Washington lawmakers near key deadline

Posted by Joe Adamack on January 26, 2024

Washington state lawmakers wrapped up week three of this year’s session today and are now one-third of the way through as they near a key legislative date next week (in addition to Tuesday’s Washington Credit Union Day at the Capitol, of course). Wednesday January 31st marks the first cutoff date, which means policy bills need to have advanced through a legislative committee in order to remain viable. With some exceptions, if the bill has not been approved by a committee by that date it is considered “dead” for the year.

This deadline significantly narrows down the number of items that lawmakers are working on and helps bring into focus the items they’ll actually vote on as a full Senate or House chamber. With more than 1,000 bills introduced this just year, plus another 2,500 carried over from last year, this will lop off at least half of those items. As a reminder, on average every 3 of 4 bills introduced does NOT actually pass the Legislature.

That means you’ll expect to see a lot of activity if you are one of the nearly 200 people registered for the Washington Credit Union Day at the Capitol!

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Washington Advocacy.