regular Session
By Representatives Pollet, Zahn, Walen, Rule, Dufault, Nance, Hall, McEntire, Salahuddin, and Bernbaum
Prefiled 01/09/26. Read first time 01/12/26. Referred to Committee on State Government & Tribal Relations.
AN ACT Relating to holding state officers and state employees to the same conflict of interest standard that is required of municipal officers; amending RCW 42.52.010 ; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that Article II, section 30 of the state Constitution requires legislators who have a private interest in any bill or measure proposed or pending before the legislature to disclose that fact and not vote on that measure. This constitutional requirement imposes a clear and strict standard for disclosure and recusal for legislators. The legislature finds that this high ethical standard also imposes a duty on legislators to ensure trust, openness, and honesty in their actions. However, the legislative record does not reflect any discussion of this paramount duty when the legislature amended statutory ethics provisions in 2025 to hold state officers and municipal officers to different ethical standards concerning conflicts of interests.
The legislature further finds that prior to 2025, state officers and employees were held to a similar standard as municipal officers in terms of the prohibition on having beneficial interests in contracts and certain other transactions made by, through, or under their supervision. In 2025, while the standard for municipal officers remained the same, prohibiting more than a remote interest, meaning one percent or more, in contracts, state ethics laws were amended to adopt, among other things, a different standard for what constitutes a conflict of interest for state officers and employees which is 10 times laxer than the standard that has been applied to municipal officers for decades.