Olympia Office
2024 Legislative Session Update
Monday, February 5, 2024
Today marks the 29th day of the 2024 Legislative session in Olympia. Wednesday, January 31st was the first major cutoff and most bills either died if they didn’t move out of the policy committee or continued on through the next stop on the legislative journey for a bill to become law. That next step for most bills is a stop in Rules where they would then need to pull it to the Floor (Senate or House depending on house of origin) and receive a majority vote to move over to the opposite chamber and go through the process all over again.
Most bills died or survived, but the next cutoff is today, Monday, February 5th addresses most of those other bills and they are bills in fiscal committees. After that cutoff, all bills are dead…unless they are considered Necessary to Implement the Budget, or NTIB. Those are bills, that for example, could enact a tax or fee and therefor increase the budget. There aren’t many of those types of bills that happen each year, but we always keep an eye out for them.
In the coming week both House and Senate members will be voting on bills on the House and Senate Floors and Thursday, February 13, will be the last day to consider bills in house of origin (5 p.m.).
One bill that looks to have died is SB 5820, the bill that had a 25-foot buffer zone for signature gathering. This legislation that was sponsored by Senator Jeff Wilson, would have created a 25-foot buffer zone around people collecting signatures for, signing, or attempting to sign an initiative or referendum petition, in which persons cannot publicly protest the signature gathering within that zone. It was a highly attended committee hearing but we may see something in the future as another bill or initiative.
Attached is the 2024 Legislative Cutoff Report of legislation that we have been tracking to date.
We will keep you updated on important and relevant legislation throughout the session.
If you are wanting or asked to testify on a bill, please click this link on instructions and helpful hints on the testimony process.