Week Six
Week six is now complete and the Legislature continues to move through the virtual legislative process. Monday was the policy committee cutoff, meaning bills must have been voted out of their policy committees in order to stay alive this session. The next deadline is the fiscal committee cutoff on Monday, February 22nd. This is where all bills with fiscal impacts must be voted out of their respective fiscal committees to stay alive. All bills deemed necessary to implement the budget are not subject to cutoffs. Following the Monday fiscal cutoff legislators will primarily spend the next two weeks on the floor voting on bills until the March 9th House of Origin deadline.
On Monday Senate and House Democratic leadership held a press conference where they discussed the virtual session and answered questions from the media. Speaker Laurie Jinkins mentioned that this year there have been about half of the number of bills introduced compared to a normal session and that those bills are primarily focused on the key priorities of the legislature; covid-19 relief, budget, equity/police reform, and climate change. Rep. Sullivan stated that the House plans to schedule around 15 bills per day for floor action over the next two weeks.
The priority of the legislature continues to be COVID-19 relief and recovery. On Friday Governor Inslee signed HB 1368, which appropriates $2.2 billion in federal funding that has been allocated to states in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This bill included $714 million in assistance for K-12 schools and $618 million for public health’s response to COVID, including testing, investigation and contact tracing; and funding for vaccination efforts. The legislation takes effect immediately.
This week House Republicans released their version of the 2021-2023 budget. Their proposal does not include any new taxes and includes roughly $608M in fund transfers and other revenue assumptions. The proposal also appropriates $1.8B from the state’s rainy-day fund to pay for a series of one-time, COVID-19 related expenses. You can read more about their proposal here. We should see the House and Senate Democratic budget proposals around mid-March.
Several revenue proposals continue to move through the legislative process and it is unclear at this point which ones will rise to the top. Senator June Robinson’s capital gains tax proposal, SB 5096, was voted out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday and could potentially see action in the coming weeks.
Important Dates:
Feb 15 – House of Origin Policy Cutoff
Feb 22 – House of Origin Fiscal Cutoff
March 9 – House of Origin Floor Cutoff
March 26 – Opposite House Policy Cutoff
April 2 – Opposite House Fiscal Cutoff April 11 – Opposite House Floor Cutoff April 25 – Sine Die
The low carbon fuel standard legislation from Representative Fitzgibbon, HB 1091, has continued to move through the House. A hearing in the House Transportation committee was held on Tuesday, February 16th, with executive session on Friday, February 19th with a do pass recommendation. Additionally, the Senate Environment & Energy committee held a work session on Friday, February 19th (linked here) regarding the updated draft of Senator Carlyle’s Cap & Invest bill, SB 5126.
Decarbonization of buildings legislation brought forth by Representative Ramel (HB 1084) had a hearing in the House Appropriations committee on Wednesday, February 17th. We also continue to monitor the HEAL Act legislation from Senator Saldana concerning implementing recommendations from the environmental justice task force. A hearing was held on Wednesday in the Senate Ways & Means committee, with executive action taken on Friday with a do pass recommendation given.
Representative Lekanoff introduced a green bonds bill last week, HB 1513. This proposal aims to reduce carbon emissions by levying a carbon pollution tax. While we are not yet sure what will happen with this legislation, we will continue to track.
The House Capital Budget committee heard HB 1280 on Wednesday, February 17th followed by executive action on Friday the 19th. This legislation from Representative Ramel would set requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in public facilities design.
Also moving through the House is HB 1393. Following executive action taken on this proposal last week, this legislation related to delaying the stewardship plan and annual report for solar panel manufacturers has moved to the House Rules committee where it can be pulled to the floor at any time for a vote.
Clean Tech Alliance Bill Status & Upcoming Events Report
Upcoming Events
Appropriations (House) – Virtual, – 2/22 @ 9:00am
- SHB 1084 – Exec Session – Reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions by achieving greater decarbonization of residential and commercial buildings.
Transportation (House) – Virtual, – 2/22 @ 1:30pm
- HB 1204 – Exec Session – Concerning the electrification of transportation.
