Published date: February 3, 2025
WSTA Upcoming Events Report
Welcome to the end of week 3 of the 2025 legislative session. With over 84 days remaining and more than 1,460 bills introduced, the policy committees are busy holding hearings and passing bills despite an impending budget crisis. The cutoff for policy committee bills is February 21st.
House and Senate leadership have instructed committee chairs not to overload fiscal committees with unaffordable bills. However, this directive does not appear to be having much impact. Only 4 House members remain from the Great Recession era. Hence, many legislators have not had to face harsh budget constraints.
The Transportation Committees are moving at a slower pace since they do not have the volume of bills we are seeing in the other committees. Perhaps, in these committees, the fiscal reality is more pronounced since, like House Appropriations, and Senate Ways & Means, they are fiscal committees and are already having grim budget talks.
The brief federal grant freeze caught legislator’s attention, and budget talks and bill discussions are occurring with an eye on the other Washington. Those interested in the daily highlights of the session can do so by viewing the Legislative Review on TVW. I recommend Inside Olympia as well.
Friday was the deadline for senators to submit transportation project requests, with the House deadline on February 7th. Without new transportation revenue, these requests may be futile, leading Rep. Fey to potentially introduce next Tuesday his road usage charge (RUC) bill. It will include a 2.6 cent per mile fee that will be for road purposes and subject to the state’s 18th amendment, thus allowing the issuance of bonds specific to transportation. The bill is also expected to have a 10 percent assessment that will fund the multimodal account.
Capital budget member request forms are due February 21st.
Bills of interest for week 4 include:
APWA Upcoming Events Report
Transportation (House) – HHR B and Virtual JLOB – 2/3 @ 4:00pm
HB 1643 – Public Hearing – Supporting transportation system improvements by addressing utility facility removal and relocation responsibilities. (Remote Testimony Available).
Agriculture & Natural Resources (House) – HHR B and Virtual JLOB – 2/4 @ 10:30am
HB 1208 – Exec Session – Extending a program to streamline the environmental permitting process for salmon recovery projects.
Labor & Workplace Standards (House) – HHR D and Virtual JLOB – 2/4 @ 10:30am
HB 1549 – Public Hearing – Modifying the responsible bidder criteria for public works projects. (Remote Testimony Available).
Local Government (House) – HHR E and Virtual JLOB – 2/4 @ 10:30am
HB 1529 – Public Hearing – Increasing opportunities for cities to utilize county resources for road construction and maintenance. (Remote Testimony Available).
Local Government (House) – HHR E and Virtual JLOB – 2/5 @ 8:00am
HB 1458 – Public Hearing – Reducing embodied carbon emissions of buildings and building materials. (Remote Testimony Available).
HB 1305 – Exec Session – Concerning reimbursement by property owners for street, road, and water or sewer projects.
Capital Budget (House) – HHR B and Virtual JLOB – 2/6 @ 1:30pm
HB 1633 – Public Hearing – Concerning prime contractor bidding submission requirements on public works contracts. (Remote Testimony Available).
Labor & Commerce (Senate) – SHR 1 and Virtual J.A. Cherberg – 2/7 @ 8:00am
SB 5061 – Exec Session – Requiring certain wages in public works contracts to be at least the prevailing wage in effect when the work is performed.
Environment, Energy & Technology (Senate) – SHR 1 and Virtual J.A. Cherberg – 2/7 @ 10:30am
SB 5033 – Public Hearing – Concerning sampling or testing of biosolids for PFAS chemicals. (Remote Testimony Available).
Local Government (House) – HHR E and Virtual JLOB – 2/7 @ 10:30am
HB 1529 – Exec Session – Increasing opportunities for cities to utilize county resources for road construction and maintenance.