Substitute House Bill 1738 amends and reenacts multiple existing Washington statutes relating to veterans, members of the organized militia, uniformed services, and military spouses and creates at least one new statutory section. The bill mainly modifies existing law rather than creating wholly new crimes or penalties, by changing definitions, pension and service‑credit rules, reemployment and military leave procedures, licensing renewal rules, and hiring and examination preferences for veterans and uniformed service members and certain military spouses. Substantive changes include clarified and expanded definitions (for example of militia, national guard, state guard, uniformed services to expressly include the U.S. Public Health Service and NOAA commissioned corps, and a defined “qualifying discharge”); an explicit public‑employment preference for qualifying discharged uniformed service members and their widows/widowers and added preferences for spouses of active duty members and spouses of veterans with service‑connected permanent and total disability; authorization for private employers to give permissive hiring preference to the same groups and a statement that such preference does not violate state or local equal employment laws. The bill adds or clarifies procedural protections and timelines: restoration to employment without loss of seniority and one‑year protection from discharge without cause after reinstatement, rules for counting and certifying prior and military service credit for retirement, restoration of withdrawn accumulated retirement contributions within five years of rejoining membership or upon completing 25 years of creditable service, limits that added or accredited fire and police service credit for wartime/peacetime service shall not exceed five years, competitive examination scoring preferences for veterans and uniformed service members (10% or 5% in specified circumstances, and a separate 5% for those called from state/local employment, applied until first appointment or first promotion as described), and license‑renewal or inactive military spouse license status provisions allowing renewal or reactivation within six months after qualifying discharge or return. The bill reenacts and amends RCW 41.44.030 with numerous defined terms related to the statewide city employees retirement system and references specific pension formulas and eligibility thresholds (for example a 25‑year retirement eligibility threshold, a base pension equal to 50% of prior salary with up to five additional years eligible for 2% per year increases, and city choices of prior service pension rates of 1.33%, 1.00%, or 0.667% of final compensation with age‑based reductions). Several provisions and cross‑references cited in the extracted text are incomplete or missing from these excerpts (including the end of a proviso in RCW 41.40.170, other amended RCW sections, the full text of some subsections, and any effective dates or named implementing agencies), so full implementation details and some operative language cannot be confirmed from the provided material.

If enacted, the bill would make it easier for veterans, active service members, military spouses, and certain survivors to keep or regain jobs, professional licenses, and retirement credit tied to their military service. Practically, veterans and uniformed service members could get extra points on competitive hiring exams until their first appointment, licenses stay valid while someone is in service and can be renewed or reactivated if the applicant files within six months after discharge or return, and people who left municipal employment for wartime service can receive retirement credit (including up to the date of death for those who died while serving or up to discharge for those medically incapacitated) without necessarily returning to covered employment after they hit 25 years of creditable service; members must restore withdrawn pension contributions within five years or upon reaching 25 years of service. Those most affected are veterans, current service members, military spouses, surviving family members, city employers and municipal retirement systems, and licensing boards. Veterans and spouses gain clearer hiring and licensure protections and new paths to retirement credit; licensing boards will need to process renewals/reactivations under the six‑month rules; city retirement systems and participating cities may face increased pension liabilities or administrative costs (though cities can require payment for prior service credit or offset benefits, and the bill allows cities to choose among prior‑service pension rate options). Some implementation details and effective dates are missing from the provided text, so exact timing and the identity of the department responsible for some credits remain unclear.