These bills still have a chance as Washington lawmakers close the first half of 2022 session

It's crunch time in Olympia where lawmakers are moving forward with bills that survived their committee deadlines last week.

Officials are now scrambling to save non-budget bills from a similar fate this week; Tuesday is the deadline for those bills to pass out of their chamber of origin.

Among the items advancing so far:

• a bill to expand access to free meals for school children
• funding for seismic upgrades to schools
• a measure to help farmers following natural disasters
• an effort to conserve and restore kelp forests in marine ecosystems
• and a bill to ensure highway rest areas remain open to the public.

Several big-ticket items are on track, too, reviving some familiar partisan divides.

DEFINE 'HIGH-CAPACITY'

It's legal to sell high-capacity gun magazines in Washington state, but that could come to an end this session. Senate Bill 5078 would prohibit the sale of gun magazines that hold 10 or more rounds of ammo; the bill would not make it a violation to own a high-capacity magazine.

It's not the first time this has been proposed. The idea has come up for six years in a row now. Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat has been advocating for the bill all along. He argues this would be an effective tool against mass shootings. Proponents say the moment a shooter has to reload may be the moment when they can be stopped.

So, why has it never been approved?

Gun rights advocates say the bill would infringe on Washingtonians' Second Amendment rights. Technically speaking, they dispute labeling anything more than 10 rounds "high-capacity." They say gun magazine with as many as 17 rounds are actually standard.

Last week, the Senate approved the measure, sending it to the House of Representatives. House Democrats tried but failed to advance the proposal in 2020, so there's no question it has support in that chamber, too.

Yet it's fate is still unclear, says KUOW Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins.

One reason for that is it's an election year and a controversial measure like this could be seen as a liability for some Democrats who are already facing tough challenges.

Asked about the bill's prospects in that context, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins says her caucus hasn't had a chance to discuss the bill, "but I don't actually think gun safety is — it's never a harmful year to do bills on gun safety."

Whether voters agree won't be clear until after Governor Jay Inslee signs the bill into law — if he does — and election results are tallied in November.

"ROLLING BACK MOVES NOBODY FORWARD"

The Senate has also advanced a bill that would essentially make it easier for police officers to chase suspects and provide more leeway to use force to detain people.

Just last year, Democrats passed more than a dozen sweeping police accountability measures meant to save lives by changing the rules of engagement for police.

On a grander scale, lawmakers hoped the bills would go a long way toward repairing the public's trust in law enforcement.

Some law enforcement agencies say the bills were too restrictive, though. They stopped responding to some calls, leading Democrats to return this year to clarify and "rebalance" the law.

Senate Bill 5919 would allow police to chase suspects when they have "reasonable suspicion" as opposed to the higher standard of "probable cause." It would also expand situations in which officers may use physical force to prevent a suspect who has been detained from getting away.

Families of police violence supported Democrats' reform efforts in 2021, and Jenkins says they're not happy with these changes.

Some rallied at the Capitol last week in protest, accusing law enforcement officials of politicizing the issue and asking lawmakers to leave the reforms as they are.

Fred Thomas was among them. His son Leonard Thomas was killed by a Pierce County SWAT team in 2013, and he now co-chairs the advisory board for the state's new Office of Independent Investigations.

"We believe that these laws that are in place now will keep both police and communities safer," Thomas said at the Capitol. "One thing I can say for certain: Rolling back moves nobody forward."

Nonetheless, the Senate approved SB 5919, sending it to the House to decide its fate.

DOING MORE TO FIND MISSING INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people, especially women and girls, and the many unsolved cases have been getting more official attention in recent years. House Bill 1725 aims to turn that broad attention into something more immediate as cases come up.

The bill would require the Washington State Patrol to establish an alert system similar to an Amber Alert for a suspected child abduction or a Silver Alert for a missing person 60 or older.

If an Indigenous person went missing, under HB 1725, alerts would be posted to electronic highway signs with a description of the missing person. Alerts would also be sent to radio and TV stations as well as social media.

The House unanimously approved the bill, which now goes to the Senate.

WHERE THE BUDGET HITS THE ROAD

Democrats want $16 billion to fund a 16-year transportation package.

The package, dubbed Move Ahead Washington, would fund a range of highway, public transit, rail, bike trail and ferry construction across the state.

How do they propose to do that?

Not by raising the gas tax for Washington drivers; Democrats want to include an "exported fuel tax" on gasoline and diesel fuel destined for Oregon, Idaho and Alaska instead. There would be several license-fee hikes for Washington residents, though.

The package also would dip into the state operating budget surplus — which is unusual — and calls for federal infrastructure money plus revenue from carbon emissions fees.

Democrats are pushing this forward with Gov. Inslee's blessing but without input from minority Republicans.

In any other short election-year session, Jenkins says this package may be worthy of skepticism. This year, though, Democrats have the numbers to approve it without a single Republican vote.