The state Capitol building in Olympia. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
State lawmakers will head to Olympia later this month to kick off Washington’s 2025 legislative session. It’ll be 105 days of lawmaking and budget writing.
A host of issues will likely come up in the session, which is set to start Jan. 13. If you’re following along for the first time, you may have a lot of questions. We’ve already broken down how lawmakers’ write their budget, and the fiscal hole they’ll have to crawl out of while doing it.
But much more goes on in a legislative session than budget writing. There’s policymaking, there’s public input, and there’s deadlines.
Wondering how it all works and how you can participate? We’ve got you covered. This guide should help you follow along with all the action over the next few months.
What is the Legislature?
The Washington State Legislature consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House has 98 members, and the Senate has 49. Both chambers are controlled by Democrats.
What is the legislative session?
The session is the three or four (or sometimes more) months of the year when the Legislature can debate and pass bills, which can then become law after the governor signs them.
Some states have full-time legislatures that are in session most of the year, but Washington’s is part-time.
Lawmakers are called into session in early January until what’s known as “sine die,” which means they adjourn indefinitely (or until next January). Sometimes, the governor or lawmakers can call a “special session,” which is extra time they can use to pass essential laws. These are often only used to deal with emergencies and essential work like finishing the budget.
When is the session?
This year’s session runs from Jan. 13 to April 27.
The length of the session alternates every year. In odd-numbered years, like this one, the Legislature is in session for 105 days and must write a state budget for the next two years.
That process could take a while, given the looming $10 billion to $12 billion hole they’ll have to fill. If lawmakers can’t finish it by the end of April, they will have to be in a special session until they can figure it out. Hopefully, before the next fiscal year starts on July 1.
In even-numbered years, the Legislature is in a short, 60-day session when they don’t have to write a full two-year budget but often make adjustments to the one they passed the year prior.
What happens during the session?
A lot! Debates are heated, disagreements are inevitable, spending is approved, laws are changed. There are a lot of deadlines.
Here are the basics.
After the session begins, lawmakers will begin introducing hundreds of bills that they hope will be passed into law. They’ll have just over a month to move those bills through committees made up of subgroups of lawmakers.
In committees, bills receive a public hearing, a debate and a vote. If the bill is going to cost the state money, it must then go through the same process in a fiscal committee, which is specifically set up to determine how the state should budget.
The first cutoff for bills to make it through both committees comes about a month into the session, likely Feb. 21. If a bill has not passed out of committee by that deadline, it is likely dead for the year.
In the week or so after the committee cutoff, lawmakers begin what is maybe the most exciting part of the legislative process: floor debates.
During this time, the entire chamber debates bills that have cleared committees. On the floor, they can amend bills and eventually vote on whether to send them to the other chamber. If bills don’t make it through a floor vote in the full chamber where they originated by a certain cutoff date, likely March 12, they are typically dead for the year.
This “house of origin” cutoff significantly slims the number of bills that can be considered.
Following the house of origin cutoff, the process repeats, only this time bills that originated in the Senate now make their way through the House and vice versa.
In the last week of the session, lawmakers consolidate any changes made to bills in both chambers into one version and vote on it one final time before sending it to the governor.
Also happening in the final weeks of the session: budget writing. Lawmakers will likely start unveiling budget proposals in March, after the state’s economic analysts tell them how much money they’ll have to spend. Just like a bill, budget proposals must go through committees, receive floor votes and be consolidated into one multi-billion dollar package to send to the governor.
All of this leads up to sine die, the final day of the session, which this year is scheduled to occur on April 27. At the end of the day, both chambers will swing down the gavel a final time and go home until next year.
Even though cutoffs seem like a strict deadline, lawmakers can find creative ways to revive seemingly dead bills later in the session, if they deem the legislation important enough.
How can I track bills?
The Washington State Legislature’s newly designed website, leg.wa.gov, allows you to easily find and track pending legislation, amendments, vote counts and more.
Search by bill number, topic or author, and you’ll find the full text of bills, nonpartisan bill reports that explain what the law would do if passed, proposed amendments and a tracker of where the bill is in the process.
You can also sign up to track specific bills and get updates in your inbox.
Can I watch?
Yes! Whether it’s in person or streaming, you can watch almost everything that happens under the dome.
TVW has gavel-to-gavel coverage with livestreams and archived videos of all committee hearings, floor sessions and press conferences.
And if you want to watch the action in person, the state Capitol is open to the public. Anyone can watch floor action from the public galleries or sit in on committee hearings.
What can’t I watch?
You can’t watch caucus meetings where members of each party in each chamber gather behind closed doors. These discussions can take up a lot of time and are where many compromises are worked out.
How can I participate?
If you’re feeling strongly about a bill, let your legislators know.
You can find the legislators who represent your district and contact them directly by sending a message to their office through the Legislature’s website.
You can also comment on a bill online or testify in a committee hearing in person or virtually.