Legislative Session Week 10

In this week’s update:

• State Revenue Forecast & Upcoming Budget Release
• Staffing & Rest Breaks – Attend the Hearings Next Week
• School Nurse Supervision
• Attend Your Legislators’ Town Hall Meetings

WSNA’s 2017 Legislative Priorities and issue-based one-pagers can be found here.

The State Revenue and Economic Forecast Council meets quarterly to discuss the current and projected economic outlook for the state budget. The Council met yesterday, and released some good news: revenue for the current biennium is up by $247 million, and projected revenue for the 2017-19 biennium is up by $303 million. This means that the legislature has a bit more funding to work with for the 2017-19 budget.

The State Senate is expected to release its budget on Monday, with the House budget expected to be released on the following Monday, March 27. We will send out an email with budget details following each release.

As the Staffing bill continues to move forward, we are still working thru some language tweaks with other stakeholders to ensure we maintain agreement on the staffing bill’s content. The latest bill draft provides increased hospital nurse staffing transparency, documentation of staffing deviations from the adopted staffing plan, as well as accountability measures and penalties. We encourage you to check this link for a more detailed description of the new staffing bill components.

The Rest Breaks bill moved over to the Senate and remains in its original format, requiring that nurses receive uninterrupted meal and rest breaks, and closing the mandatory overtime loophole. More information about this bill is available on WSNA’s website.

Additionally, both bills are up for hearings in the Senate next week. Plan to attend the hearings in Olympia next week if you are available – and please let Nathasja Skorupa know if you plan to attend by emailing her at nskorupa@wsna.org.

Staffing Bill (HB 1715) – Hearing

March 23, 2017
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Senate Health Care Committee
Senate Hearing Room 2
J.A. Cherberg Building*
Olympia, WA 98504

Rest Breaks Bill (HB 1715) – Hearing

March 23, 2017
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Senate Commerce, Labor & Sports Committee
Senate Hearing Room 4
J.A. Cherberg Building*
Olympia, WA 98504

*You can find a map of the Washington State Capitol Campus here.

The House bill (HB 1346) had a hearing in Senate Committee on Early Learning and K-12 Education this week. The Senate bill (SB 5325) has a hearing in the House Education Committee on Monday, and both WSNA and SNOW (School Nurse Organization of Washington) will testify in support.

Plan to attend the hearing in Olympia next week if you are available – and please let Nathasja Skorupa know if you plan to attend by emailing her at nskorupa@wsna.org.

March 20, 2017
1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
House Education Committee
House Hearing Room A
John L. O’Brien Building*
Olympia, WA

*You can find a map of the Washington State Capitol Campus here.

Are you representing nurses and patients at the Town Hall in your legislative district?!

Please do! Nurses are the number one trusted profession, and your voice carries significant weight with your legislators and your community members.

Plan on attending your state legislators’ Town Hall Meeting or Tele Town Hall (conference call). Attending a Town Hall Meeting is a great way to remind your legislators about the issues you care about.

A list of legislator Town Hall Meetings is available on WSNA’s website. Some legislators have not yet scheduled their Town Halls, so if you don’t see your district listed, be sure to check back in about a week!