By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Since the Legislature adjourned at the end of April, we are in the time period known as interim where the focus has shifted to agency implementation of legislation, primarily taskforces and work groups established by the legislature. The Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) is actively engaged in the following work groups: Snake River Dams ... Read More »
From NW News Network Washington lawmakers adjourned at midnight Sunday after majority Democrats approved an initiative to restore affirmative action and passed a $52.4 billion, two-year state operating budget. The budget relies on an array of tax increases, including on businesses and real estate transactions, but doesn’t impose a new capital gains tax as had been proposed. Read the rest ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Tuesday marked the 100th day of the 2019 Legislative Session. Another important legislative deadline occurred last week, in which all bills must have passed out of both chambers to remain “alive,” unless they are deemed necessary to implement the budget. The 2019 Legislative Session is scheduled to end on April 28. Over the next five days, ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Yesterday was day 93 of the 2019 Legislative Session, and the end of the regular session is quickly approaching. The fiscal cutoff (where opposite chamber bills needed to be voted out of committee to remain alive) came on April 9, and since then, legislators have been on the floor trying to pass opposite chamber bills ... Read More »
From Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Yesterday was day 86 of the 2019 Legislative Session. It was the opposite chamber fiscal deadline, where bills had to pass out of the fiscal committees of the opposite chamber unless necessary to implement the budget. Starting today, we move to floor action until the next cutoff deadline which is April 17 at 5 p.m. to ... Read More »
From Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Monday marked the 79th day of the 2019 Legislative Session. The next legislative deadline is April 3 when all bills must pass out of the opposite chamber’s policy committees to remain alive, unless they are necessary to implement the budget. Both chambers can now begin final budget negotiations after Senate Democrats released their budget plan last ... Read More »
From Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Yesterday was the 71st day of the 2019 Legislative Session. The next major deadline is Wednesday, April 3. That is the opposite chamber policy cutoff, where policy bills from the opposite chamber have to be voted out of policy committee to stay alive. One of the primary tasks of legislators during a long session (odd years) ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist March 19 marked the 64th day of the 2019 Legislative Session. On March 13, the Legislature reached a milestone—the deadline to pass bills out of the house of origin. Bills that did not meet that deadline are ineligible to move forward this year unless considered necessary to implement the budget. It is important to note, ... Read More »
From the Capital Press The Seattle Democrat who introduced a bill that linked Washington farmers to slavery said Friday she was surprised by the strong negative reaction. Sen. Rebecca Saldana said she was tying to draw attention to the worldwide problem of human trafficking. Read the rest of the article here. Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Yesterday was day 51 of the 2019 Legislative Session. This past Friday, March 1, was the fiscal committee cutoff, the deadline by which nonbudget bills had to be passed out of fiscal committees in order to remain alive. Now that the deadline has passed, most committees will not meet for the next week and a ... Read More »
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