House passes a flood of very
dissimilar bills sponsored by Moeller

OK’d legislation involves firearms, child support, nurses, licensing employees

March 3, 2009

OLYMPIA – State Rep. Jim Moeller today (Tuesday, March 3) had an even busier time – not to mention an even more multifaceted time – than he usually does in the House of Representatives.

It seemed as if when Moeller wasn’t presiding over the House floor as Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore, he was passing his prime-sponsored legislation – a lot of his prime-sponsored legislation. Four very diverse Moeller bills, to be exact, captured unanimous House approval.

House Bill 1052, which involves firearm licenses for people from other countries, won endorsement.

The bill repeals the current state law regarding alien firearm licenses. Instead, Moeller’s bill sets up new requirements and procedures governing the possession of firearms by noncitizens.

“We’ve put many years of work into this legislation,” said the Vancouver Democrat.
“The idea is to remove barriers that our state’s existing alien firearms license has thrown up in front of hunting-guide businesses that simply want to bring international hunters to hunt here in Washington.

“Many hunters from other countries have been turned away by this current law,” he explained. “Today’s tough economic times mean that a good many hunting-guide businesses are barely surviving. We should remove unnecessary barriers standing in the way of these folks – and their money – coming to the Evergreen State.”

Representatives from the Hunters’ Heritage Council, the National Rifle Association, the Department of Licensing, and the Department of Fish & Wildlife testified for the measure in committee hearings.

House Bill 1794, which involves the calculation of child-support payments, also won House approval.

Moeller’s bill keeps the current schedule of payments, with the exception that the child-support table instead starts at $1,000 of combined monthly net income with a $50 presumptive minimum amount of basic support.

The measure also expands the table to $12,000 of combined monthly net income, and allows income from overtime and second jobs to be excluded from calculating the gross monthly income (if certain conditions are met). Further, the legislation allows a parent to deduct up to $5,000 of voluntary retirement contributions (under certain circumstances).

The Clark County lawmaker explained that a parent’s child-support schedule includes standards, work sheets, and an economic table that establishes a presumptive amount of child support based on the combined monthly net income of both parents.

“In calculating net income,” he said, “parents must complete work sheets that identify their sources of income and deductions from the income. Once the combined monthly income is determined, the total monthly support obligation is established.”

Ordinary health-care costs that were included in the basic support amount would be removed, according to other terms of the measure.

He said a child-support work group has been meeting and studying the matter for several years.

“No, this bill isn’t perfect. But it’s an attempt to implement consensus items reached by the work group.”

House Bill 1844, which involves the issuance of enhanced driver’s licenses and identicards, was also passed by the House today.

The bill speaks to the issue of record checks on the possible criminal history of Department of Licensing (DOL) employees who issue – or who might be called upon to issue – these licenses and identicards.

Terms of Moeller’s legislation would require the department to conduct criminal-history-background checks of current and prospective employees involved in the issuance of the enhanced driver’s licenses and identicards.

He said the background investigation would take the form of a check through the Washington State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The department would also need to reinvestigate these employees every five years.

The federal Department of Homeland Security requires these background checks of all DOL staff who are involved in this aspect of the licensing process.

House Bill 1397, the fourth of Moeller’s measures that cleared the House today, would officially authorize the delegation of authority to registered nurses to administer medications, treatments, tests, and inoculations at the direction of an optometrist.

“As it stands today,” Moeller said, “registered nurses are very often ordered to perform these services. And yet since they aren’t authorized to perform them, they’re faced with the uncomfortable choice of either refusing to do them – or facing liability for doing so.”

The four bills are now headed to the Senate for more discussion.