Twenty-four days into this year’s 60-day session, state lawmakers have introduced some 1,400 new bills, but most of the action has revolved around legislation left over from last year’s session. The House has passed 32 bills to date, all of which had passed that chamber last year but were not taken up by the Senate. Similarly, the Senate has passed 31 measures, only six of which were newly-introduced in the 2020 session.

On Friday, the state Senate again voted to eliminate the death penalty. SB 5339 would remove capital punishment as a sentencing option and instead mandate a life sentence without possibility of parole for aggravated murder. The bill, which also passed the Senate last year, was approved with a 28-18 vote and again sent to the House for further action.

This is the third time in as many years that a measure to repeal the death penalty has passed the Senate. Each time, the bill stalled in the House. This year, the new Democratic Speaker, Rep.  Laurie Jinkins, says she supports the measure.

A moratorium imposed by Governor Inslee in 2014 has blocked imposition of the death sentence, and a 2018 state Supreme Court ruling stated that capital punishment, as applied under current Washington law, is unconstitutional.

The court, however, also said that the Legislature could pass a law to impose the death sentence in a way that meets constitutional requirements. Opponents of repealing the death sentence have argued that abolishing the death penalty denies victims and their families justice and removes a tool that prosecutors and law enforcement need to gain information about other victims.

In other news, lawmakers this week are working on hundreds of bills ahead of the deadline to pass policy bills out of committee in their originating chamber by this Friday. Bills that do not make the cutoff are likely dead for this session and for the 2019-20 legislative cycle.

On Monday, the House Education Committee passed a bill, HB 2184, to require a new mandatory sex education program for school children.

Also on Monday, the Senate Committee on Health and Long Term Care drastically changed a bill requested by Gov. Inslee to ban flavored vaping products. SB 6254 would have made permanent the emergency ban on flavored vaping products imposed by the State Board of Health last October. The substitute bill (SSB 6254) approved by the committee would partially lift the ban and allow the sale of such products to users over the age of 21.

On Tuesday, the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee approved SB 6561, a bill to create a low-interest loan program for students who are in the country illegally. The bill is sponsored by eleven Democrats, led by Sen. Marko Liias (D-Lynnwood) and Sen. Rebecca Saldana (D-Seattle). During the committee hearing on the bill, students who said they were undocumented told lawmakers that it is difficult for them to pay for textbooks, rent and other living expenses because they cannot take out student loans. They said this bill would level the playing field for undocumented students the same way that citizens of the U.S. have access to such subsidized loans.

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