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OLYMPIA — A bill to help address the health care staffing shortage by mitigating unmanageable patient loads and worker burnout was signed into law Thursday.  Senate Bill 5236, sponsored by Sen. June Robinson (D-Everett), requires hospitals to submit staffing plans to the state Department of Health. The expected staff-to-patient staffing standards would be developed by a hospital’s designated staffing committee, composed of 50% frontline staff and 50% hospital administration.  If a hospital is less than 80% compliant with its committee’s approved plan, DOH and the state Department of Labor & ...

OLYMPIA—The House of Representatives passed legislation on April 11, 2023, to safeguard the endangered orcas in the Salish Sea. Senate Bill 5371, sponsored by Senator Liz Lovelett (D-Anacortes) and supported by Representative Debra Lekanoff (D-Bow), received overwhelming bipartisan support through Lekanoff’s collaborative striker to strengthen the work of both House Democrats and Republicans. This effort resulted in the bill passing with an overwhelming majority of 96 ayes, 1 nay, and 1 absentee.  Senate Bill 5371 establishes a 1,000-yard setback distance for commercial recreational vessels from southern resident orcas, bringing them under the same ...

OLYMPIA — A new law signed today by Gov. Jay Inslee will ensure hate crimes can be more effectively prosecuted and courts can require offenders to complete rehabilitative programs. “Hate crimes are horrific acts of violence that do more than affect individual victims — they make whole communities feel unwelcome,” said Sen. Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond), chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee and bill sponsor. “These crimes are corrosive to our society, and we need to have the proper tools available to protect survivors and ensure that courts can effectively supervise offenders in completing rehabilitative programs ...

The Senate on Wednesday passed House Bill 1125, the 2023-25 transportation budget. The $12.9 billion plan invests in traffic safety, expands the state patrol and ferry workforces, funds green transportation options, and keeps work on schedule for transportation projects big and small across Washington.  The bill passed the Senate 42-6.   The Senate amended its own transportation budget proposal, Senate Bill 5162, onto the House’s version of the budget which passed the House on April 3. Now work will begin between transportation leads in the Senate and House to work out ...

OLYMPIA – Sen. Marko Liias’s (D-Everett) bipartisan legislation to protect workers on Washington’s highways was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday.   Senate Bill 5272, which received unanimous support in both the Senate and House of Representatives, increases worker safety by authorizing the use of speed safety cameras in state highway work zones.   The need for this legislation comes as Washington sees an uptick in traffic collisions and fatalities, including in work zones. Data from the Washington State Department of Transportation show there were 283 ...

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Senate passed a $69.2 billion, two-year budget today on a 40-9 vote to increase funding for vital state services, including targeted support for behavioral health, public schools, housing and homelessness, and a historic investment to address the climate crisis. The two-year operating budget adds roughly $5 billion in new spending and does not rely on any new general taxes or fees. It leaves more than $3 billion in total reserves to guard against an economic slowdown and protect the state’s historically high credit rating. “Our state’s biggest challenges are prioritized in this budget. It ...

The Senate on Wednesday announced details of the 2023-25 transportation budget, a plan totaling $12.9 billion in investments across the state. The proposal focuses on traffic safety, workforce expansion in the state patrol and ferry system, electrification, transit and other green investments and keeps work on schedule for transportation projects big and small throughout Washington.  A second supplemental transportation budget for the 2021-23 biennium totaling $10.6 billion was also introduced Wednesday. “It was important in this budget that we continued the essential work we started by passing the Move ...

OLYMPIA – Members of the Senate Transportation Committee will release their 2023-25 budget proposal on Wednesday, March 29 at 10:30 a.m.   The state transportation budget funds various projects across the state – including ferries and passenger rail – and focuses on investments to improve traffic safety. This is also the first budget to use money raised by the Climate Commitment Act auctions.   Budget details will be available online at fiscal.wa.gov at approximately 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.   The transportation budget is set to be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee on ...

OLYMPIA – Sen. June Robinson (D-Everett), vice chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee and prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5096, released this statement following the Washington State Supreme Court’s ruling in Quinn v. Washington:  “Today’s decision is the culmination of over a decade of work to fix our upside-down tax code and rewrite the rules to make a system that’s fairer for everyone. With the capital gains excise tax, we will be able to better invest in our children, in our schools, in our teachers, in our families. We ...

OLYMPIA – Budget leaders in the Washington State Senate introduced a sweeping, $69.2 billion operating budget proposal Thursday to increase funding for vital state services, including targeted support for behavioral health, public schools, housing and homelessness, and a historic investment to address the climate crisis. The two-year operating budget adds roughly $5.1 billion in new spending and does not rely on any new general taxes or fees. It leaves $3.8 billion (11.2%) in total reserves to guard against an economic slowdown and protect the state’s historically high credit rating. “This is an ambitious and responsible spending plan to address ...