Published date: March 18, 2025

Welcome to Week 10

Welcome to week 10 of the legislative session.  They just finished up floor action on Wednesday (House went into early Thursday morning), and the Legislature is back to committee action; the policy committees have until April 2^nd to hear bills from the other chamber, while the fiscal committees have until April 8^th.

The House passed 262 bills to the Senate’s 273, and they have a little over two weeks to hold hearings on those bills.  Those bills that did not survive the chamber of origin cutoff include:

• HB 1145, Concerning county public works reporting requirements.
• HB 1441, Authorizing repair and replace public works broadband projects.
• HB 1256, Concerning products manufactured in the United States for the purposes of public works projects.
• HB 1387/SB 5293, Concerning the prevailing wages on public works.
• HB 1529, Increasing opportunities for cities to utilize county resources for road construction and maintenance.
• HB 1726, Prioritizing lumber procured from Washington state lumber mills for the purpose of public works projects.
• HB 1921/SB 5726, Road Usage Charge.
• HB 1966, Concerning public works contracting.
• SB 5176, Implementing prompt pay recommendations from the capital projects advisory review board.
• SB 5220, Modifying small works roster requirements for cities.
• HB 1937/SB 5712, Establishing a presumption of compliance for entities covered under the state’s industrial stormwater general permit under certain circumstances.

A few bills that survived include:

• HB 1054, Concerning county ferry maintenance and repair contracts.
• HB 1461, Concerning contracts for materials or work required by joint operating agencies.
• HB 1537, Expanding access to funding from the multiuse roadway safety account for eligible cities and for the Washington state departments of natural resources and fish and wildlife for maintenance and guidance of motorized recreation on green dot roads
• HB 1633, Concerning prime contractor bidding submission requirements on public works contracts.
• HB 1733, Increasing the reimbursement cap for moving and relocation expenses incurred by persons affected by agency displacements.
• HB 1821, Expanding the definition of “interested party” for the purposes of prevailing wage laws
• HB 1902, Convening a work group regarding the streamlining of permitting for transportation projects.
• HB 1967, Modifying bonding requirements in the design portion of design-build public works projects
• HB 1970, Concerning state highway construction project alternative contracting procedures.
• SB 5061, Requiring certain wages in public works contracts to be at least the prevailing wage in effect when the work is performed.
• SB 5215, Concerning debris escaping from vehicles on public highways.
• SB 5627, Improving safe excavation practices and preventing damage to underground utilities.
• SB 5690, Concerning utility relocation.

The revenue forecast will be released on March 18^th and is expected to be slightly up, but not enough to solve their budget shortfalls. The various budget proposals (operating, transportation, and capital) will be unveiled by their respective committees on March 24^th.  Their committees will hold hearings and likely pass them from their respective chambers the following Saturday, March 29^th.   Once each chamber passes its version of the budgets, they will start negotiating in earnest, House versus Senate, in hopes of crafting budgets with enough votes to pass both chambers.  They have until the scheduled end of the session, April 27^th, to do that.

Here are some committee hearings of interest in Week 10:

Transportation (Senate) – SHR 1 and Virtual J.A. Cherberg – 3/17 @ 4:00pm

• ESHB 1923 – Public Hearing – Increasing the availability of passenger-only ferries by establishing the mosquito fleet act. (Remote Testimony Available).

State Government & Tribal Relations (House) – HHR E and Virtual JLOB – 3/18 @ 1:30pm

• SB 5102 – Public Hearing – Establishing a public records exemption for the proprietary information of public risk pools. (Remote Testimony Available).

Environment, Energy & Technology (Senate) – SHR 1 and Virtual J.A. Cherberg – 3/19 @ 8:00am

• 2SHB 1409 – Public Hearing – Concerning the clean fuels program. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Medium)
  E2SHB 1912 – Public Hearing – Concerning the exemption for fuels used for agricultural purposes in the climate commitment act. (Remote Testimony Available).

Housing (Senate) – SHR 4 and Virtual JACB – 3/19 @ 1:30pm

• 3SHB 1491 – Exec Session – Promoting transit-oriented housing development.

Transportation (Senate) – SHR 1 and Virtual J.A. Cherberg – 3/20 @ 4:00pm

• SHB 1418 – Public Hearing – Adding two voting members that are transit users to the governing body of public transportation benefit areas. (Remote Testimony Available).
  SHB 1980 – Public Hearing – Allowing certain private employer transportation services to use certain public transportation facilities. (Remote Testimony Available).

Environment, Energy & Technology (Senate) – SHR 1 and Virtual J.A. Cherberg – 3/21 @ 10:30am

• EHB 1814 – Public Hearing – Streamlining certain decisions pertaining to the development or extension of a trail or path from the state environmental policy act. (Remote Testimony Available).

Local Government (House) – HHR E and Virtual JLOB – 3/21 @ 10:30am

• ESSB 5184 – Exec Session – Concerning minimum parking requirements.