Human Rights Task Force tracking page
The House and Senate are adjourned until Monday, March 17.
Current Action Items
Additional action items appear on the Human Rights Task Force tracking page.
SB 5284. Solid waste management. Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Environment & Energy. Sign in PRO before 12:30 pm on Monday, March 17. You may use your Quaker Voice affiliation.
EHB 1217, Rent Stabilization. Scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Housing at 1:30 PM on March 19. Sign in PRO before 12:30 pm on Wednesday, March 19. You may use your Quaker Voice affiliation.
SJM 8004, Concerning Universal Healthcare. Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness at 8:00 AM on March 21. Sign in PRO before 7 am March 21. You may use your Quaker Voice affiliation.
Attend a town hall in the next week or two with your state legislators. Check on their websites for time, date, and location. This is a great time for you to raise your own issues and find out what they did for you in the first half of the session. You may want to bring up progressive revenue, which will be the major issue over the coming weeks for the legislature. Here are some questions you might ask, as suggested by the Balance Our Tax Code Coalition, our major partner on progressive revenue issues.
Now that Crossover Day has passed, any bill that is still showing on its bill information page as in committee or on floor calendar in its original chamber is not going forward this year. If the bill status is “passed chamber,” the bill is headed for a policy committee hearing in the second chamber. You can get a notification about it automatically with the email or RSS notifications options at the right-hand side of its bill information page (the one you land on when you enter its number in the search box on the home screen of leg.wa.gov).
Criminal Justice Priorities
The Criminal Justice Working Group will choose new priority bills in the next few days. Stay tuned.
Economic Justice Priorities
HB 1217. Improving Housing Stability
This bill limits the size of rent and fee increases, requires advance notice of increases, and establishes a landlord resource center among other provisions to address the rental crisis in Washington. Nearly 50 percent of households in Washington now spend more than 30% of household income on rent, constricting household funds available for food, education, healthcare and transportation. Arguments pro and con are summarized in the Bill Report, pages 6-9.
- Current status:
- House: HB 1217 has now passed in the House and is headed to the Senate.
- Scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Housing at 1:30 PM on March 19. Sign in PRO before 12:30 pm on Wednesday, March 19. If you have a personal story to tell, sign in to testify in person or submit written testimony.
- Senate companion SB 2222 will not move further. The House version is now the vehicle.
SJM 8004 Concerning Universal Healthcare
This is a letter Washington to the U.S. Congress asking for a waiver to pursue our own universal healthcare plan. The previous priority bills, HB 1445/ SB 5233 Developing Washington State Health Trust, are not moving forward this year.
- Current Status: SJM 8004 passed the Senate.
- Hearing scheduled for March 21. Sign in PRO before 7 am March 21. If you have a personal story to tell, sign in to testify in person or submit written testimony.
To be chosen: A progressive revenue bill
A third Economic Justice priority will be on progressive revenue. Several approaches are under development and expected to be submitted soon. The first version of the state budget shows a significant deficit and major cuts to important programs. New revenue is needed. For that revenue to be “progressive,” the targeted sources need to be the state’s wealthiest individuals or companies. The Washington state constitution forbids a progressive income tax, that is, one where rich people pay higher rates that poor people. Sigh.
Environmental Stewardship Priorities
SB 5284: Improving Washington’s Solid Waste Management Outcomes
This bill would reduce plastic waste by requiring producers of packaging to create a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) under supervision of the Department of Ecology. PROs are effective because they make producers of packaging responsible for reducing the amount of packaging produced and increasing the amount being reused, composted, or recycled. Residential recycling collection would be provided wherever residential garbage is collected. See the fact sheet here.
- Current status
- Senate SB 5284 — This bill has passed the Senate and is now making its way through the House.
- Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Environment & Energy. Sign in PRO before 12:30 pm on Monday, March 17. If you have a personal story to tell, sign in to testify in person or submit written testimony.
- Companion bill House HB 1150 — Passed out of House Environment and Energy on Feb 11 and by Appropriations on February 26. This bill will stay on hold for this session; the Senate bill is now the vehicle.
