Wednesday marked one of the most important days of their 105-day session: a deadline for bills to advance out of the House or Senate and be passed to the opposite chamber for further committee hearings and votes.
Bills must be approved by both chambers before they are sent to the governor to be signed into law. Wednesday’s cutoff is when many bills will die in the House or Senate after failing to get enough support from its chamber of origin to be passed along.
Democrats, who have a majority in both chambers of the Legislature, were able to keep their priorities on housing, public safety and education moving. Other proposals, like a bill to limit governors’ emergency powers and a plan to increase funding for public defense, have likely seen their time in the 2025 legislative session come to an end – though lawmakers can always find creative ways to bring them back to life.
Over the next 44 days, lawmakers will fine-tune surviving proposals as they make their way through the opposite chamber and inch closer toward Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk. Here’s a look at where things stand.
Housing
The biggest win for housing advocates so far this session was the passage of House Bill 1217, which would cap yearly increases at 7% of a tenant’s rent and limit move-in and late fees. The bill passed 53-42 in the House, which passed a similar proposal last year. It could still face challenges passing through the Senate.
A proposal to allow property owners to split their land into multiple lots is also moving on to the Senate. House Bill 1096 would require cities to allow lot-splitting in areas where zoning laws allow for more density. It passed the House 93-4.
Legislation to increase housing near transit stops is also headed to the Senate after passing the House 58-39 last week.
Some housing bills that won’t be moving forward this session include a proposal to give low-income tenants financial assistance if they can’t pay their rent and legislation to allow detached accessory dwelling units in rural areas.
Education
One of the biggest education fights this session is over changes to a law that established a “bill of rights” for parents of children in public schools.
Lawmakers passed the initiative into law last year, giving parents the ability to review school materials, opt their children out of some assignments and gain access to all medical and mental health records.
This year, Democrats are trying to make changes that they say would clear up confusion in implementing the new law. Republicans argue that the proposals would gut some protections that parents had under the initiative, particularly in accessing students’ medical and mental health records.
Senate Bill 5181 passed out the chamber last month and is awaiting action in the House, which is working on their own version of the proposal. The House version goes further than the Senate’s and adds protections for students, including requiring the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to create guidelines to eliminate discrimination and protect transgender students from harassment.
Public safety
Among the more controversial bills this session is a proposal to require permits to purchase firearms. House Bill 1163 would require someone purchasing a gun to complete a safety training program and receive a permit from the Washington State Patrol. That proposal passed the House 58-38.
Other public safety proposals that are still moving include a Ferguson-backed bill to provide $100 million in grants to cities and counties to hire more police officers and a proposal to require religious leaders to report child abuse and neglect.
Among those that did not make it past the cutoff this year were proposals to require owners to lock up their guns in their vehicles or homes, to limit bulk purchases of guns and ammunition and to increase funding for public defense services.
Environment
An overhaul of the state’s recycling system passed through the Senate last week. Under that proposal, manufacturers, brand owners and importers of paper products and packaging sold in Washington would have to join a “producer responsibility organization” that collects fees to help pay for a statewide recycling system. Packaging for products like medical devices, drugs and hazardous materials would be exempt.
Supporters of the proposal say that the bill will help more people across Washington recycle goods, but opponents say it may result only in producers passing the costs onto consumers. It now heads to the House.
A proposal to help ensure farmers are receiving fuel exemptions from the state’s cap-and-trade policy also passed the House this week. House Bill 1912 would require sellers to track fuels meant to be exempt from the state’s Climate Commitment Act, including any fuel used for agricultural purposes. For the past two years, farmers across Washington have said they were not receiving the exemptions they are required to under state law.
Labor
Senate Bill 5041 would allow striking workers to receive up to 12 weeks of unemployment pay. The proposal passed the Senate last week despite pushback from Republican and moderate Democratic senators who said it will hurt businesses and incentivize workers to strike.
Another labor-related bill, House Bill 1644, passed the House floor a couple of days before the March 12 cutoff. If passed, the bill would tighten labor laws for minors by setting minimum penalties for violations, prohibiting companies with multiple serious safety violations from hiring minors and requiring inspections before authorizing certain work permits for people under 18.
State government
A Ferguson-backed proposal to limit a governor’s power during states of emergency will not be moving this year, but the legislation has already sparked some changes in the governor’s office.
Ahead of Senate Bill 5434’s failure to make it past Wednesday’s deadline, Ferguson announced that he would be limiting himself. If a state of emergency lasts longer than 60 days while Ferguson is governor, he said he will end the declaration if he receives a written request from three of the four leaders of the Legislature. If it lasts longer than 120 days, Ferguson said he will call a special session to give lawmakers the ability to act.
And while this session may not bring Washington a new state flag, an official state clam or an official Kimchi Day, the official state nickname, the state marine forest and the state cactus are all one step closer to becoming reality.
Still to come
The next major legislative deadline is April 2, when bills must pass out of the first committee in the opposite chamber.
As those policy debates continue, some lawmakers are switching gears to finalize a budget to fund government services for the next two years.
Next week, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will release exactly how much funding lawmakers can expect to have over the next two years.
From there, negotiations begin. Both Democrats and Republicans in each chamber will release budget proposals, and Ferguson has his own priorities. Only one budget will pass before the final day of the legislative session on April 27.
Update March 18, 2025: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated which chamber a bill on recycling originated from. This article has been corrected.
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