Lists of individuals/PRA

AN ACT Relating to persons requesting disclosure of lists of 1
individuals under the public records act; and amending RCW 42.56.080.2
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:3
Sec. 1. RCW 42.56.080 and 2023 c 67 s 1 are each amended to read 4
as follows: 5
(1)(a) A public records request must be for identifiable records. 6
A request for all or substantially all records prepared, owned, used, 7
or retained by an agency is not a valid request for identifiable 8
records under this chapter, provided that a request for all records 9
regarding a particular topic or containing a particular keyword or 10
name shall not be considered a request for all of an agency's 11
records. 12
(b) A request for a recording required to be maintained by a 13
school district board of directors under RCW 42.30.035(2) shall only 14
be considered a valid request for an identifiable record when the 15
date of the recording, or a range of dates, is specified in the 16
request. When searching for and providing identifiable recordings, no 17
search criteria except date must be considered by the school 18
district. 19
(2)(a) Public records shall be available for inspection and 20
copying, and agencies shall, upon request for identifiable public 21
H-1343.1
HOUSE BILL 1964
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Fosse, Farivar, Parshley, Kloba, Gregerson, Ramel,
Ormsby, Scott, and Hill
Read first time 02/13/25. Referred to Committee on State Government
& Tribal Relations.
p. 1 HB 1964
records, make them promptly available to any person including, if 1
applicable, on a partial or installment basis as records that are 2
part of a larger set of requested records are assembled or made ready 3
for inspection or disclosure. Agencies shall not deny a request for 4
identifiable public records solely on the basis that the request is 5
overbroad. Agencies shall not distinguish among persons requesting 6
records, and such persons shall not be required to provide 7
information as to the purpose for the request except to establish 8
whether inspection and copying would violate RCW 42.56.070(8) or 9
42.56.240(14), or other statute which exempts or prohibits disclosure 10
of specific information or records to certain persons. Agency 11
facilities shall be made available to any person for the copying of 12
public records except when and to the extent that this would 13
unreasonably disrupt the operations of the agency. Agencies shall 14
honor requests received in person during an agency's normal office 15
hours, or by mail or email, for identifiable public records unless 16
exempted by provisions of this chapter. No official format is 17
required for making a records request; however, agencies may 18
recommend that requestors submit requests using an agency provided 19
form or web page. 20
(b) A person requesting a list of individuals must sign a 21
declaration of noncommercial purpose under penalty of perjury. The 22
person must, at a minimum, attest that the request for the list of 23
individuals is not for commercial purposes and state the purpose of 24
the request on the declaration. The office of the attorney general 25
shall provide a template declaration for use by agencies.26
(3) An agency may deny a bot request that is one of multiple 27
requests from the requestor to the agency within a twenty-four hour 28
period, if the agency establishes that responding to the multiple 29
requests would cause excessive interference with other essential 30
functions of the agency. For purposes of this subsection, "bot 31
request" means a request for public records that an agency reasonably 32
believes was automatically generated by a computer program or script.33
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p. 2 HB 1964