We have reached the last few days of the 2020 legislative session. Session officially ends at midnight on March 12; however, the Legislature could always wrap up its work early (probably not very likely). The last day of session is often referred to as “Sine Die,” which is a Latin phrase meaning “without day,” because the Legislature adjourns without setting a day to reconvene.
The Legislature will spend these last few days finalizing the supplemental budgets and wrapping up work on policy bills. The cutoff deadline for policy bills to pass the opposite house was Friday, March 6 – but bills that were amended must return to their house of origin for final concurrence on any changes. In some cases, the house of origin can refuse to concur and then the bill may go back to the opposite house for reconsideration or to conference committee to work out the differences. These last few days are also when the Legislature is wrapping up all those bills that were deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB) and are awaiting passage along with the budget.
We have one last version of our bill Hot Sheet for this week, which details the action that is needed to make sure these bills get to the finish line by Thursday, March 12.
In next week’s edition of the Legislative Bulletin we will highlight some of the last-minute action. Look to your email inbox on March 30, when we will publish our Legislative Session Recap that includes an in-depth analysis of how all the passed bills impact cities.
Lastly, register to join your AWC lobbyists on March 19 for our legislative wrap-up webinar for a rundown of what happened during the session.
What’s next? Prepping for 2021
Session is ending and we are already looking forward to 2021! AWC is updating our Statement of Policy this year, which is our six-year policy guidance document. The Statement of Policy will go out to full membership this June for ratification at the Annual Conference in Kennewick.
Additionally, we will convene the Legislative Priorities Committee to develop cities’ legislative agenda for 2021. That work will begin in late spring and conclude in the fall.
Advocacy is a year-round job
The legislative session is over so you can take a break, right? No! Advocacy is a year-round job!
Now is the best time to ask your legislators to come to a council meeting for an overview of what happened this session. It is also the time for you to plan opportunities to engage with your legislators throughout the interim.
Think about projects that you want to share with them and tours you can host. AWC’s Strong Cities Pocket Guide is full of ideas for how you can be a year-round city advocate.