- Senate SB 5284 — This bill has passed the Senate and is now making its way through the House.
HB 1483: Right to Repair
The Right to Repair bill requires manufacturers of digital electronics to make repair information, parts, and tools available to independent repair businesses and makes it possible to salvage working parts from nonfunctional tech. It would reduce e-waste by allowing users to repair and extend the lives of their computers, tablets, cellphones, and appliances. Consumer costs would go down; used electronics would go to people who need them. Manufacturing of new products, with associated greenhouse gas emissions and resource extraction, would be reduced. See the factsheet here.
- Current status
- House HB 1483 — Passed by the House on March 4. Referred to Senate Environment, Energy, and Technology
- Senate companion — SB 5423 will not be moving forward this session. The House version has become the vehicle.
NOT MOVING FORWARD THIS YEAR [listed in order of bill numbers]
HB 1125: Judicial Discretion Act
This bill would allow incarcerated persons who have already served a long time to petition for a second look, with a re-sentence at the discretion of the original sentencing court.
- Final status: The bill was not moved to a vote on the House floor. Next session, it will be reassigned to a policy committee for a new hearing.
HB 1178: Unstacking Sentencing Enhancements
Mandatory enhancements to base sentences can add many years in prison and are typically stacked on top of each other. HB 1178 provides judicial discretion to serve enhancements concurrently. It eliminates the sentencing enhancement for drug violations committed in protected zones. These provisions would greatly reduce racial inequity.
- Final status: The bill was not moved to a vote on the House floor. Next session, it will be reassigned to a policy committee for a new hearing.
HB 1274: Resentencing without Juvenile Offenses
For a person being sentenced today, certain specified previous convictions as a juvenile are not counted (scored) in determining the length of sentence. HB 1274 would make this procedure retroactive, by reducing sentences for persons already incarcerated, by not counting offenses as a juvenile that are no longer being scored for new convictions.
- Final status: The bill was not moved to a vote on the House floor. Next session, it will be reassigned to a policy committee for a new hearing.
HB 1380 Objectively Reasonable Regulation of Use of Public Property
This bill acknowledges that a growing number of Washington state residents face displacement due to lack of affordable housing. Currently there is a “patchwork of legislation” regulating the use of public land. This legislation requires that regulation of the act of sitting, sleeping, or keeping warm, though not with the use of fire, on public land open to the public be objectively reasonable as to time, place and manner and consider health and safety of all citizens. This legislation would allow individuals to sue municipalities over restricting tent encampments. Arguments pro and con are summarized in the Bill Report, pages 3-5.
- Final status: The bill was not moved to a vote on the House floor. Next session, it will be reassigned to a policy committee for a new hearing.
HB 1445/ SB 5233 Developing Washington State Health Trust
The Health Trust would ensure that all Washington residents could enroll in “nonprofit health insurance providing an essential set of health benefits including dental, vision, mental health and pharmacy. Currently many Washington residents are either uninsured or have high co-payments and deductibles leading to increased debt due to medical expenses. The health plan administered by the Washington Health Trust would correct some of the inequities of the most vulnerable, including the unhoused, the uninsured and the unemployed.
- Final status. Was not heard in its policy committee in either House or Senate.
SB 5066 / HB 1056: AG Investigations of Law Enforcement Agencies
SB 5066 grants authority to the WA State Attorney General (AG) to investigate systemic violations of the state constitution and laws by local law enforcement agencies and sue them. Currently, this investigative authority is limited to the federal Dept. of Justice, which lacks the time and resources to do this on the local level. Many other states have provided their attorneys general with this authority.
- Final status:
- Senate — passed out of Senate Law & Justice Feb 6. Referred to Senate Ways and Means. It was scheduled for executive action on Friday, February 28, but no action was taken. The bill will not move forward this year.
- House — Public hearing in House Civil Rights & Judiciary on Feb 11. Was scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary but it was removed from the schedule. This version of the bill will not be going forward this year.