Washington Legislative Session Midway Cutoff is Friday

Friday marks the midpoint of the Washington Legislative session.

This is the deadline marking the the end for bills committees do not pass for this legislative session, according to 7th District State Senator Shelly Short.

"[Friday] is the deadline for bills in their committee... to receive committee action," Senator Short said. "If those bills are not voted out by [Friday's] session, then they are essentially dead for session.

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13th District State Senator Judy Warnick says this is the time of session where bills that don't make it out of committee go to die.

"We call it the dying season - our bills are dying," Senator Warnick said. "They don't make it through the policy process."

There is still room for new bills necessary to balancing the state's budget to make it through, but otherwise, the legislature will focus on bills that have made it out of committee until the legislative session ends April 27.

"If a bill is determined by the senate majority Democrats to be "necessary" to implement the budget, those bills stay alive throughout the session," Senator Short said.

As the second half of the legislative session begins shortly, Senator Short is concerned about Washington's budget and spending habits.

"One of the challenges we have with the budget and the situation our state is in is because of pushing costs out in future years," Senator Short said. "We've seen that with a lot of new programs that were passed, albiet good policy, but the challenge of how we pay for it."

Other cutoffs include the February 28 cutoff for the Fiscal Committee, the March 12 cutoff for the House of Origin, with three separate cutoffs for policy, fiscal, and opposite house scheduled in April.

State Senator's Warnick and Short appeared as guests on the KPQ Morning Update's Legislative Hotline which you can listen to at 8 a.m. Thursday's and Fridays throughout the legislative session.