Thank you to all of the city leaders who attended AWC’s annual City Action Days conference last week. It was wonderful to see so many city leaders from around the state. We had great participation from legislators as well as Governor Jay Inslee. City Action Days is always an excellent opportunity for cities to engage in the legislative process. The most important takeaway from the conference is: make your city voice heard and reach out to your legislators.

Make your city voice heard and reach out to your legislators.

When communicating with legislators, please share AWC’s weekly Hot Sheet. This week the format has changed to include more information about the status of the bills, given the pending cutoff deadlines.

Legislature appropriates $2.2 billion in federal pandemic-related relief funds

You may recall that Congress passed much-needed, additional COVID-19 relief funds at the end of December. The funds provided to Washington state must be officially appropriated before they can be spent. If the Legislature is not in session when awarded such funds, called “unexpected funds,” the Governor has the authority to appropriate the funds. In contrast, if the Legislature is in session, it must appropriate them. Thus, in order to spend the federal monies, the Legislature has taken early action to pass HB 1368, the legislation that provides for the funds’ appropriation. The bill now awaits the Governor’s signature, afterwards, the monies will be distributed via various state agencies. The $2.2 billion breaks down as follows:

• $714 million for assistance to K-12 schools, including $46 million for non-public school assistance;
• $618 million for public health, including:
  • $438 million for testing and contract tracing;
  • $100 million for epidemiology and laboratory grants; and
  • $68 million for vaccines—this funding is deposited into a newly created non-appropriated account;
• $365 million for a variety of housing-related items, including rental assistance;
• $240 million for business assistance grants;
• $91 million for other income assistance programs, including:
  • $65 million for immigration services;
  • $12 million for disaster cash assistance;
  • $9 million for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; and
  • $5 million for food assistance;
• $50 million for a variety of childcare-related items; and
• $26 million for food banks and other food related programs.

Much of the funding for housing and business assistance will flow through the Department of Commerce, which has information available about the process on its website.

Bills facing cutoff deadlines

The first deadline is Monday, February 15 (the Legislature meets on holidays during session). This deadline indicates the date by which bills must be voted out of their policy committees. Shortly thereafter comes the fiscal committee deadline on February 22. As a result, most of the action will move to the fiscal committees this week, where legislators will rush to hear and vote on bills before February 22. The fiscal committees include the House Finance, Appropriations, and Transportation Committees and the Senate Ways & Means and Transportation Committees.

2021 cutoff deadlines:

• February 15 – Deadline for bills to pass out of policy committees.
• February 22 – Deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal committees. Bills with fiscal impacts typically must be heard in both a policy committee and a fiscal committee.
• March 9 – Deadline for bills to pass their house of origin. House of origin is the body where the bill originated.
• March 26 – Deadline for bills to pass out of the policy committees in the opposite house.
• April 2 – Deadline for bills to pass out of the fiscal committees in the opposite house.
• April 11 – Deadline for bills (not related to the budget) to pass the opposite house.
• April 25 – Session ends.

The deadlines do not necessarily apply to bills related to or necessary to implement the budget (NTIB). Bills that don’t meet the deadlines are generally considered “dead” for the remainder of the session.

If you have any questions about the legislative process or a particular bill, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Government Relations team. We are always ready and willing to help.