State lawmakers worked long hours this past week, including Saturday, to move hundreds of bills out of committee ahead of this session’s first cut-off deadlines. Friday was the last day for approval of policy bills in their originating committee, followed by yesterday’s deadline for committee approval of budget- and transportation-related measures.

The bills were sent to the Rules committees in each chamber. Majority Democrats control these committees and decide which bills will be placed on the respective floor calendars for action by the full membership.  Some 300 bills are currently on these calendars and more are likely to be added as the members start working through them.

Both chambers now have until 5:00 p.m. next Wednesday, February 19th, to pass bills that originated in their respective houses. Thereafter, lawmakers will only be able to consider legislation that has passed the opposite house. Barring a special session or extraordinary parliamentary maneuvers to revive them, bills that have not made it through their originating house by these deadlines are dead for this session and for the 2019-20 legislative cycle.

The effort to ban so-called Title-Only bills—blank bills used to pass new legislation with little or no time for public input late in a session, is dead for this year. Senate Joint Resolution 8214, which proposed a constitutional ban of this practice, and SB 6042, and HB 2190, all introduced by Republicans, never received a hearing and did not make it out of committees that are controlled by majority Democrats.

Other bills that appear to have failed include proposals to eliminate odd-year statewide elections, (SB 6503/HB 2529), which would have allowed statewide ballot measures to be voted on only in even years; moving the state primary election from August to May (HB 2530); a statewide ban on plastic straws (SB 5077); and HB 2312 to make “Juneteenth” a legal state holiday. Sponsored by Rep. Melanie Morgan (D-Parkland), this bill would have created another paid holiday for state workers to celebrate June 19th, the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas learned that the Civil War was over and they had been freed. According to the state Office of Financial Management, another paid holiday for state employees would costs about $3 million a year.

Although proposals to ban semi-automatic firearms are not likely to advance this year, bills to restrict magazine capacity to ten rounds or less are still alive. SB 6077 and HB 2240 were approved in their respective committees and are potentially headed for floor votes next week.

Bills to require sex education for school children in all grades are also still alive. SB 5395 passed the Senate by a 28-21 vote and is under consideration in the House Education committee, while HB 2184 was approved by the House Education Committee and referred to the House Appropriations Committee.

A bill requested by Governor Inslee to authorize the state Department of Ecology to impose greenhouse gas emission restrictions on businesses that don’t produce such emissions is also still up for possible action by the legislature. HB 2892 seeks to overcome a state Supreme Court decision that invalidated the Governor’s Clean Air Rule. The court held that restrictions on companies that don’t directly produce carbon emissions cannot be imposed without express legislative authority.

As the session heads into its second half, keep up with developments by visiting washingtonvotes.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter #waleg.