Governor signs university research bill

Governor Jay Inslee this morning signed a bill that will cut red tape for university research efforts.

Senate Bill 5786 was supported by WSU. It removes higher education institutions from state laws governing the release of public records for research to protect individuals’ privacy rights. These laws were written before the implementation of a series of federal laws with the same aims.

Eliminating the state requirements for universities will retain existing protections via federal law while relieving the administrative burden of seeking compliance with two sets of duplicative laws that have until now slowed down research efforts.

Before being signed into law, the bill was approved 46-1 by the Senate and 97-0 by the House.