Legislative Update – Week 22

Welcome to Week 22 of the 2015 Legislative Session

We’re finishing up week two of the second special session – and how quickly things change! Last Friday, the news was looking good for reaching agreement on the level of spending in the House and Senate budgets. Unfortunately, it does not appear that was actually the case, and there still appear to be a number of differences between the House and Senate. The Governor’s Office continues to meet regularly with the budget negotiators, but as of today, there is no agreement.

The House did convene on June 11th and passed a number of bills again that will now go to the Senate. We’ll see if the Senate takes up all, some, or any of these bills. As of now, the Senate is not scheduled to convene, nor is there another convening of the House scheduled – so the bills may not make it through the required process to be on their way to becoming a law. We’ll soon see if anything continues to move!

So all in all, the clock continues to tick – the U.S. Open Golf Championship begins next week, which people suspect will cause problems with traffic and hotel availability in Olympia. Also, we understand that layoff notices to a number of state employees have to go out by June 24th if there isn’t a budget in place. So here’s hoping there is a positive breakthrough soon, that critical services to children and families are included in the final budget, and that the interim can truly begin!

Please note: The Senate Ways and Means Committee heard SB 6130 on June 11th dealing with K-12 Education and the McCleary lawsuit requirements – the summary is online, but overall, it addresses issues such as teacher compensation, local school district levies, and more.

If you have any questions, email us at info@partnersforourchildren.org. Also, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates on our work during the legislative session and throughout the year.