The bills, sponsored by Rep. Terry Nealey, are aimed at preventing records request abuses

OLYMPIA – Washington State Representative Terry Nealey (R-Dayton) recently had two bills he helped draft signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee.

The bills are the product of years of effort by Nealey to help address the issue of excessive public records requests that are meant to set local governments up for potential legal actions. A State Auditor’s report in 2016 said that local agencies received over 280,000 requests in the last few years.

Nealey was the co-sponsor of House Bill 1594, which was...