This bill amends multiple existing Washington statutes governing law enforcement hiring, certification, and background checks. It replaces prior references to U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or DACA status with the phrase "person who is legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law" in several RCW sections, requires applicants for specified civil service and law enforcement positions to be able to speak, read, and write English, and adds a new requirement that employees of prosecuting attorneys' offices be legally authorized to work in the United States. It amends RCW 10.93.165; 10.93.200; 41.08.070; 41.12.070; 41.14.100; 36.27.040; 43.101.095 and adds a new section to chapter 36.27 RCW. The bill makes procedural changes to preemployment and certification processes rather than creating new crimes or changing criminal penalties. It requires law enforcement agencies to have written firearms policies consistent with federal law and ATF rules, and it strengthens background investigation and certification procedures: conditional offers for certain peace officer and corrections roles trigger full background checks including criminal history and decertification checks, prior employer disciplinary records, inquiries to local prosecutors about impeachment disclosure lists, checks for extremist affiliations as defined by the commission, social media review (without requiring account login credentials), verification of work authorization, a psychological exam, and a polygraph or similar assessment. Employing agencies may only make conditional offers pending completion of these checks and must verify in writing to the commission that the checks were completed before making nonconditional offers. The commission is authorized to adopt rules setting standards for assessments and background checks, to require fingerprint-based national criminal history checks, and to set certification conditions including requiring officers to authorize release of personnel files related to certification matters. The commission must allow officers to retain certified status if they timely meet applicable training or exemption requirements, are not denied certification, and have not had certification suspended or revoked; it must certify limited authority officers employed on or before July 1, 2023. Agencies may require applicants to pay up to the actual cost or $400 (whichever is less) toward psychological or polygraph testing and may offer payment plans. The bill also specifies that an agency may reject an application if it lacks the "resources"—defined as materials, funding, and staff time—to conduct the required background investigation, and it designates fish and wildlife officers as general authority Washington peace officers. Some required details are not included in the extracted text. The exact definition of "person who is legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law," the commission’s definitions (including "extremist organizations") and rule standards, the full content of the written firearms policy requirement, and the complete description of the polygraph or similar assessment are not provided in these extracts.

If enacted, the bill makes more people who are "legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law" eligible for many law enforcement and related civil service jobs while keeping English fluency and other fitness standards, and it formalizes much tougher pre-employment vetting. Agencies must run expanded background investigations (criminal and decertification checks, past-employer disciplinary records, prosecutor impeachment queries, extremist-affiliation checks, social media review, immigrant/work-authorization verification, psychological exams, and a polygraph or similar test), may only convert conditional offers after verifying checks are complete, and must produce prior-employment records within 30 days when requested. Fish and wildlife officers are explicitly treated as general authority peace officers with statewide powers, and liability for their actions generally stays with the department. The people and organizations most affected are local and state law enforcement hiring agencies, the state certification commission, prosecuting attorneys’ offices, applicants for peace or corrections officer jobs, and the Washington State Patrol/FBI for fingerprint checks. Agencies will likely need more staff, funding, or time to complete the new, broader investigations and could decline applications if they lack those resources; they may pass up to $400 of psychological/polygraph costs to applicants and must certify completion of checks to the commission before hiring. Applicants face more intrusive vetting and potential out-of-pocket testing costs, and current officers must authorize release of personnel files and social media reviews to keep or obtain certification. Important details are missing from the provided text—most notably the exact definition of "legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law," the commission’s definitions and rules (including what counts as an "extremist organization"), and the truncated description of the polygraph or similar assessment.