Hello ERW family,
It is official, we are 1/3 through the 2025 legislative session! Friday was also the first policy cut-off, meaning that all bills that were not voted on in the policy committees are considered “dead” for this session. Attention is now focused on the various fiscal committees where bills need to be heard and voted on by the February 28th cut-off.
The House Democrats on Thursday released a summary of former Governor Inslee’s Book One budget, this is the proposal that was not made public in December which shows what a balanced budget would look like without any revenue. The release of this document by the House Democrats prior to any budget action by the legislature could be an indication that budget writers are hoping to show the consequence of having to deeply cut programs in anticipation of their caucus bringing forward new revenue sources. We anticipate that both the House and the Senate will be releasing their budget proposal after the upcoming revenue forecast which is scheduled to be held on March 18th.You can find the detailed explanation from the House Dems HERE
Priority Bill Action This Week:
- The Senate Health Care Committee took executive action on SB 5121, regarding health plan coverage of fertility-related services and referred the bill to the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The House companion, HB 1129, is currently awaiting a hearing in House Appropriations.
- Representative Macri (D-43) introduced HB 1971, concerning access to prescription hormone therapy. The bill directs health plans to provide coverage up to 12 months. HB 1971 was heard on Tuesday (2/28) in the House Health Care Committee and was executed out on Friday (2/28) with a 11-7 vote.
- Governor Ferguson held his first press conference in response to the actions being taken by the new federal administration. He spoke firmly about our state’s commitment to protecting our LGBTQ+ community members. You can watch that press conference here. Governor Bob Ferguson Press Conference – TVW
- Speaking of which, the Attorney General, Nick Brown, was successful in his attempt on pausing the Trump administrations ban on gender affirming care for youth. So while the courts are deciding on whether these executive orders are legal or not, youth can still legally access this care across the country! You can find the Seattle Times article HERE
There are still so many positive things happening in Olympia to focus on, and break up so many of these negative messages we are getting from the federal government. These things are still moving our community forward in Washington, and that is a big deal. Our Newly elected Attorney General is also standing with the LGBTQ+ community in his first month of taking office. I remember back on the campaign trail I had the opportunity to ask Nick about his commitment to stand up for this community. He stated not only will he do so, but was able to express a deep understanding of our issues. It’s times like this I’m very happy of our endorsement for him.
Now that the first policy cutoff is behind us, it’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” while we are waiting for these bills to get hearings and voted out of the fiscal committees. Should there be any needed action on signing in on bills, or reaching out to folks asking to get bills passed, we will be sure to let you know.
Our bill tracker moving forward will focus on the bills that are still moving. Just as a friendly reminder all of the anti-LGBTQ bills that were introduced are OFFICIALLY DEAD. We no longer have to worry about those terrible bills this session, and can just focus on the good work moving forward.
You can find the latest version of the bill tracker here: Week 6 bill tracker.docx
I’ll update again next week!
Jarel Sanders- Board Chair
