EHB 1638 & SB 5841

Provided for educational purposes: Archived information on 2019 legislation

Voting along party lines, the WA House of Representatives voted to concur on EHB 1638, which the Senate had stripped of amendments protective to consumers.

The Governor later signed the bill into law, thereby officially removing the parental right to use a personal exemption to opt out of Merck’s MMR II product, which is currently on federal trial for fraud, which pushes measles and mumps out of childhood, which is creating an ever-growing population of fully-vaccinated measles-susceptible adults, which comes with risk of injury and death.

Representatives Schmick, Kraft, Caldier, and Shea voiced strong objections to concurrence and to the bill itself.

Parents should know that the bill does not remove the personal-religious exemption or the church-affiliation exemption — as Representative Harris, the sponsor of the bill, states in the concurrence vote in this linked recording.

ANYONE may use the personal-religious exemption as it is protected by the U.S. Constitution which protects your right to religious freedom. You need not belong to any church. Your religion is YOURS, personal, private, sacred. Let no one, and no legislator take your right to religious freedom away from you — as many have promised to do next year.


Archive News on HB 1638  . . .

EHB 1638 passed the Senate on April 17.

Since the bill changed after leaving its “house of origin”, it must go back to the House of Reps for a “concurrence” vote. This is what the “Overview of the Legislative Process” Page says about what happens next:

Concurrence, Dispute, and Conference Committees: If the bill has been amended by the second house, the first house has to decide whether it will concur in the amendments or not. Leadership decides which bills returned from the second house will be discussed and places those bills on the concurrence calendar (House) or concurring calendar (Senate). If the first house concurs in the amendments, the bill has passed the Legislature.

If the first house disagrees with the second house, it can ask the second house to recede from the amendments. If the second house recedes, the bill has passed the Legislature.

If the two houses cannot resolve their differences, one of them can ask for a conference committee. Members from each house meet to discuss the differences. If they agree on what is to be done, the conference committee makes a report. Both houses must adopt the conference committee report for the bill to pass the Legislature. If one house does not adopt the conference committee report (whether by vote or inaction), the bill has not passed. The House Floor Activity Report and the Senate Floor Activity Report list the bills on the concurrence, dispute, and conference calendars.

The amendments added by the House were described as having the following effects on the legislation (these were stripped from the bill by the Senate’s “Striker” Amendment):

  1. Exempts from vaccination requirements an individual who fails to mount a positive antibody response following a complete vaccine series. Requires such an individual to be considered a non-responder.
  2. Grandfathers high school students holding existing exemptions while the students are enrolled in high school.
  3. Clarifies that the reasons for which a health care practitioner may certify that a vaccine is not advisable for a child include, but are not limited to, if the child has a biological parent, brother, or sister, with a documented history of immune system problems or a documented adverse reaction to a particular vaccine required by rule of the Board of Health.
  4. Exempts a child from mandatory vaccine requirements if a parent, legal guardian, or adult in loco parentis signs and presents a written certification that the child has a biological parent, brother, or sister, with either of the following, documented by a health care practitioner: a history of immune system problems or an adverse reaction to a particular vaccine required by rule of the Board of Health.
  5. Requires, in order to exempt a child from mandatory vaccine requirements, that the parent’s or sibling’s history of immune system problems, or adverse reaction to a particular vaccine, be sufficient to make the particular vaccine contraindicated for the child under guidelines issued by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If the House wants these amendments added back onto the bill, they will have to vote no on concurrence so that the Senate must then decide if it will recede from its own Striker Amendment. If the Senate won’t recede, then a committee made of both house and senate members is formed to try to come to agreement. They can make changes to the bill, including using a striker amendment to rewrite it. This committee generates a report, and this report then goes back to the full house and full senate for a vote. No amendments can be made at this point, but floor debates can happen before the vote. If either one of the houses does not adopt the committee report, the bill dies.

To view the April. 17 Senate Floor debate and vote,  you can watch the recording HERE. Be prepared to cheer for some fantastic remarks by some of the 22 who voted NO — and some false and inflammatory remarks by some of the 25 who voted yes.

Earlier Updates and Video Links:

SB 5841:  is dead for this year since it did not make it off the senate floor by the 5pm deadline on March 13. You can check on its status HERE.

On March 5, the bill was passed by the House with 57 yeas; 40 nays; absent, 0; excused, 1. This bill removes the personal exemption to the MMR only, but it could be amended moving forward. The bill then moved to  the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee. This LINK will take you to the section of the session where four amazing senators talked truth and freedom (the section of video has other senators speaking nonsense, too. We still have so much educating to do!)

Nevertheless, the bill passed out of the committee on April 1st and is now in Rules. You can check on its status HERE. You can also comment on the bill there by using the comment feature.

February 22, 2019

SB 5365 Hearing Video Testimony

SB 5365 (to require titer-testing option notification prior to vaccination, and notification of availability of exemptions) passed out of the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee and is now with the Ways and Means Committee.

Bill Introduction, Senator Wagoner –bill sponsor, Michelle Roberts (DOH, opposing), Bernadette Pajer, Susie Olson-Gorgan

February 20, 2019

SB 5841 Hearing Video Testimony

SB 5841 (to remove the philosophical/personal belief exemption for all  vaccines) passed out of the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee and is now with the Rules Committee.

Hearing Introduction
Jill, Concerned Citizen
Del Bigtree
Karl Kanthak
Del Herd Immunity
Dr. Theresa Deisher
Gabe Blomgren
Bernadette Pajer

February 8, 2019

HB 1638 Hearing Video Testimony

HB 1638 (to remove the philosophical/personal belief exemption for the MMR vaccine),  passed the House Health Care and Wellness Committee, and moved to the Rules Committee. Legislators report this bill is “dead” and the focus is turning to the Senate bill.

Dr. Toni Bark, MD, MHEM, LEED, AP

Dr. Brian Hooker, PhD, PE

Robert F. Kennedy Jr

Mary Holland, MA, JD

Rally Speeches

HB 1638 Rally Speeches

Hearing & Rally Photos