Legislative Updates

Welcome to Week 6 of the 2014 Legislative Session! February 18th was the big cut-off for bills to get out of their house of origin.  If a bill didn't make it out by 5:00 on the 18th, it is dead, unless it has been identified as 'necessary to...

Welcome to Week 5 of the 2014 Legislative Session! It was certainly an interesting week in Olympia! Since there were a few cut-offs this week, there were late nights, frantic efforts to try to keep bills from dying, and creative thinking about how...

Welcome to Week 4 of the 2014 Legislative Session! Policy committee cut-off has come and gone for the House (February 5th) and is upon us in the Senate (today, February 7th). The next cut-off is for the fiscal committees, February 11th. This...

Welcome to Week 3 of the 2014 Legislative Session! The first cut-off is right around the corner!  And there is a correction regarding cut-off information that was included in last week's alert...   The House cut-off for bills to get through the...

Welcome to Week 2 of the 2014 Legislative Session! Because this is a short session (60 days), hearing schedules are jam-packed, and many bills that have been introduced will likely not get a hearing.  In fact, there are only two more weeks before...

Welcome to Week 1 of the 2014 Legislative Session! The first day of the session was Monday, January 13th, and already the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Ways and Means Committee have held public hearings on the Governor's budget, a number...

Welcome to the seventh week of special session! A deal on the budget has been reached!  Such was the announcement the Governor made yesterday with the budget writers and leadership from the House and Senate by his side.  It is expected that the...

Welcome to the sixth week of special session! Is the end in sight??!!  On the 18th, the state was delivered positive news: The revenue forecast is up for the ’11-’13 biennium by $110M and approximately $211M for ’13-’15.   And this good news is in...

Welcome to the fourth week of special session!  We are rapidly moving into the home stretch for the special session, which is scheduled to end June 11th.  According to some, the House and Senate are still far from compromise (although others say...

Welcome to the third week of special session!  There continues to be very little to report.... The budget negotiators have been meeting; however, the House and Senate do not appear to be any closer to reaching agreement.  Rumors are that...