And while there’s lots of action in the chambers today—the deadline for passing bills out of one chamber to the other is Feb. 19th—there’s also some action going on … where else? … in the back of cafeteria!

A controversial bill that passed out of committee last week would make restaurants prominently post detailed nutritional info like: total number of calories; amount of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat; amount of carbohydrates; and amount of sodium.

Who has a problem with the bill? Weirdly enough, the King County Board of Health. Huh? Didn’t the KCBH just pass similar rules last year.

Yes they did. However, the proposed state rules—which are limper than KCBH’s (the KCBH rules would require more restaurants to comply)—preempt local rules.

King County’s rules apply to restaurant chains with 10 stores or more. The state rules apply to restaurant chains with 25 stores or more. If the King County rules had to be lowered to the state standard, the number of restaurants governed by the law would drop from 2600 to 1200—or 54% fewer restaurants.

So what’s going on in the cafeteria besides this piece of pizza and no calorie postings?

Secret negotiations.

You see, the only reason the bill moved out of committee last week was because Rep. Steve Conway (D-29, Tacoma), chair of the commerce committee, made it a “title only” bill—meaning he temporarily stripped it of specifics.

He punted it to the warring parties: the King County Board of Health and the Washington Restaurant Association. The WRA likes state bill and doesn’t want KC to up the standards.

The WRA and the KCBH are meeting now (over pizza, perhaps) to work out a compromise.