News Releases

OLYMPIA — Senate Housing Committee Chair Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia) hailed the 2025 legislative session as one that made significant progress for housing affordability. “We came into this session with a three-pronged housing strategy — expand our housing supply, support homeownership opportunities, and provide stability for renters. On all three, we delivered significant progress,” Bateman said. “This is one of the most ...

OLYMPIA — A revised version of rent stabilization legislation, House Bill 1217, was proposed by a conference committee of House and Senate members Thursday. The bill could potentially be voted on as soon as Friday evening.   The proposed compromise would cap rent increases at 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less, while preserving much ...

The Housing Accountability Act passed the Senate on a 46-2 vote on Tuesday. Senate Bill 5148, sponsored by Sen. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia), helps ensure cities and local governments comply with state laws that expand housing affordability options and require the reform and modernization of local land use regulations. “We’ve passed major, transformative affordable housing legislation in the past three years. We ...

OLYMPIA – The Parking Reform and Modernization Act passed the Washington state Senate today on a bipartisan 40-8 vote. Senate Bill 5184 would reform rigid parking mandates set by local governments across Washington, replacing them with flexible rules that allow local businesses and developers to determine the right amount of parking based on their community’s needs. “This bill is important for ...

New legislation introduced by Sen. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia) would allow public sector unions representing public sector employees to collectively bargain over the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in government workplaces. “Workers deserve to have a voice at the table when their employers introduce new AI technologies in their workplace,” Bateman said. “AI is like fire — it can be good ...

Major legislation to help expand Washington’s housing supply will be heard in the Senate Housing Committee 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 26. The hearing can be streamed live or replayed on TVW here. The two bills, the Housing Accountability Act (SB 5148) and the Parking Reform Act (SB 5184) are both sponsored by Sen. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia), who also ...