WSNA in Olympia: 2021 Legislative Session Week 6

In this week’s update:

• • • • • • Week 6 Recap
          • WSNA Priority Bills Move Out of Fiscal Committees
          • Legislator Virtual Town Hall Meetings

Week 6

This week marked the first cutoff of the 2021 legislative session, with bills needing to be voted out of policy committees by Feb. 15. Next Monday, Feb. 22, is the deadline for bills to be voted out of fiscal committees. Several of WSNA’s priority bills were voted out of committee this week.

After the fiscal committee cutoff, the House and Senate will begin a couple weeks of floor action – all bills must be voted out of their chamber of origin by March 9 to stay alive (unless they are deemed “necessary to implement the budget”).

All hearings and meetings with legislators continue to take place over Zoom and are being aired on TVW. WSNA’s 2021 Legislative Priorities are available online.

WSNA Priority Bills Move Out of Fiscal Committees

• Health System Transparency (HB 1272): This bill creates greater financial transparency for health systems. It had a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 18 and was voted out of Committee today.
  
• Worker Protection Act (HB 1076): The Worker Protection Act gives workers a new way to help enforce the standards Washington state has said are important, things like meal and rest breaks, wage theft, and safety violations. This bill had a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 17. It must be voted out of Appropriations before the Feb. 22 fiscal cutoff.
  
• Increasing Worker Protections (HB 1097): This bill creates new protections around retaliation for reporting unsafe workplace conditions. This bill had a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 17 and WSNA Legislative & Health Policy Council Chair Justin Gill testified in support. It was voted out of Appropriations on Feb. 18.

Legislator Virtual Town Hall Meetings

With the legislature meeting remotely, this year’s Legislator Town Hall meetings will also be held remotely. The House Democrats have released their list of Virtual Town Hall meetings and the Senate Democrats now have their Virtual Town Hall meetings available on a calendar. Many of these are coming up quickly – and they are listed by date rather than district.

We have not yet seen the House Republicans or Senate Republicans full list of Virtual Town Hall meetings; however, many are holding them. If you live in a legislative district with Republican legislators, you can sign up for their individual legislative electronic newsletters to receive information like this. You can also sign up for the House Republican Caucus newsletter here or the Senate Republican Caucus newsletter here.

Please look for regular email updates on legislative action as the legislative session gets underway – we look forward to your participation in the process!