Welcome to Week 3 of the 2015 Legislative Session!
The House passed an early 2015 supplemental budget on January 29th – just 3 weeks into the session! With strong bi-partisan support, the budget addresses some significant issues related to mental health, child welfare, and even the Oso landslide. The budget will now go to the Senate, where it is unclear how fast it will move through. It is very likely there will be another supplemental budget passed as well, perhaps along with the 2015-2017 biennial budget, but this would be way down the road.
One hearing of interest this week was for the Homeless Youth Act (SB 5404), a Governor-requested bill that is being sponsored by Representative Kagi in the House and by Senator O’Ban in the Senate. The hearing that took place was in the Senate Human Services Committee, and First Lady Trudi Inslee kicked off the testimony with a great line-up of philanthropists, youth, and providers. The companion House bill (HB 1436) will be heard next week, and it is expected to have the same compelling slate of witnesses.
There were also compelling hearings on the Early Start Act (HB 1491) and the Parents for Parents bill (SB 5486). TVW is a great way to catch up on hearings that you may have wanted to see; it can be accessed by going to www.tvw.org.
More hearings will take place over the next several weeks, but, increasingly, committees will spend time exec’ing (passing) bills. Many bills will be amended before passing out of committee, and while we will address amendments to many of the bills as they arise, we may not describe the amendments on all of the bills. Rather, we will identify when a bill has been amended, and if you’re interested in knowing the details of the amendments, you can find them on www.leg.wa.gov.
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Have a great weekend – and Go Hawks!
Public Policy Director
