51¸£ÀûÉç

Snowmageddon descended on Olympia, and things came to a halt, but now that the worst (we can hope) is over, the process is moving again. Agendas have been lengthened. As cut off dates approach the list of bills for executive action by individual committees grows long. This is a brief summary of bills that are either moving or should be pushed to move. The last section of this report has some suggested actions on bills that need support and advocacy in order to advance before cutoffs.

Last session, the Legislature created the School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB). The SEBB will help ensure K-12 employees get the affordable, high-quality benefits they deserve. Washington state public employees have long been the beneficiary of a great health benefits program through the PEBB, and it's great to see similar benefits coming to school employees across the state.

The introduction of bills has slowed markedly as committees now focus on having public hearings. Then bills are moved out of their respective committees through action in Executive Session. February 22 (policy bills) and March 1 (fiscal bills) are the cutoff dates. Bills that have not advanced by then, ‘die’.

The legislative river is running as close to 1,500 bills have been introduced since December’s prefiling. Included among those are a number of bills affecting pensions, health, and job benefits. Hearings and any resulting action moving bills out of committees have begun as both houses move toward the first cut-off date. This is a brief summary of bills of interest: Retirement Related Proposals

The School Employees’ Benefit Board met for an all-day meeting and covered, as usual a wide range of topics. (Read the full post for the whole summary)