by Ruth
Olympia, WA – 1/16/2020 – The Legislative Session begins on Monday, January 13th. There are a host of bills and issues we need to follow closely – regulatory restrictions, income tax, pay-per-mile tax, sex education, $30 car tab issue, gun laws. The list is long. I want to point out a bill that really won’t have as much of an impact on your life as many others, and it may not even pass, but it is one of hundreds that gives law-making authority to a board that has no accountability to the people.
House Bill 2383 by Rep. Stonier (D-Vancouver) will require all restaurants that sell children’s meals to have a default beverage offering of only water or flavored water with no sweetener, unflavored milk or non-dairy drink under 130 calories. A parent could override the default, but the menu, advertising, and offering of the meal has to be low cal. On the face of it, you can tell that it is the nanny state telling us that we are not capable to make decisions for our family, so state law has to spell it out. I think the bill is terrible and really displays how Democrats tend to think of their voters – incompetent, uneducated, and incapable of taking care of themselves.
But there is a more important point. If you look at the bill at the following link – https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=2383&Year=2019&Initiative=false, on page 2, line 1, you will find the following statement “The state board may adopt rules as necessary to implement this section.” This is a statement found in hundreds of bills every year. It gives an appointed board the power to enact rules which have the force of law. That is why, when the Human Rights Commission declared that schools are required to let boys use the girls’ shower if they so desire, it became the law of the land in this state several years ago. It’s why Fish & Wildlife can make rules that affect your land without legislative approval. Or Labor and Industries, Transportation Commission, Board of Health (they decide which vaccines are required to be able to attend public school), Board of Natural Resources, Ecology, etc. There are over 200 of them. Here is a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington_state_agencies
Our lives are controlled, in large part, by agencies, boards and commissions, and the legislature keeps ceding more and more power to them. It reminds me of the statement in the Declaration of Independence where they are listing King George III’s crimes: “He has erected a multitude o of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance”. Often feels like that all over again today, doesn’t it?
