Week of January 31st: Legislative Update
We’ve got a pretty short update this week and here’s why: another one of our priority bills, SB 5042, passed out of the Senate! 🎉🎉🎉
SB 5042 is our bill to close a nasty loophole in the GMA that currently allows for illegal sprawl in our farmlands and wildlife habitats. We first introduced this bill in 2008 – that’s right, 14 years ago!! With passage out of the state Senate this week, we are well on our way to finally closing this loophole and protecting our farms from overdevelopment.
Many thanks to Senators Andy Billig, Patty Kuderer, Liz Lovelett and bill sponsor Jesse Salomon for their leadership and tireless work to see this bill across the finish line.
HB 1099 Has a Hearing in the Senate!
The energy continues to build: HB 1099, our bill to add a climate element to the Growth Management Act, is already scheduled for a hearing in the Senate on Tuesday, February 1st at 8 AM.
(For all you true legislative nerds, that’s two whole weeks before the cutoff to pass bills out of their house of origin. For the rest of us, just know that this bill is on a roll.)
Here’s how you can help keep this bill moving:
1) SIGN IN PRO
Sign in “pro” for the Senate Housing and Local Government Committee hearing. The deadline to state your position for the record is Tuesday, February 1st at 7 AM.
- Go to the HB 1099 sign-in page
- For Position, select “Pro” from the drop-down menu
- Enter your name, email, city, state, zip, and phone. It is optional to include your street address.
- Click “I’m not a robot”
- At the bottom, click “Submit Registration”
2) EMAIL THE COMMITTEE!
Have a minute for another action? Send the members of the Senate Housing and Local Government emails urging them to pass HB1099. Click here to send all of your emails at once!
3) SHARE our Futurewise posts on socials to amplify these calls to action!
One more quick update:
In addition to SB 5042 and HB 1099, Futurewise has also been working on a bill HB 1769 that would ensure that HB 1220, our housing justice GMA update that passed last year, will be fairly implemented in every community across Washington. HB 1769 had a hearing in the House Local Government Committee this week. We’re expecting to see it come up for a committee vote early next week and feeling optimistic about passage out of committee!
Thank you for your ongoing advocacy during this critical legislative session.