February 19-23, 2024
Two more weeks of session and A LOT to do!! Both the House and Senate released their budgets this week – the Senate on Sunday afternoon and the House on Monday afternoon. Hearings on both were on Monday. And on Wednesday (2/21), the House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means committees amended and passed their respective budgets so that they can now be taken up in their respective houses. And then: Negotiations! The House, Senate, and Governor need to resolve their differences and pass a final budget on or before March 7th, the last day of session. Here’s hoping!
While each budget contains many important items for children, youth, and families, they also have differences. Interest groups are busy doing budget comparisons; here is one that includes a number of items we’ve been tracking. We’re also working on another comparison related to behavioral health, but it may be a few days… there are a number of items in that area – which is great and also means it takes longer to sort through!
In addition to the budget work going on, bills are being heard in the fiscal committees. Sadly, many won’t make it past this point, as there were more bills passed in the policy committees than there is time to hear them all in the fiscal committees. And if a bill does make it through the fiscal cut-off (2/26), it has to get through Rules and out of the opposite chamber by March 1st. As you might imagine, moving towards these cut-offs means very long days and a lot of stress! So, if you are talking to someone deeply involved in the legislative process and they tell you that they have completely lost track of time, that’s quite normal! Days run into nights that run into days and so it goes!!
While we haven’t been reporting on the ballot initiatives, you are likely very aware that six qualified for the November ballot. The legislature will be taking up some of them. This too all needs to happen before March 7th if they are to get out on time! Fingers crossed.
Again, the status of bills can change quickly, so if you are wondering if a bill survived the fiscal cut-off and don’t want to wait until next week’s tracker, check out leg.wa.gov.
Questions? Contact laurielippold@gmail.com
