---
type: "Bill"
title: "Concerning the mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and social workers advisory committee."
description: "Concerning the mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and social workers advisory committee."
jurisdiction: "us/states/wa"
legislature: "Washington Legislature"
session: "2025-2026"
identifier: "HB 1234"
citation: "Washington HB 1234 (2025-2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Simmons"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 23
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-01-09"
last_action: "2025-04-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/30ddf559-5bd5-48a8-b3af-1c2d263d8c48"
source_url: "https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=1234&Year=2025&Initiative=false"
source_hash: "c152cb66d581777309dadf142b11d19d2278d033a33a721eabf2c0fc9a667b63"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-wa"]
---

# Washington HB 1234 (2025-2026) — Concerning the mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and social workers advisory committee.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/Biennium/2025-26/Htm/Bills/House%20Bills/1234.htm)
2. **Passed Legislature** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/Biennium/2025-26/Htm/Bills/House%20Passed%20Legislature/1234.PL.htm)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading & Final Passage (#1) — **96–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading & Final Passage (#21) — **49–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Simmons — primary (person)
- Rule — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-01-09** Prefiled for introduction. `filing`
- **2025-01-13** First reading, referred to Health Care & Wellness. `reading-1`
- **2025-01-22** Public hearing in the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness at 1:30 PM.
- **2025-01-24** Executive action taken in the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness at 8:00 AM.
- **2025-01-24** HCW - Majority; do pass. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-01-27** Referred to Rules 2 Review. `referral-committee`
- **2025-01-28** Rules Committee relieved of further consideration. Placed on second reading. `reading-2`
- **2025-02-06** Rules suspended. Placed on Third Reading. `reading-3`
- **2025-02-06** Third reading, passed; yeas, 96; nays, 0; absent, 0; excused, 2. `reading-3`
- **2025-02-07** First reading, referred to Health & Long-Term Care. `reading-1`
- **2025-03-14** Public hearing in the Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care at 8:00 AM.
- **2025-03-18** Executive action taken in the Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care at 10:30 AM.
- **2025-03-18** HLTC - Majority; do pass. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-19** Passed to Rules Committee for second reading.
- **2025-03-21** Placed on second reading by Rules Committee. `reading-2`
- **2025-03-26** Rules suspended. Placed on Third Reading. `reading-3`
- **2025-03-26** Third reading, passed; yeas, 49; nays, 0; absent, 0; excused, 0. `reading-3`
- **2025-03-31** Speaker signed. `passage`
- **2025-03-31** President signed. `passage`
- **2025-04-02** Delivered to Governor. `executive-receipt`
- **2025-04-07** Governor signed. `executive-signature`
- **2025-04-07** Chapter 20, 2025 Laws. `became-law`
- **2025-04-07** Effective date 7/27/2025. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/30ddf559-5bd5-48a8-b3af-1c2d263d8c48`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Washington legislature records).