We’re starting to move out of the first phase of session, transitioning from the relative peace of policy committee hearings into the mucky negotiating process of which bills get the privilege of being brought to the floor for a broader discussion and vote. Consequently, there are some grumpy folks in Olympia – particularly the Democratic budget writers, who are now faced with some really tough funding decisions over the next few weeks. This has translated into an overall general feeling of frustration among legislators, and we can expect those frustrations to boil over when negotiating with lobbyists and stakeholders. The more moderate dems – those who have been around long enough to remember when the House and Senate were almost evenly split between R’s and D’s  – are still interacting with stakeholders over their issues. But the power is in the hands of the progressive wing of the party, and it will be fascinating to see how leadership navigates these brackish waters.  

Policy Committee cutoff is coming up in one week, and if bills are not exec’d out of those committees before end of day on Friday, they’re considered “dead” until next year’s short session (60 days, vs the 105 in the first year of the 69th biennial legislative session).

Fiscal cutoff is Thursday of the following week, and once we get past that, all of the action will be on the floor of both the House and Senate.

This is where it’ll get really interesting – the bills that passed through the policy and fiscal committees are put into a holding pattern in what’s known as the Rules Committee, where leadership negotiates on amendments to bills and ultimately decides whether they have the votes to pass the bill off of the floor. If they determine that a bill doesn’t have the votes, it won’t get pulled out of Rules at all. Until next year, these bills will exist in what’s known as the “X files” list and upon commencement of next year’s session, they will either remain in Rules until floor action or get referred back to the relevant policy committee for retooling. I know that’s a lot to parse through, but I’ll keep breaking it down with examples as we move forward. 

I’ll be back in your inbox at the end of next week to document the tenor of the legislature – but until then, feel free to reach out with any questions!