What bills are still dead and alive in the Washington Legislature

The Washington state Capitol on March 13, 2025. (Photo by Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)

Lawmakers in the Washington Legislature spent the past week and a half passing bills off the House and Senate floors ahead of a Wednesday deadline.

Measures that didn’t make it through their chamber of origin by that cutoff are likely dead for the year.

Legislators left dozens of bills behind and spent hours working to pass others. The House pulled several long nights as Democrats pushed through controversial legislation on topics like guns and the rights of public school students.

Two other deadlines already doomed several high-profile bills over the past few weeks.

Proposals are immune from the deadlines if they’re considered necessary to implement the budget. And lawmakers have been known to find creative ways to revive bills later in the session.

Looking ahead, the legislative session will switch gears as the House takes up Senate bills and vice versa. Next, those proposals will need to make it through policy committees by April 2. The session is scheduled to end April 27.

Here are some bills to keep watching as the session continues, and the ones that are most likely finished for the year.

Big ticket items

Rent

House Bill 1217 cleared the House on Monday with no Republican support. The proposal would cap rent hikes at 7% in any 12-month period for residential tenants, and prohibit increases of any amount in the first year of tenancy, with some exceptions.

Guns

After extensive floor debate in the state House, the centerpiece of Democrats’ plans this year on gun safety moved forward over the weekend.

House Bill 1163 would require a new state permit to purchase firearms — a policy about a dozen states have in place. Lawmakers in the Senate approved another bill to expand the list of places where it’s illegal to carry firearms and other weapons.

Other measures didn’t advance by Wednesday’s deadline. Those include limiting bulk purchases of firearms and ammunition, requiring gun owners to lock up their weapons in their cars and homes and adding new requirements for gun dealers.

Parental rights

One of the most fervent partisan battles during the past two years has been over what rights parents of public school students have in their education.

Early last month, the state Senate passed Senate Bill 5181 to rejigger the initiative lawmakers passed last year. Democrats say the changes are just fixes. Republicans call it an overhaul.

House Democrats are taking a different approach. Their legislation lays out a set of student rights and contains a section with the entirety of the Senate-passed bill. Debate on House Bill 1296 began Wednesday evening and ended around 2 a.m. Thursday when it passed on a 56-37 vote with only Democratic support.

Unemployment benefits

Workers in the state could soon have access to unemployment insurance during a strike or when locked out by their employers after the Senate passed a bill to grant the benefits. The union-backed legislation would allow workers to apply for unemployment insurance beginning the second Sunday after a strike begins, plus a one-week waiting period. Benefits would be capped at 12 weeks as opposed to the standard 26.

Recycling

Washington Democrats want to improve the state’s recycling system with Senate Bill 5284. This bill intends to reduce waste going into landfills and create a uniform recycling system for the state by requiring producers of consumer goods to fund statewide recycling services. Three Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the bill.

Police hiring

A couple of proposals to pay for more police officers remain in play. One Democratic-backed bill would provide the governor’s promised $100 million in grants for new cops, but police departments’ access to the funding would be contingent on local governments implementing sales taxes focused on criminal justice.

The initial proposal Gov. Bob Ferguson championed, Senate Bill 5060, didn’t get a vote.

Ones to watch

Short-term rentals

Senate Bill 5576 gives cities and counties the authority to implement a new excise tax up to 4% on short-term rentals to fund affordable housing.

Initially, the bill called for a statewide tax, but before reaching the Senate floor Tuesday it was amended to give local governments the option to enact the tax. Democrats muscled this one through on a 27-21 vote, with no Republican support.

Right to repair

Part of a nationwide movement, the state House approved a bill requiring electronics manufacturers to provide parts and repair methods to independent repair shops. House Bill 1483 is known as the Right to Repair Act.

Proponents argue that repairing products like cellphones and computers more easily will reduce electronics waste, while opponents say this jeopardizes quality and security. Similar bills have been introduced in all 50 states.

Another bill approved in the Senate would apply similar requirements for wheelchairs and mobility scooters.

Clergy

Senate Bill 5375 would add clergy to the list of mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. The Senate passed the bill on a party-line vote last month.

