It happens every legislative session: a deadline passes, sending hundreds of bills to their grave.
“Everyone loses some,” said Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver.
On Friday, a key deadline narrowed the number of measures being considered in the state Legislature and allowed Southwest Washington lawmakers to take stock of the session so far.
While some higher-profile bills died — lawmakers won’t consider repealing the death penalty this session — it’s often the expiration of legislation that lawmakers themselves have introduced that hurts them the most.
One in particularly “was a sad one” for Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center. Rivers’ measure would have allowed pharmacies to vaccinate people.
“I’ve said all along that I don’t feel the spread of measles is from people who aren’t vaccinating their kids, I think it’s an access issue,” Rivers said.
But overall, Rivers said she’s “having the session of my life.”
In previous sessions, it was “my way or the highway,” the senator said. But now, since neither party has an overwhelming majority, there’s less partisan gridlock.
Gridlock “doesn’t exist right now, and I think that’s healthy for the people and the state,” Rivers said.
That could change, however, if a proposed transportation package passes out of the Republican-controlled senate. House Democrats, who hold the majority, said they won’t consider the measure until education funding has been settled.
Although the budget has yet to be unveiled and lawmakers haven’t clarified how they plan to fulfill the mandate of the state’s top court to fully fund education, Rivers said, it remains the central issue of the session.
“We don’t talk specifically about McCleary, because it’s in everything we’re doing,” she said.
The McCleary decision called on the Legislature to fully fund the state’s K-12 public education system.
Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, remains dedicated to addressing the aging Interstate 5 Bridge.
“I still feel like that’s the most important challenge the community is facing,” she said.
The current transportation package on the table, which carved out no money for the bridge or any “mega project” in Southwest Washington, is a 16-year package.
“So are we going to wait another 16 years or so to replace that bridge?” Cleveland said.
Overall, most local lawmakers’ priorities survived the first round.
Rivers is still pressing to regulate the medical-marijuana market.
A transparency measure Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, has introduced, which would force lobbyists and their employers to file expenses electronically and in a searchable database, has lived to see another day.
Wylie is pushing a bill to punish business owners who run illicit massage parlors.
Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, who introduced 20 different bills, is hoping a measure requiring Clark County teenage drivers to identify themselves with a “new driver” sticker makes it to the finish line.
Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida, said he will continue his work in the finance committee and is bracing for hearings on a capital gains and carbon tax proposals.
The region’s newest lawmaker, Rep. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, said she’s enjoying her time in Olympia and is working on several bills, including one that would expedite the permitting process for bridges that are structurally deficient.
A bill introduced by Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, to give veterans supplemental health insurance survived the cutoff.
And Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, is hopeful his measure allowing optometrists to prescribe hydrocodone becomes law.
“Cutoff is a busy, busy time,” Harris said. “Bills live and die.”
As always, there are procedural tricks that could keep a measure alive.
And as Moeller said in Olympia, “nothing ever really dies.”
