Rest in peace, good little bills

In case you missed it, a little drama unfolded last night on the Senate floor. While it may have made for some interesting television for procedural junkies like us, it also meant that a lot of bills didn’t get a vote ahead of the 5:00 PM opposite house cut-off for policy bills.

Among the causalities on the Senate’s floor calendar:

HB 2503: This measure would have given veterans and members of the National Guard priority registration when they sign up for college classes. The extra time to secure their classes would have given our veterans ample time to get that information back to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

HB 1217: The ‘Safe Streets’ bill would have given cities the option to set speed limits as low as 20 MPH on non-arterials. Cities can currently take this action, but not without a costly study on traffic and engineering.

HB 2717: Legislation to encourage colleges and universities to report efficiency measures they’ve taken. That information is later shared across our state’s higher education system, encouraging other institutions to take similar actions in order to reduce their bottom line.

HB 2372: A consumer protection bill to cap towing fees when your car is impounded on private property. Following widespread reports of price-gouging by predatory towing companies, this bill would have ensured that no Washingtonian is held hostage by recovery fees equal to a month’s rent.

These are just a few of the bills we are mourning over here in the HDC today.

What lived and what died?

A lot of bills met the end of the road yesterday at the 5:00 pm House of Origin cutoff.  According to legislative rules, no non-fiscal bill can be sent to the opposite chamber after that cutoff.

783 bills were introduced in the House this year, and 88 were still in the Rules committee from last session (the first year of the biennium.)  Of those, only 257 were sent to the Senate by the close of business yesterday.  And a  good many of those survivors will not make it through the Senate process and end up on the governor's desk next month.  Such is the life of a good little bill trying to become a law.

So what is still alive?  Major Democratic priorities kept moving:

• The Jobs Now proposal is exempt from cut-off and expected to be heard in committee soon after the revenue forecast later this week.
• We took the next steps in implementing the federal afforable care act.
• Important education reform to improve outcomes for students advanced.
• We updated the state's environmental protection act.
• A package of bills to crack down on drunk drivers and another that helps improve foster care in our state.

Transportation, capital,and operating budgets are still to come.

You can read more about these and other priorities that are advancing here.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

It's cut-off day!

Yes, it’s the final big bill cut-off of the session. No bill may be started on the floor after 5:00 pm. Which doesn’t mean we will be done right at 5:00, but it does make it likely we’ll finish before dinner time. The list of bills for the day will be decided as we go, and you can follow the action here.

We also have a few things on the committee calendar:

8:00 am HHR D Capital Budget
Possible Executive Session:
1. HB 2040 - Providing for assistance for financing infrastructure and economic development.
2. HB 1348 - Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts.
3. HB 1497 - Adopting a 2011-2013 capital budget.

It's cut-off day!

Today is pass-or-die day for dozens of non-budget bills as the House reaches major cut-off point in the 2009 session. 40 bills are still on the floor calendar and many more are sitting in the Rules committee, their sponsors hoping for a last-minute pull to the calendar.

When members left the floor at about 1:00 this morning, they had sent a total of 427 bills to the Senate. They are set to go at it again this morning at 10:00, and no consideration of a bill can begin after 5:00 this evening. Should be an interesting seven hours.

House Chamber is quiet today

The House worked late into the night on Friday, but is not passing bills today. However, the place is still buzzing with members and staff working on last-minute amendments, negotiations, and strategies to get all the House bills over to the Senate by Thursday's deadline.

On Monday, our committees will begin hearing bills the Senate is passing over to us right now, and our bills will go through the same process over there. Ah, Democracy!

All-day floor action starts today

The last day to pass non-budget House bills to the Senate is next Thursday, March 12. So today the action moves from the committee rooms to the House floor as hundreds of bills are discussed, dismissed, picked-apart, and passed.

The House will convene at 10:00 a.m. and will run into the evening. No word yet on how late members will work, but we'll keep you posted right here as the day progresses.

First up on the agenda this morning:
HB 1596 – Woman’s right to breastfeed
HB 1789 – Offender release dates
HB 1824 – Concussion mgmt/youth sports
HB 1825 – Growth mgmt act
HB 1826 – Foreclosure sales
HB 1841 – College & university boards
HB 1326 – Pacific sardines

Fiscal bills face cutoff in the House

Today is the last chance for non-budget fiscal bills to clear their respective committees, so there is no action planned for the House floor. However, you can expect a real flurry of activity in both the Finance and Ways and Means committees.

Starting at 8:00 am, the House Finance Committee will vote to send up to 40 bills to the Rules committee -- the last stop for measures before being considered on the floor.

At 1:30, House Ways and Means will start what is likely to be a very long night. Here is the agenda for today:
Public Hearing:
SHB 1412 - Concerning health benefit plan coverage of neurodevelopmental therapies.
SHB 1560 - Regarding collective bargaining at institutions of higher education.
HB 1774 - Excluding certain state forest land revenues from the basic education allocation. (If measure is referred to committee.)
SHB 1776 - Changing school levy provisions.
HB 1799 - Reducing the release of mercury into the environment.
SHB 1914 - Regarding community and technical colleges' maintenance and operations funding. (If measure is referred to committee.)
2SHB 1944 - Regarding the development and field testing of a statewide kindergarten assessment process. (If measure is referred to committee.)
HB 2041 - Concerning student transportation funding. (If measure is referred to committee.)
HB 2291 - Exempting the agricultural commodity commissions from certain administrative cost reductions.
SHB 2295 - Concerning the organization of the department of social and health services. (If measure is referred to committee.)
Bills referred to committee.
Possible Executive Session:
HB 2267 - Protecting the collective bargaining rights of certain exempt employees.
HB 1329 - Providing collective bargaining for child care center directors and workers.
SHB 1701 - Authorizing the department of information services to engage in high-speed internet activities.
SHB 1747 - Reducing climate pollution in the built environment.
HB 1940 - Requiring that school district and educational service district employees' basic benefits be determined and administered by the state health care authority.
HB 1953 - Allowing department of fish and wildlife enforcement officers to transfer service credit.
HB 2052 - Delaying the implementation of the health insurance partnership.
SHB 2106 - Improving child welfare outcomes through the phased implementation of strategic and proven reforms.
HB 2107 - Regarding the delivery of early learning home visitation programs.
SHB 2167 - Providing flexibility in the education system.
SHB 2239 - Concerning the creation of a student loan program with a dedicated revenue source.
HB 2245 - Clarifying public employees' benefits board eligibility.
HB 2287 - Requiring state agencies to use one hundred percent recycled content paper.

Bills previously heard in committee.