2025 Legislative Update: Week 7

This last week was fiscal week, which meant there were long days – going into the evening – of hearings and executive sessions to move bills out of fiscal committees by house of origin fiscal cutoff on Friday, Feb 28^th. The committee meetings are marathons, sometimes having over 30 bill hearings in one committee meeting. Lobbyists are often running back and forth between Senate Ways & Means and House Appropriations trying to catch when certain bills are up for a vote. Bills with a fiscal impact that didn’t pass out of committee by Friday are considered dead. The exception are bills deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB). Bills given this designation are not subject to the cutoff calendar. Some bills that die can also come back in the budget.

For those that like to keep track of the number of bills moving through the legislative process, below are the number of bills introduced, and the bills passed by each of the cutoffs we have crossed:

• Bills Introduced so far in the 2025 session: 1,817
• Bills Passed House of Origin Policy Cutoff: 1,154
• Bills Passed House of Origin Fiscal Cutoff: 730

Frequently, bills heard in fiscal committees are amended to include two clauses – “null and void” or “subject to appropriation.” These clauses allow bills to proceed through the process but provide “escape hatches” if the policies put forward in the bill are not funded in the final adopted budget. Put another way, inclusion of these clauses makes implementation of the bill contingent upon budget funding. While these amendments are still being added onto bills this year, given the challenging budget landscape there is also a lot of work being done to whittle bills down to have a smaller fiscal impact rather than just moving it along with a null and void.

This coming week, focus will turn to the respective Senate and House floors as they work through all the bills approved by the fiscal and policy committees. The next legislative cutoff is Wednesday, March 12^th at 5 p.m. with the deadline for bills to be voted out of their house of origin (e.g., House bills must be approved by the House, and Senate bills approved by the Senate). During floor time it is not unusual for one of the bodies to go late into the evening. Both chambers are anticipated to work this coming Saturday, and the House has a placeholder to potentially work Sunday. 

Budget

Inslee’s Book 1 Budget

On Monday, the House Democrats launched a new website, WA Budget Cuts, highlighting the all cuts/no revenue budget that former Governor Jay Inslee was required to prepare, called the “Book 1” Budget. This budget proposal relied only on existing law, and no new revenue, to balance the $12 billion budget deficit Washington state is facing. WA Budget Cuts highlights the largest of the possible cuts and provides a perspective on what these cuts would mean to communities across the state. For example, under the book 1 budget, over the next four years healthcare and public health programs are cut by $3.5 billion, and long-term care and funding for developmental disabilities programs would be reduced by $1.5 billion. Democrats have stated they are considering all proposed budget cuts and balancing those impacts against the need for revenue.

Governor Ferguson Budget Proposal

On Thursday, Governor Ferguson proposed a budget plan to save approximately $4 billion. The full list of Ferguson’s current proposals is available here for the supplemental budget, and here for the 2025-27 biennium.

The proposals aren’t full budgets, but do highlight items that Governor Ferguson is putting forward for consideration to be cut or eliminated. The proposal works from former Governor Inslee’s ‘book 2’ budget, which did include new revenue proposals, and was informed by the ‘budget reductions exercise’ turned in by state agencies on February 6^th. It is important to keep in mind that some of the proposed “cuts” were reductions or eliminations of new investments that Inslee proposed in his book 2 budget and not cuts to existing maintenance level funding.

The Ferguson proposal maintained full funding for K-12 education and public safety. He also maintained investments in most housing and homelessness programs, current cash benefit assistance programs, and Medicaid. Governor Ferguson’s stated that his budget savings proposals are built on four key principles:

1. Good government efficiencies and reductions.
2. Pausing or phasing-in new spending.
3. Scaling back recent spending decisions.
4. Limiting replacement of one-time federal funding.

Governor Ferguson is also proposing $300 million in savings by requiring most state employees to take one furlough day per month for the next two years. Certain public employees will be exempt, including troopers patrolling roads and staff working in prisons and state hospitals.

Looking Ahead

This week will focus on floor action as bills are amended, debated, and ultimately voted on by the full chamber (House or Senate) ahead of the March 12^th house of origin floor cutoff. Follow where we are in the process by consulting the 2025 Session Cutoff Calendar.

Click here to watch this week’s TVW Legislative Review. Episodes are posted every day during session and are just 10 minutes long, providing highlights of the day in Olympia.