Rights bill for owners of homes fails to get House vote

OLYMPIA — Washington lawmakers passed their last big deadline Friday before next week's scheduled adjournment, though several bills fell by the wayside, including one that would give homeowners the same warranty rights that condo buyers have.

The bill, a new version of the Homeowner's Bill of Rights that failed last year, passed the Senate last month 27-20. It passed a policy committee in the House, but for the second year in a row did not come up for a vote on the House floor.

Sen. Brian Weinstein, D-Mercer Island, said he's not giving up, noting that nothing is over in the Legislature until lawmakers adjourn Thursday.

Weinstein's original bill last year focused on a home-contract warranty; this year, his measure would have allowed homeowners to sue contractors for negligence if there are problems with their home.

A House committee added an amendment that would give home buyers a four- to 10-year warranty against problems with the home, allowing builders to fix the problem before a buyer could sue. Weinstein was happy with the House approach and said he couldn't understand why it didn't come up for a floor vote.

Weinstein said that failure to pass the bill "means that contractors can build shoddy houses with impunity."

"There's no accountability," he told reporters later.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, who blocked the vote on the measure last year, has said he still had problems with the current measure.

"I want to see protections for homeowners, but I want the right protections," Chopp said in a statement released after the 5 p.m. deadline passed. "The current proposal has come a long way toward common-sense solutions, but there are unanswered questions relating to how it would apply in many situations."

The warranty bill was one of many the House and Senate scrambled to take votes on Friday night.

Some other bills that died after not being voted on before the deadline included a measure that would have banned the use of doctors' prescription records to sell new drugs, a move to unionize child-care workers and an attempt to block Glacier Northwest's plan to expand a gravel mine on Maury Island.

Debate on a bill that would ban lead and other toxins from children's toys began in the Senate just before the deadline, and after debate on nearly two dozen amendments, the measure passed 40-9. It must go back to the House, where the bill passed unanimously before.

The bill would require companies to disclose which chemicals their products contain and ban retailers from selling toys with lead and other toxins.

Also Friday, the Senate passed a bill expanding the authority of American Indian police officers in the state, but with an amendment ensuring negotiations between tribal police departments and county sheriffs.

Under the measure, tribal police officers would be able to arrest non-Indians on tribal land if the officers are state-certified and have liability insurance. Currently, tribal police have jurisdiction only over tribe members.

The new version of the bill calls for a yearlong window to negotiate an agreement of cooperation between local authorities and tribal police. If the sides can't come to an agreement, a third-party arbitrator will settle the differences. Some county sheriffs had spoken against the bill earlier in the session, saying they would lose negotiating power.

The measure must go to the House to be approved.

A bill that would bolster the state's efforts to combat gang violence passed the Senate 46-3, but not before a major change was made to the measure, which sends it back to the House for concurrence.

The bill directs state and local authorities to combat gangs by creating a database of known gang members, increasing penalties when adults solicit children to join gangs and making graffiti a crime. The Senate stripped a section that would have given authorities the power to question young people based on clothing or body language.

In the week leading up to Friday's deadline, the Legislature passed several bills that were Democratic priorities, including a major climate-change bill requested by Gov. Christine Gregoire, a domestic-partnership expansion bill and a measure that would allow local governments to have public campaign financing with voters' approval.

"We feel really good about what we've been able to pass this session," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

Brown said she was disappointed Weinstein's bill and the Maury Island bill didn't pass, but she said "no issue is truly gone" until the session adjourns.