wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 1777 > Original Bill
The legislature finds that, according to the Washington Roundtable, over the next decade, 20 percent of projected job openings (or 313,000 jobs) will require apprenticeships, certificates, and other industry-aligned training credentials. However, of those, only 86,000 jobs can be filled through Washington's current education and training systems and in-migration, leaving a shortage of 228,000 workers with these credentials. In 2022, Senate Bill No. 5600 was signed into law with the stated intent of increasing new apprenticeship opportunities in our state, and specifically that apprenticeship programs seeking state registration receive prompt consideration with minimum delay for more apprenticeship opportunities to be available for workers and employers. However, in 2024, 17 new programs applied for approval. Of those, nine were approved, four withdrew their application, and four are awaiting an adjudicative hearing. Competitor objections were filed against 10 applications. An additional six applications were left over from 2023. Of those, four were approved, one was denied, and one is awaiting an adjudicative hearing on an objection. For comparison purposes, in federal fiscal year 2021, 2,879 new apprenticeship programs were approved for a total of 27,385 approved programs across all states. The excessive delays in the state's approval process have proved particularly burdensome for those programs that have already received federal approval based on substantially similar standards, including programs administered by established tribal and nontribal businesses and organizations.
It is therefore the legislature's intent to expand the availability of apprenticeship programs by expediting consideration of state approval of apprenticeship programs that have current approval by the federal government, reforming the competitor objection process, and updating the apprenticeship council reporting requirements to include information on how Washington compares to other states and the federal government in approving new apprenticeship programs.
In the annual report required by RCW 49.04.050 (as recodified by this act), the apprenticeship council must include the following:
A list of apprenticeship programs that have applied for state approval, including the status of provisional or permanent approval for each program, the reasons for any denials, and the status of competitor objections; and
An analysis of the state's approval rate of proposed apprenticeship programs, including a comparison to the approval rate of the federal office of apprenticeship and the approval rate of all states with federally recognized state apprenticeship agencies during the same time period.
The apprenticeship council shall approve and register an apprenticeship program when the apprenticeship committee and program standards conform to this chapter and the rules adopted under this chapter. Initial registration is provisional for 12 months. Following the initial provisional year, the registration must be made permanent unless:
The provisional registration status is extended to allow for adjudication or mediation of an objection under subsection (2) of this section;
The department of labor and industries identified deficiencies in a performance review, in which case provisional approval may be extended through the training term; or
The registration is rescinded based on a compliance review.
The apprenticeship council must expedite consideration of state approval of any apprenticeship program that has current approval by the federal government, including those administered by tribal or nontribal entities and organizations. For purposes of expedited consideration, the council must limit its review of the program, including consideration of competitor objections, to those elements where state law and rules specifically impose greater or unique requirements as compared to federal law. The council shall adopt policies and practices for expediting approval of programs under this subsection.
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A competitor may file an objection within 30 days of the apprenticeship council's provisional approval of a new apprenticeship committee or standards. A competitor objection may not be filed or considered until provisional approval has been granted by the council. An objection must comply with standards adopted by the council and the department of labor and industries. The provisional status of a program may be extended in six-month intervals to accommodate the objection process, which may include voluntary mediation. Registration may not be made permanent until the objection has been adjudicated or otherwise resolved or withdrawn.
The apprenticeship council or an administrative law judge may require a competitor to pay the applicant's reasonable attorneys' fees and costs if it finds that the competitor's objection was not substantially justified. For the purposes of this section, an objection is "substantially justified" if it had a reasonable basis in law or fact at the time that it was filed.
The apprenticeship council may impose sanctions if it finds that a competitor has filed two or more frivolous objections under this section. Sanctions may include, but are not limited to: Payment of the applicant's or applicants' reasonable attorneys' fees and costs; a monetary penalty not to exceed $10,000 payable to the department of labor and industries; or other appropriate sanctions as determined by the council. An objection may be considered frivolous if: The objection is not substantially justified; the objection does not comply with the council's requirements for objections including, but not limited to, failing to identify the specific standards proposed by the applicant in relation to a specific administrative rule or standard; or the competitor knowingly objected to a standard that is identical or substantively the same as an approved standard of an existing apprenticeship committee.
RCW 49.04.010, 49.04.030, 49.04.035, 49.04.040, 49.04.050, 49.04.060, 49.04.065, 49.04.070, 49.04.080, 49.04.090, 49.04.100, 49.04.110, 49.04.120, 49.04.130, 49.04.141, 49.04.150, 49.04.160, 49.04.170, 49.04.180, 49.04.190, 49.04.200, 49.04.210, 49.04.220, 49.04.230, 49.04.240, 49.04.250, 49.04.260, 49.04.270, 49.04.280, 49.04.290, 49.04.300, and 49.04.910 are each recodified as a new chapter in Title 28B RCW. The code reviser is directed, in the next technical corrections bill, to correct all references to chapter 49.04 RCW to the corresponding reference in the new chapter in Title 28B RCW created by this act.
Sections 2 and 3 of this act are each added to the new chapter created in section 4 of this act.