The bill restructures how the Washington fish and wildlife commission is composed and how members are appointed. It establishes a nine-member commission with six members appointed by the counties in each of the department’s six regions (as those regions existed on January 1, 2025) and three at-large members appointed by the governor with the Senate’s advice and consent. Counties in each region must nominate candidates from within their counties, each county legislative authority must delegate one member to vote on a final regional list, and regions may not have more than two members. At-large appointments must include at least one resident of eastern Washington and at least one resident of western Washington. The bill changes terms, sets vacancy-filling procedures (appointment within 60 days), requires commissioners to hold a hunting or fishing license in three of the five years before appointment, prohibits appointees from holding other state, county, or municipal elective or appointive offices, and requires compliance with RCW chapter 42.52 and Title 29B. This bill amends existing law (RCW 77.04.030 and 77.04.040) and adds new sections to chapters 77.04 and 77.12 RCW, so it is a statutory modification of commission composition, appointment procedure, eligibility, terms, and meeting practices rather than a criminal or penalty change. It establishes initial deadlines and transitions: commissioners appointed as of January 1, 2025 have terms ending December 31, 2025; initial regional appointments must be made by December 31, 2025 and begin January 1, 2026; three initial appointees will draw two-year initial terms and three will draw four-year initial terms to stagger terms. The bill locates the commission’s legal office in Olympia and requires in-person commission meetings in each of the six regions subject to appropriation. The extracted text does not list the six region boundaries, does not fully explain how the remaining initial appointees’ terms are set for a nine-member commission, and does not detail the full county coordination mechanics or funding and resource specifics for regional meetings and tribal-related training.

If enacted, counties will take on a much larger, time-sensitive role in picking two-thirds of the commission: each region’s counties must nominate and agree on a single regional commissioner and delegate one county official to vote on the final slate, with vacancies to be filled within 60 days. That shifts practical political control away from the governor for most seats, narrows who can serve by requiring recent hunting or fishing licenses and barring holding other public offices, and creates new administrative tasks and likely modest costs for counties to run nomination/voting processes. The department will need to host the commission’s legal office in Olympia and is expected to hold in-person meetings across the six regions, which could raise travel and meeting costs subject to legislative appropriation; the governor and senate remain responsible for three at-large appointments and quick vacancy fill-ins. Key implementation details are unclear and could affect real-world impact: the bill references six specific regions as they existed on January 1, 2025 but does not list their boundaries here, it does not fully explain how counties in a region must reach a single choice beyond delegating a voting county member, and the method for setting staggered initial terms for all nine commissioners is not fully specified. These gaps leave open how much actual administrative burden and cost counties and the department will face.