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House Rules committee adopts amendment to allow recreation waivers, sends Senate Bill 1517A to the floor
Summary
The House Committee on Rules adopted the A25 amendment to Senate Bill 1517A, making recreation liability waivers enforceable in broader circumstances while adding exceptions for child abuse and physical assault; the committee voted to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation.
Chair Bowman opened a work session on Senate Bill 1517A on March 4 and asked committee staffer Tisha to summarize the measure. Tisha said the bill’s A version permits recreation operators to require liability releases for ordinary negligence and that the posted A25 amendment broadens releasable claims to those "arising out of the activity," removes some exceptions, narrows others and adds exceptions for child abuse and physical assault; she said fiscal impacts would be minimal.
Representative Levy told the committee the dash A25 represents about a decade of prior work and said the bill’s intent is to make recreation waivers enforceable as a matter of public policy and to preserve existing waivers executed before the bill’s effective date. She said the measure aims to improve insurance availability for recreation businesses and urged members to support the amendment.
Representative Croft stressed the importance of tying waivers to participation in the activity itself — for example, a ski slope or trail rather than the lodge or parking lot — and described carve-outs for safety measures within an operator’s control, existing negligence-per-se standards and specific administrative rules (life-jacket or concussion protocols). Croft and Representative Wong both described pressure on insurance markets for otherwise safe operators and said the bill is intended to bring insurance back to the market for recreation businesses.
Vice Chair Pham moved to adopt the dash A25 amendment; the committee recorded aye votes and the amendment passed. Vice Chair Pham then moved that Senate Bill 1517A as amended be referred to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. After brief remarks in support, the committee took a roll call and the motion to send the bill to the floor passed.
The committee noted a request for Representatives Levy and Helfrich to co-carry the bill. Chair Bowman closed the work session on SB 1517A and moved on to introduce committee measures.
The measure as amended broadens the scope of waivers tied to recreational activity participation while explicitly preserving recourse for child abuse and physical assault; the committee recorded no substantive fiscal impacts in the staff summary and advanced the bill to the next stage of the process.
