In a dramatic and surprising vote Wednesday afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee voted down Engrossed Senate Bill 6213 on a bi-partisan vote of 17 to 16, apparently ending the campaign this year by first responders' unions to add numerous conditions and occupations to the firefighter presumption statute.
For workers' compensation and safety, the shift in legislative power will put an increased focus toward compromise on bills that are primarily defensive for employers. It will not be an era where systemic reform proposals of the past years, from occupational disease to structured settlements to wage simplification and benefit accuracy, will receive much attention or traction.
Earlier this week, the Department of Labor & Industries filed the formal paperwork to once again consider a reduction in the discount rate for pension reserves in the Washington workers' compensation system.
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Arising from our September meeting, we discussed with the Department a few things that would be interesting to the self-insured claims community as a whole
In all, the Department would propose to lower rates an average of 2.5 percent next year.
This veto is a tiny part of a massive budget deal, and one that Senate Republicans have generally hailed. But it will be interesting to see if, when the Senate Commerce & Labor Committee comes back into session in just six months, whether the Governor's nothing-to-see-here approach to an obvious concern of legislators will roil, rather than settle, the waters surrounding the issue.
What would it mean for workers' compensation and workplace safety if, as threatened, Washington's state government shuts down July 1 over the failure of the Legislature to adopt a state operation budget?
Particularly in states like California and Washington, where worker advocates wield comparatively strong political clout, we may expect to see a trend of state-level safety regulation tick upward in the absence of comparable federal activity.
