Legislative Session Week 11

In this week’s update:

• Staffing & Rest Breaks Progress
• Senate Budget
• School Nurse Supervision
• Attend Your Legislators’ Town Hall Meetings

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

Both the Staffing and Rest Breaks bills had hearings in the Senate this week, the next stop for these bills after they passed out of the House earlier this session.

Staffing Bill

The Nurse Staffing bill, HB 1714, had a hearing in the Senate Health Care Committee on Thursday this week. Justin Gill, a member of WSNA’s Legislative & Health Policy Council, testified in support of the staffing bill. The Committee unanimously passed the Staffing bill immediately following the hearing.

You can watch Justin's testimony here: http://www.tvw.org/watch/?clie...

Rest Breaks Bill

Strong nurse testimony and good questions from Senators marked Thursday’s hearing on the Rest Breaks Bill, HB 1715. Having passed the House of Representatives earlier this session, the bill was heard in the Senate by the Commerce, Labor & Sports Committee this week.

WSNA member Danielle O’Toole and incoming WSNA Executive Director Sally Watkins joined other nurses in testifying in support of the bill. You can view their testimony here: http://www.tvw.org/watch/?clie...

Senators questioned why hospitals are not already providing uninterrupted meal and rest breaks for nurses.

Senator Bob Hasegawa, in response to hospital testimony against the bill said, “What I heard you say is that these workers don’t deserve breaks…because it’s going to cost too much to replace them while they’re on breaks.”

Senator Steve Conway, in reference to the St. Joe’s Tacoma lawsuit settlement that WSNA won, said: “What I’m interested in here is a solution. We’ve had this problem here for too long… The lawsuits are kind of laying out a model for us.”

The Rest Breaks bill has until Wednesday, March 29th to be voted out of committee – please email the Senate Commerce, Labor & Sports Committee and ask that they pass the bill:

More information about this bill is available on WSNA’s website.

The Majority Coalition Caucus in the Washington State Senate released its 2017-19 budget proposal on Tuesday. Their budget puts $3.6 billion into K-12 Education, which the Washington State Supreme Court ordered the legislature to fully fund in the McCleary decision – but it misses the opportunity to add new funding to support our state’s struggling public health system or to ensure all K-12 students have access to a school nurse.

The Senate Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on the proposed budget on Tuesday afternoon, and WSNA and SNOW testified on their respective budget priorities. Thank you to Lynnette Vehrs for traveling from Spokane to testify on behalf of WSNA, and to Katie Johnson for testifying on behalf of SNOW.

See Lynnette's testimony here.

Next week, the House will release its budget, and then the House and Senate will have until the end of the regular session to negotiate a final budget. If they have not reached agreement on a compromise budget by the last day of session, the Governor can call the legislature into a 30-day special session.

Senate Budget: WSNA Budget Priorities

Public Health Funding: $0
The Senate budget includes no new funding for Foundational Public Health Services.

Health Profession Loan Repayment Program: -$3M
The Senate budget includes a $3 million cut to the Health Profession Loan Repayment program. This program was created to increase providers in under-served areas by providing educational loan repayment for providers working in rural communities or with under-served populations. The $3 million cut reduces the number of available funding awards from 150 to 110.

School Nurse Funding: Maintenance Level
The Senate budget maintains current level funding for school nurses.

The House bill (HB 1346) passed out of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee on March 21 this week, and is now in the Senate Rules Committee. The Senate bill (SB 5325) was heard House Education Committee on Monday, and is scheduled to be voted out of committee next Tuesday.

Some legislators are still holding Town Hall meetings this weekend. Have you looked up 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!