Rent cap, parents rights survive key cutoff deadline in WA Legislature

With lawmakers in Olympia just past the halfway point of this year’s legislative session, scores of policy proposals have been left behind, while conversations about the budget are on the brink of taking center stage.

After a critical cutoff deadline this week, Democrats told reporters Thursday that they’re pleased with the work they’ve put in on several issues so far, from special education funding to housing issues. They still won’t talk in much detail about new tax proposals, but they are planning to unveil their budget plans later this month.

Republicans meanwhile, say they would have liked to see more housing bills move forward. Still, they say they’re pleased that some of the more controversial proposals from their Democratic colleagues didn’t make it out of the first half of session, and say they’ll push back against tax increases as budget negotiations heat up.

For now, here’s a run-through of some major bills that are still moving, and others that aren’t.

Legislation that made it past cutoff

Among the housing bills that are still alive is House Bill 1217, which would cap annual rent increases. Though the original version of this year’s bill covered a lot of ground for renters, Democrats scaled the bill back before it passed the House with a 7% cap on annual rent hikes intact.

But the proposal needs additional changes to win over more Democratic senators, who now have the bill in their hands, said Senate Majority Leader Jaime Pedersen (D-Seattle).

“There’s still going to be more work to do to get to a bill that will have majority support in the Senate,” Pedersen told reporters Thursday.

Republicans, who remain adamantly opposed to the concept of HB 1217 at its core, say if Democrats are going to pass it, they want to make sure local jurisdictions like cities and counties can’t layer their own rent limits on top of whatever the Legislature might approve. The bill has a hearing in the Senate Housing committee next week.

Other housing bills, including a proposal to boost density in developed areas by splitting housing lots (HB 1096) also passed the House with bipartisan support – it now heads to the Senate, where it met its demise last year. Another proposal aimed at boosting housing development near transit stops (HB 1491) and legislation to create new building codes for kit homes (SB 5552) are also still making progress.

On education spending, lawmakers are moving forward with some major new money for special education. But on policy, the debate over “parents rights” shows no signs of slowing down, as Republicans and Democrats remain worlds apart on how the state should handle the parents’ rights initiative that lawmakers enacted last year. Democrats want to change the law to align it with other state regulations and make some additions; Republicans want them to leave it alone.

The Senate sent its version of the parents rights bill, SB 5181, to their House counterparts early last month. The House worked into the wee hours of the morning Thursday to send its version of the changes, HB 1296, over to the Senate. House Speaker Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma) told reporters Thursday that there is “uber agreement” on the proposal between the majority Democrats in each chamber. But the House version of the bill goes a bit further than the Senate bill, adding a list of student rights into state law, in addition to the revisions of the original parents rights provisions. Lawmakers in both chambers will have to work out those differences in the coming weeks.

Other bills, like a controversial proposal to require people to get a permit to buy a gun (HB 1163) and more restrictions on where someone can openly carry a weapon (SB 5098) are also still being considered.

And after a long debate last week, House Bill 1531 is also still moving forward. That bill would require any public health orders or regulations from the state aimed at preventing communicable diseases – things like avian flu, sexually transmitted diseases, or COVID-19 – to be based on “the best available science.” The bill would also prohibit local governments from passing their own policies to undermine or ignore those types of measures.

A couple of ideas supported by Gov. Bob Ferguson are making progress too, including HB 2015, which would provide grant funding for local cities, counties, and tribes to hire more police. It’s not the bill Republicans had hoped would move forward – Democrats are plowing ahead with a measure from their own Rep. Debra Entenman (D-Kent), instead of the Republican versions of the proposal – but Republicans said Thursday they remain committed to working on the idea.

Ideas that are done for the year

The governor didn’t get everything on his wishlist. Legislative leaders made clear in recent weeks that a proposal to expand free school meals to all students won’t be making it to the finish line this year. Despite widespread support for the proposal, Democratic leaders have said that as they grapple with a massive budget gap this year, they’re more focused on other priorities in education spending, like special education and materials, supplies and operating costs.

A bill to grant more power to lawmakers – and limit the governor’s powers – during state emergencies (SB 5434) also died this week, despite an endorsement from the governor’s office and widespread interest in the bill from Republicans. Democrats made some changes to the emergency powers bill before it was approved in a Senate committee, which turned out to be the death knell for this year’s proposal.

Despite the bill dying, the governor has promised to implement some of the policy anyway. In a statement around the time the bill was abandoned, Ferguson said as governor, he will terminate any emergency order he issues after 60 days if three legislative leaders from the four caucuses ask him to. He added that if he issues an emergency declaration for more than 120 days while lawmakers are not in session, he’ll call a special session for them to weigh in.

Lawmakers also won’t move forward with another piece of legislation, SB 5067, to lower the legal threshold for charging someone for drunk driving from the current standard at .08 blood-alcohol content down to .05.

Sen. John Lovick (D-Mill Creek), the sponsor of SB 5067, said the legislation requires a “culture change” that the state is just not ready for yet. According to state data, roughly half of all deadly crashes on Washington roads involve an impaired driver. And although only one other state in the U.S. has a BAC of .05, several countries across the world have the lower limit. Lovick has promised to try again with the bill next session.

Republicans meanwhile have been celebrating the demise of bills like HB 1125, which would have given judges the ability to review long prison sentences and possibly shorten them, as well as SB 5382, which they called the “initiative killer.” The latter proposal wouldn’t have “killed” initiatives, but it would have added more requirements to verify that people who sign petitions in support of initiative measures actually live and vote in Washington.

Critics of that legislation – which included Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs – said it would be a costly change to make, requiring more funding to verify signatures on initiative petitions. People who like and use the initiative process also said it could have had a chilling effect on signature gatherers.

The next cutoff deadline for policy bills is April 2.