Two bills and a memorial to congress were introduced to help resolve the problem. However, because Congressman Rick White was working on federal legislation, WBBA asked that the bills not be considered during the 1998 legislative session. Introduced by Rep. Jeff Morris, this bill added new sections to chapter 21.20 RCW to regulate securities class action suits. The University of Washington requested the following bills to protect research data from the state's public disclosure law. WBBA testified in support, but both bills died in Rules, primarily due to opposition from the media.
Information held by a public agency is generally subject to public disclosure.
Numerous exemptions to the public disclosure requirements are codified in statute. Some of these exemptions relate to records containing personal information and proprietary business information. State and local agencies are required to make records not falling within a statutory exemption available for public inspection and copying. Under current law, research data obtained by an agency is exempt from disclosure for five years from the date of a disclosure request if disclosure during that period would result in private gain and public loss. This bill created a new exemption related to research universities' research data.