OLYMPIA — This year’s 60-day state legislative session is nearly half over, and with about a month left to go, state senators and representatives in Olympia are well into the process of choosing new laws for Washington.
On Wednesday, the first major deadline in the state’s legislative session hit: policy committee cutoff day. This meant most bills with a chance of staying alive on the long road to becoming law needed to secure a vote of approval from their policy committee of origin by the end of the day.
One high-profile bill that died in a Senate committee would have capped rent increases for existing tenants at 15 percent. The proposed cap still has a chance of survival, thanks to a companion bill sitting in the hands of the state House Committee on Appropriations right now. But its chances of becoming a law are slimmer after the Senate committee’s rejection.
Another prominent bill to die in committee would have required proof of a verified firearm safety course to buy a gun in the state. The bill would have also required buyers to obtain a permit before purchasing a gun from a store, show or retailer. The proposed law was sponsored by Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle, and carried the support of 39 more House Democrats.
Right now, state law requires somebody buying a gun to show the seller proof of a completed firearm safety program. The new law would have removed that requirement and added the safety course as well as the permit requirement as a middleman.
For some of the bills that die in committee, it’s not always goodbye forever. The farewell can instead take the form of “See you later” for bills that lawmakers hope to tweak and bring back in a future legislative session. And for a lucky few bills, there’s still hope to stay alive for the session in some form. As mentioned before, when a bill in either legislative chamber has a companion bill in the other chamber, it’s not technically dead until both bills get killed.
Later this month, the state will likely release its budget plans for the session. If there’s enough power or support behind a dead bill, it’s possible for it to be reborn in the form of a budget proviso.
What bills are still in the running? There are far too many bills still alive to list them all. But at the session’s halfway point, here are a few prominent survivors. If passed, these proposed laws would achieve the following:
- Make people convicted of driving under the influence and killing a child’s parent or guardian subject to paying child support, if a court requires it. The bill, sponsored by, Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, picked up unanimous support when it passed on the Senate floor Thursday.
- Ban child marriage in the state. Right now, children of any age can get married in Washington. If they’re 17, they need parental consent. If they’re younger than that, they need approval from a judge. On the first day of the legislative session this year, the House unanimously passed the proposed child marriage ban. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, made its way to a Senate committee where it remained as of Friday.
- Create a sales tax exemption for construction projects that convert existing commercial buildings into residential properties with a stated purpose of increasing affordable housing in downtown city and town centers. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, and remained under consideration in a Senate fiscal committee Friday.
- Require all Washington school districts, not just those with more than 2,000 students, to have at least one opioid-reversal kit in all high schools within their district. The proposed bill, sponsored by Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, further requires districts to enact an opioid-related overdose policy. It passed with unanimous support on the Senate floor Thursday.
- Require the state to create a data-sharing program through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction intended to create more equitable access to higher education. The bill, sponsored by local Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Medical Lake, states the program’s purpose would be to inform more students about postsecondary education and financial aid opportunities in the state.
- Make it legal for people to grow up to four marijuana plants in their own homes. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Kirkland, was referred last week to the House Committee on Appropriations, where its fate likely will be decided in the next couple weeks.
Feb. 5 marks the next big cutoff deadline at the Capitol. It will be the last day for bills to get OK’d by a budget committee. This year’s legislative session will last until March 7.
