State employee privacy again boosted by Senate committee
The legislative tug-of-war over your dates of birth isn’t over yet. But the Senate State Government Committee this morning (Jan. 31) considered a compromise bill that like another bill would keep state employee dates of birth out of the hands of the Freedom Foundation and others.
The proposed Substitute Senate Bill 5418 would also keep state employee passport and visa numbers private as well.
AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) Lobbyist Matt Zuvich commended the compromise to the committee.
A committee vote is set for Friday (Feb. 2).
But members of the state Sunshine Committee and representatives of the media opposed this humane privacy bill that is about the safety and security of state employees and their families.
Media conglomerates (but not individual journalists) are starting to use their editorial pages to oppose another date-of-birth privacy bill, SB 6079, that is now in the Senate Rules Committee.
But the Seattle Times in its Jan. 29 editorial against SB 6079 failed to disclose an important fact. The Seattle Times Company just four days earlier sided with the Freedom Foundation in court.The Times joined other print and broadcast associations in filing “friend-of-the-court” briefs in support of the Freedom Foundation’s effort to have the state Supreme Court overturn a state Court of Appeals decision in favor of AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) members’ date-of-birth privacy.
Stay tuned.
