Both houses have been on their respective floors debating and voting on various bills and amendments or in caucus/recess privately debating what bills to bring forth. Lobbyists hover outside each chamber’s doors waiting for requested legislators to come out. A lobbyist’s hope is to either encourage vote on a bill, to influence its content via suggested amendments, or to urge defeat.
The state Legislature is now about 40 percent through this year’s 105-day session and faces its second significant checkpoint on Friday, March 1. That’s the deadline for fiscal committees to send bills on for further action or leave them behind for the year. (Unless, of course, they are deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB)).
The first cut off is occurring as this is being written and next week will be the last cut-off deadline for all fiscal bills. The legislative field will then be winnowed down, and the focus will shift toward floor action and behind the scenes’ discussions over the budget.
Snowmageddon descended on Olympia, and things came to a halt, but now that the worst (we can hope) is over, the process is moving again. Agendas have been lengthened. As cut off dates approach the list of bills for executive action by individual committees grows long. This is a brief summary of bills that are either moving or should be pushed to move. The last section of this report has some suggested actions on bills that need support and advocacy in order to advance before cutoffs.
The session is still flowing toward cut off dates, when an observer can then more closely focus on what would appear to be potential ‘rocks’. Also, energies can be directed more specifically to advance critical bills that have survived the first cut. As a reminder, the cut off dates are: February 22 for policy bills and March 1 for fiscal bills.
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