The bill would remove religious leaders’ privilege to keep information private if shared in the confessional, a main sticking point of this debate in recent years.

Discover Pass

Discover Pass prices would rise from $30 to $45 under a bill the state Senate approved this week. The pass allows visitors to access state parks and other natural sites and pricing has not changed in the 14 years since it was introduced. The bill’s sponsor characterized the price hike as an inflation adjustment. A floor amendment would allow people to use their passes in three cars instead of just two beginning July 1, 2026.

Juvenile detention

To help address an overcrowding crisis in the state’s juvenile detention centers, the Senate unanimously passed a measure allowing young people to be transferred to state prisons and community facilities in certain circumstances.

Another bill to minimize the number of youth who have to serve in detention was much more contested, passing 26-23 on Monday. Yet another to allow offenders convicted before age 18 to petition for early release when they turn 24 didn’t get a vote from the Senate.

Medical debt

A bill that would exempt medical debt from appearing on people’s credit reports cleared the Senate with some Republicans joining Democrats in support. It follows a Trump administration pause on a similar effort at the federal level.

Climate Commitment Act

The 2021 law requiring major polluters to buy allowances at state auctions for each metric ton of their air pollution has been criticized for not preventing wide price swings. That lack of stability hurts businesses and consumers, critics say.

House Bill 1975, which received broad bipartisan support, aims to address the volatility with new price containment mechanisms, including a lower ceiling on maximum allowance prices, and making more of the allowances available sooner.

Kids on social media

A bill in the Senate to protect the privacy of young social media users was one of the final measures to pass the Senate before Wednesday’s deadline. The attorney general requested the legislation, Senate Bill 5708.

The bill was amended on the Senate floor to significantly pare down its scope. This version passed with bipartisan support.

Speed limiters

An innovative proposal would require the installation of devices to limit vehicle speeds for drivers with histories of speeding that left them with a suspended license.

Amendments approved on the House floor delay House Bill 1596’s effective date to July 2028 and define excessive speeding in 40 mph zones as driving 10 mph over the posted limit. The bill earned bipartisan support, moving forward in an 84-12 vote.

Farewell

Drunk driving

This won’t be the year for the persistent push to lower the legal limit for drunk driving. Same as last year, the proposal, Senate Bill 5067, sputtered as it awaited a vote from the full Senate.

The bill would have made Washington the second state — with Utah — to lower the allowable blood alcohol concentration from 0.08% to 0.05%.

Surge pricing

Ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup, some state senators aimed to stave off high-priced Uber and Lyft rides during large-scale events. Senate Bill 5600 would have capped the cost of prearranged rides to 20% above what drivers are paid.

The measure ran into opposition from the ride-booking companies who argued this would make some rides unprofitable. It would have also allowed local governments to designate specific dropoff and pickup zones during these events.

Spiked drink tests

Senate Bill 5330 would have required bars and nightclubs to carry testing kits so patrons can see if their drinks have been drugged. It was patterned after a law passed in California.

The bill didn’t garner a vote from the Senate due to concerns about the efficacy of the test strips, said Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond.

Kimchi day

Nov. 22 won’t be celebrated as Kimchi Day this year. After a strong start to the session, House Bill 1017 to honor the Korean staple sat in the Rules Committee for six weeks without a vote.

Special license plates

Washington will not get new special license plates this year. House Bill 1368 included the addition of new license plates of Mount St. Helens, Smokey Bear, and the official state sport pickleball among others but failed to get the necessary support to move forward.

Even-year elections

To increase voter turnout and participation, lawmakers looked at allowing cities, towns, and certain special purpose districts to change their elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years.

House Bill 1339 failed to receive a floor vote before the House of origin cutoff.

Small businesses

And last but not least, Rep. Mark Klicker, R-Walla Walla, had a dream to make neighborhoods feel more like the streets of Paris and for these small businesses to create a greater sense of community.

House Bill 1175 would have allowed small businesses like coffee shops or small grocery stores to be in residential neighborhoods. The bill gained bipartisan support but failed to get a floor vote.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this report.