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The Week AheadHouse Bill 1708
Tracking the homelessness epidemic
Require the Department of Commerce to operate a data dashboard that displays information provided by counties and cities on the extent of homelessness spending and action.
House Bill 1708
- Requires cities and counties to display a dashboard of homelessness-related data on their websites using a standardized computer application provided by the Department of Commerce as well as statewide aggregation of dashboard data and publication on a centralized website for public access.
Read the text of HB 1708
House Republicans
House Bill 1225
Getting smarter about budgeting
Provide necessary structural budget reforms by:
• Requiring performance-based spending with clearly defined goals and outcomes,
• Reinstating the state spending limit,
• Reducing excessive bureaucracy through zero-base budget reviews, and
• Prioritizing spending for key programs like education, child care, and healthcare.
House Bill 1225
- Mandates that essential services, such as debt payments, K-12 education, revenue collection, public safety, public health, and public assistance, be funded before other expenditures.
- Limits state spending to available fiscal resources and requires a four-year balanced budget.
- Requires 20% of all programs undergo a zero-based budgeting review each biennium, ensuring a review of all programs within a 10-year cycle, and requires the Legislature to pass the budget at least 30 days before the start of the fiscal biennium.
Read the text of HB 1225
House Bill 1324
Maintaining our infrastructure
Honor statements made by carbon tax proponents to allow Climate Commitment Act funding to pay for roads and bridges.
House Bill 1324
- Allows Climate Commitment Act (CCA) revenues to be used for road and bridge projects and alters funding allocations from the CCA auction revenues to include deposits into the multimodal transportation account.
Read the text of HB 1324
House Bill 1377
Getting ferries online faster
Put in place a continency option for Washington State Ferries to purchase a non-electric ferry if they are unable to award a contract to purchase the hybrid electric ferry in Spring of 2025.
House Bill 1377
- Provides a contingency plan for ferry procurement if the bid process for a hybrid-electric ferry in 2025 is unsuccessful, allowing for emergency acquisition of at least two non-hybrid ferries, and allows use of existing Olympic-class ferry designs to streamline construction and avoid additional design costs.
- Declares the Washington State Ferry System in a state of emergency to expedite actions and authorizes the governor to declare a ferry procurement emergency, granting special powers to expedite permitting and vessel acquisition.
Read the text of HB 1377
House Bill 1221
Ensuring checks on power
Automatically end states of emergency after 60 days unless extended by the Legislature and not allow the governor to declare another that is the same or similar when it ends.
House Bill 1221
- Limits the governor’s ability to extend a state of emergency beyond 60 days without legislative approval and prevents the declaration of another emergency on the same or a substantially similar topic without legislative approval.
- Enables the Legislature to terminate any executive orders imposed by the governor during a state of emergency and limits such orders to 30 days unless extended by the Legislature.
- Reduces violations of emergency orders from a gross misdemeanor to a civil infraction with a fine of up to $1,000.
