This bill reenacts and amends RCW 42.56.230, a section of Washington’s Public Records Act, and creates a new statutory exemption. The amendment adds subsection (14), which makes email addresses submitted to a statutorily created state board or commission for the purpose of subscribing to regular communications or updates (for example, a newsletter) exempt from public inspection and copying. The bill also reenacts the existing list of personal information categories already exempt under RCW 42.56.230, including student records, patient and client records of public health or institutions, welfare recipient records, certain child care and youth program records, employee and appointee files where disclosure would violate privacy, taxpayer and financial account information, some driver, identicard, vehicle and vessel registration records, claim resolution settlement agreements, 911/emergency notification data, future voter information, gambling self‑exclusion program data, bump‑fire buy‑back participant data, and certain state lottery player information. The bill also includes several procedural provisions: the Department of Licensing must provide to the legislature, upon request, a report containing license/identicard and vessel registration information described in subsections (7)(c) and (7)(d) that is subject to public disclosure; the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals must give copies of final claim resolution settlement agreements to the Department of Labor and Industries; emergency contact information may be provided to appropriate authorities and medical personnel for treatment during an emergency; and state lottery player additional personal and financial information may be released only with the player’s prior written permission. The bill was read for the first time on 02/17/25 and referred to the Committee on State Government & Tribal Relations. This is a change to existing law that adds a new exemption to the Public Records Act and includes several procedural reporting and disclosure clarifications. The text provided does not define key terms used in the new exemption—specifically “statutorily created state board or commission” and “regular communications and updates”—so the precise scope of the new email address exemption is not clear from these excerpts alone.

If enacted, people who sign up with state boards or commissions created by statute to receive regular communications (for example, a newsletter) will likely have their email addresses kept out of public records requests, so subscribers gain greater privacy and journalists or other requesters will no longer be able to obtain those mailing lists. State boards and commissions that run subscription lists will face a reduced public disclosure obligation and therefore fewer requests for that contact information, while overall public access to who is subscribing to government communications will be more limited. The change most directly affects statutorily created state boards and commissions, the people who subscribe to their communications, and those who use public records to review subscriber lists. Other operational effects in the bill include a legislative-reporting duty for the Department of Licensing on certain license and vessel information, a requirement that the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals send final claim settlement agreements to the Department of Labor and Industries, allowance for emergency sharing of emergency-contact information for treatment, and a rule that extra state lottery player information can only be released with the player’s prior written permission. The text does not define key phrases like “statutorily created state board or commission” or “regular communications and updates,” so how broadly the new email exemption applies is unclear from these excerpts.