Congress approves Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act

Exciting news to share - last week Congress approved and sent to President Obama the bi-partisan Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016. The bill was co-sponsored by Washington’s Sen. Patty Murray and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. After receiving a request to comment on the proposal from Sen. Murray’s office in 2014, Washington Policy Center President Dann Mead Smith met with Congressional Senate and House budget committee staff on Capitol Hill to discuss this effort and offer WPC assistance to help move this important reform forward. We are very excited to see Congress finally send it to President Obama . . . READ MORE

Public budget details - what, you think this is Sunshine Week?

Like most Washingtonians on day six of the special session, I'm still trying to get caught up on what happened last week when the Legislature adjourned without finishing the supplemental budget. One of the more curious complaints I heard about the new Senate budget proposal is that the details were made publicly available instead of first exchanged in secret behind closed doors as usually happens in Olympia . . . READ MORE

No supplemental budget isn't good but won't result in government shutdown

Today Governor Inslee held a press conference where he issued a blanket veto request for every bill currently on his desk and anything lawmakers send him until a supplemental budget is adopted. Under Article 3, Section 12 of the state's constitution, all bills sent to the Governor become law after a set amount of days unless they are vetoed . . . READ MORE

Do good end results on bills justify bad process?

With the deadline to save charter schools just a week away, several "title only" bills have been introduced to serve as a "vehicle" in case a last minute deal can be reached by lawmakers. Amazingly, one of those "title only" bills, SB 6670 was actually adopted by a committee today without changes and sent to the Rules Committee as a blank bill. This means the blank bill could potentially be pulled directly to the floor if a deal is reached and voted on without any public comment on the actual details . . . READ MORE

With two weeks to go budget debate set

An on-time finish to the 2016 Legislative Session is just two weeks away - at least we hope it is. The vastly different approaches taken by the House and Senate in their supplemental budgets, however, does cause concern whether March 10 will be the final end date. The Senate plan takes a more traditional approach for a supplemental budget focusing on tweaks to the base 2015-17 budget while House budget writers believe now is the time to make major changes . . . READ MORE