Environment, Energy & Technology (Senate) – Virtual, – 2/25 @ 8:00am
- SB 5126 – Exec Session – Concerning the Washington climate commitment act.
| Bill # | Abbrev. Title | Short Description | Status | Sponsor |
| HB 1036 | Transportation fuel/carbon | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuel. | H Env & Energy | Fitzgibbon |
| HB 1046 | Community solar programs | Concerning community solar programs. | H Env & Energy | Bateman |
| 2SHB 1050 | Fluorinated gases | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fluorinated gases. | H 2nd Reading | Fitzgibbon |
| HB 1080 (SB 5083) | Capital budget 2021-2023 | Concerning the capital budget. | H Cap Budget | Tharinger |
| HB 1081 (SB 5084) | State gen. obligation bonds | Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts. | H Cap Budget | Tharinger |
| SHB 1084 (SB 5093) | Building decarbonization | Reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions by achieving greater decarbonization of residential and commercial buildings. | H Approps | Ramel |
| 2SHB 1091 (SB 5231) | Transportation fuel/carbon | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuel. | H Exec Action | Fitzgibbon |
| HB 1093 (SB 5091) | Operating budget, 2nd supp. | Making 2019-2021 fiscal biennium second supplemental operating appropriations. | H Approps | Ormsby |
| HB 1094 (SB 5092) | Operating budget 2021-2023 | Making 2021-2023 fiscal biennium operating appropriations. | H Approps | Ormsby |
| SHB 1103 (SB 5366) | Building materials | Improving environmental and social outcomes with the production of building materials. | H Approps | Duerr |
| HB 1125 | Energy investments | Incentivizing investment in energy conservation and efficiency measures and expanding opportunities for energy rate discounts to, among other objectives, reduce the energy burden of low-income customers and vulnerable populations. | H Env & Energy | Shewmake |
| HB 1130 | Energy supply/consumers | Concerning consumer affordability and reliability in energy supply. | H Env & Energy | Dye |
| HB 1135 (SB 5165) | Transp. budget 2021-2023 | Making transportation appropriations for the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium. | H Transportation | Fey |
| HB 1204 (SB 5256) | Transp. electrification | Concerning the electrification of transportation. | H Transportation | Macri |
| HB 1393 | Photovoltaic module program | Delaying certain implementation dates for the photovoltaic module stewardship and takeback program. | H Rules R | Shewmake |
| HB 1406 (SB 5426) | Wealth tax | Improving the equity of Washington state’s tax code by creating the Washington state wealth tax and taxing extraordinary financial intangible assets. | H Finance | Frame |
| HB 1513 | Carbon emissions | Improving environmental health by reducing carbon emissions through increasing climate resilience and mitigating the effects of climate change by levying a carbon pollution tax, authorizing a climate finance bond program, and investing in clean economic growth. | H Env & Energy | Lekanoff |
| HB 1534 | Carbon pollution tax | Establishing a carbon pollution tax that recognizes the nature of energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries. | H Env & Energy | Shewmake |
| SB 5083 (HB 1080) | Capital budget 2021-2023 | Concerning the capital budget. | S Ways & Means | Frockt |
| SB 5084 (HB 1081) | State gen. obligation bonds | Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts. | S Ways & Means | Frockt |
| SB 5091 (HB 1093) | Operating budget, 2nd supp. | Making 2019-2021 fiscal biennium second supplemental operating appropriations. | S Ways & Means | Rolfes |
| SB 5092 (HB 1094) | Operating budget 2021-2023 | Making 2021-2023 fiscal biennium operating appropriations. | S Ways & Means | Rolfes |
| SB 5093 (SHB 1084) | Building decarbonization | Reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions by achieving greater decarbonization of residential and commercial buildings. | S Environment, E | Liias |
| SB 5126 | Climate commitment act | Concerning the Washington climate commitment act. | S Environment, E | Carlyle |
| SB 5165 (HB 1135) | Transp. budget 2021-2023 | Making transportation appropriations for the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium. | S Transportation | Hobbs |
| SB 5168 | Electric utility advisory | Concerning renewable and nonemitting resources analysis and advisory opinions. | S Environment, E | Short |
| SSB 5174 | Wind turbine blade recycling | Providing for the recycling of wind turbine blades. | S WMDPS | Wilson |
| SB 5206 | Energy facility evaluation | Eliminating expedited processing of an alternative energy resource facility fueled by solar energy on certain designated lands before the energy facility site evaluation council. | S Environment, E | Warnick |
| SB 5231 (2SHB 1091) | Transportation fuel/carbon | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuel. | S Environment, E | Stanford |
| SB 5244 | Nuclear reactor production | Encouraging the production of advanced nuclear reactors, small modular reactors, and components through the invest in Washington act. | S Environment, E | Brown |
| SB 5256 (HB 1204) | Transp. electrification | Concerning the electrification of transportation. | S Environment, E | Liias |
| SB 5308 | Hybrid vehicle fees | Reducing certain transportation electrification fees on hybrid vehicles. | S Transportation | Short |
| SB 5373 | Carbon pollution | Concerning carbon pollution. | S Environment, E | Lovelett |
| SB 5415 | Energy facil site eval cncl | Concerning the energy facility site evaluation council. | S Environment, E | Lovelett |