We all know how a bill becomes law, and if we need a refresher, there’s a useful little cartoon summary posted on the Legislature’s web site. (NOTE: Any resemblance of Bill to SpongeBob SquarePants is purely coincidental.) But once said bill fights its way, salmonlike, up the legislative stream, past various dams and underwater debris, successfully avoiding outstretched grizzly paws and cleverly disguised but deadly hooks, and finally lands on the governor’s desk . . . how long must it wait to become a full-fledged law?
It’s sort of complicated, and pretty simple. As noted in an earlier post, most bills that passed both houses of the Legislature during the 2013 regular session and were signed by 
Gov. Inslee will become law on July 28. That’s precisely 90 days after the legislative session sort of concluded. It doesn’t matter if the bill passed back in January in the early days of the session, or late on the evening of April 28. And it doesn’t matter when it was signed. Unless there was an emergency clause attached to the bill – which makes it effective at the time it is signed by the governor – it won’t be law till those 90 days have elapsed.
But how about those bills that passed during the first 2013 special session? Well, there weren’t any, so their effective date will be the 12th of Never. Had there been any, however, you could figure the date by adding 90 days to June 11, the last day of that special session. (Unless there had been an emergency clause. But there wasn’t.)
Now we come to the second and – we all hope – final special session of 2013. Plenty of bills passed during those 18 days. The two big ones, of course, were the operating and capital budgets. Each contained an emergency clause. No waiting.
Several others didn’t include the emergency language, and they’ll enter the Revised Code of Washington on September 28. One notable example is HB 1872, Rep. Marcie Maxwell’s bill that essentially raises the profile and expands the availability of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs in Washington public schools. It was signed on July 3. Another important bill, SB 5912, the Senate’s version of major anti-DUI legislation created in the House by Reps. Dawn Morrell and Roger Goodman, isn’t scheduled to be signed until July 18. It, too, will take effect September 28.
There you have it. The dates will vary from year to year depending on when the sessions take place, and like Thanksgiving and Easter, those move around. But you’ll always be safe looking at the last day of a given session and adding 90. Unless – ah, you know the rest