LEGISLATURE 2023-24: The Legislative Session Begins on Jan 8, 2024 (POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Political Correspondent posts on Substack about Washington State politics, mostly at the legislative level, from a Republican point of view. Subscribe at this link.

How Bills Become Laws – Process Overview

Washington’s two-year cycles

As I stated in the last newsletter, the legislative sessions in WA State are two-year cycles. Here’s a short reminder. The first year, which is the long session, always takes place in odd-numbered years and is primarily focused on the budget. Hundreds of other bills are considered and passed, but the budget is the critical legislation. If a budget doesn’t pass, the government will shut down at the end of the fiscal year in July.

The second year, which takes place on even numbered years, is shorter in duration. While there is usually a small supplemental budget bill passed, the short session focuses on other policies. A bill that is considered in the long session but didn’t pass will come back alive in the second session to be considered further. 

After the short session, all bills that did not pass during the biennium are dead. A lot of people will breathe a sigh of relief when a bill they dislike finally dies. But that is never the end of the story. To be considered again, a new bill must be drafted – with a new bill number – the next year during the first session of the next biennium. For bills that make substantive changes to the law, it often takes many biennia, and many versions of the bill, to pass. That is why you must always be vigilant.

What happens after a bill is “dropped”

After a bill is drafted and entered into the system (the term is “dropped”), a number is assigned to it. All bills sponsored by Representatives are House Bills (HB) and are given numbers in the 1000-2000 range. 

The bills introduced by Senators are Senate Bills (SB) and are given numbers in the 5000 – 6000 range. Each bill must go through a committee hearing in the chamber where it was introduced. 

If the bill passes out of committee, it then goes to the floor of that chamber for a vote. Then it goes through the same process in the other chamber. Only when it successfully passes both chambers does it go to the Governor’s desk for a signature. 

I will cover each step in later newsletters, along with how to track the bills through the steps and when the timing is best for contacting your legislators about specific bills. If you want to learn more, please sign up for the Influencing Olympia class here.

Session starts January 8th, 2024

The next legislative session will begin on January 8, 2024. Because it’s an even-numbered year, all bills that have been introduced since January of 2023 are still alive except, of course, those that passed and were signed into law during 2023. More bills have been written and introduced since then, and even more will be written before the close of session on March 7, 2024. Here are a few examples of bills that did not pass in 2023 but are still able to be considered:

Bills (still alive) that would impact citizens negatively:

SB 5193
2A bill that would ban modern sporting rifles and other semi-automatic firearms.

SB 1045
Establish a Basic Income program – redistribution of wealth

SB 5270
Prohibits Dept. of Corrections from cooperating with ICE when a criminal is released from prison.

Bills (still alive) that would have a positive impact:

SB 5332
Banning homeless camps near schools

1704
Reduce the state sales and use tax rate

1535
Allow the Legislature to have more say in the governor’s emergency declarations

What’s next in my future posts?

As we move through the next few weeks, you will learn how to get further information about these and other bills. The more you learn about this process, the more you will be able to persuade those around you when it comes to elections. 

The best way to solve our issues in this state is to have a Republican majority. But if people look around at the bad things that are happening and just blame the government in general, they will never know that there is a huge difference between the two parties and what they are trying to accomplish. By tracking bills, understanding the damaging or  positive impact they have and knowing who is sponsoring them, you will be able to influence more than just Olympia – you will be able to influence your neighbors, as well.

More resources: 

Link to a list of House bills from 2023 – Here

Crosscut Bill Tracker – Here