WashingtonHB 22292025-2026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

Concerning the professional engineers' registration act.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

11 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 4 costs, 4 mixed.

Extra qualifications for major structural projects

Engineers need Washington structural engineer registration to provide structural engineering services for significant structures. Applicants must hold current Washington professional engineer registration, gain two additional years of structural experience, and pass extra exams. Significant structures include structures over 100 feet tall, occupied buildings with at least five stories, and buildings holding over 300 people in one area. They also include bridges with spans over 200 feet or piers over 10,000 square feet. Covered essential facilities must exceed both 5,000 square feet of ground area and 20 feet in mean roof height.

Experience rules for engineers and surveyors

Engineers and land surveyors need eight years of qualifying experience and must pass board-set exams. Experience must show broad skills and growing responsibility. An approved four-year degree counts for four years; each completed year without graduation counts for one year. A bachelor's degree outside the field counts for two years, with total undergraduate credit capped at four years. The board may count up to one year of postgraduate study and two years of teaching. Carrying out a contractor's work or supervising construction of an engineer's design does not count as engineering practice.

Nonresident engineers and surveyors lose practice exceptions

The law removes temporary practice exceptions for specified nonresident engineers and surveyors without an established Washington business location. These exceptions allowed up to 30 days of practice per calendar year under a temporary permit. They also allowed longer practice while a Washington registration application was under review. Affected practitioners now need another applicable authorization to practice in Washington.

Support orders affect engineers' and surveyors' licenses

The board must immediately suspend registration when the Department of Social and Health Services certifies noncompliance with a support order. Violating a residential or visitation order is no longer a suspension basis under this rule. The board must automatically restore registration after the department confirms support-order compliance, provided all other registration requirements remain met.

Fewer hurdles for engineering and surveying applicants

Engineering and surveying applicants no longer face the law's express good-character-and-reputation test, including applicants for training credentials. The law also removes specified sworn education statements, detailed technical work summaries, and supervisor verification requirements. Applicants still must use board-prescribed forms and meet other registration requirements. The board must waive the fundamentals exam for applicants who meet its waiver rules; the law does not list those criteria.

Training certificates for engineers and surveyors

Applicants can seek an engineer-in-training certificate after four years of qualifying engineering experience and a board-approved fundamentals exam. Land-surveyor-in-training applicants need four years of qualifying surveying experience and a board-approved fundamentals exam. Successful surveying examinees may receive a certificate showing they passed and are enrolled as land-surveyors-in-training.

Engineering corporations face discipline for misconduct

The board can discipline an engineering or surveying corporation's authorization for unprofessional conduct by specified people associated with it. Covered people include officers, directors, incorporators, and majority stockholders who engaged in or were found personally responsible for the conduct.

Nonrefundable fees and changed exam retakes

Engineering and surveying applicants pay nonrefundable registration fees set by the board, even when the board finds them ineligible. These fees cover application processing and certificate issuance, not exams. The law removes the specific statutory path to retake a failed exam by paying a board-set fee. That repeal does not establish that retakes are unavailable under other rules.

Authorization rules for engineering and surveying firms

Corporations seeking authorization to practice engineering or surveying must also register with the Washington Department of Revenue. Limited liability companies seeking authorization must designate a responsible engineer and a responsible land surveyor with current Washington licenses. One person holding both current licenses can fill both roles.

New renewal rules for engineers and surveyors

The board sets how long individual registration certificates and firms' authorization certificates remain valid, replacing the fixed December expiration schedule. A registration becomes invalid without a completed renewal application by expiration. Mailed applications must be postmarked, and online renewals completed, before the expiration date. Land surveyors must verify completion of board-set continuing education hours to renew. The law removes the fixed minimum of 15 hours per year but does not state the replacement hours.

Registration board changes membership and service rules

Registration board appointees must have lived and practiced in Washington for at least five years immediately before appointment. United States citizenship is no longer required. The Department of Licensing must provide technical services as mutually agreed with the board. Their agreement no longer needs a fixed initial three-year term or the former renewal structure.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Janice Zahn
Democratic • House

Cosponsors

Debra Lekanoff
Democratic • House
Julia Reed
Democratic • House
Kevin Waters
Republican • House
Lisa Parshley
Democratic • House
Mari Leavitt
Democratic • House
My-Linh Thai
Democratic • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 105 • No: 37

Senate vote • 3/6/2026

3rd Reading & Final Passage

Yes: 37 • No: 11 • Other: 1

House vote • 2/10/2026