At 5:00 p.m. today the deadline for House policy committees to further consider Senate policy bills passed. Senate policy bills in the House must have been moved to either an appropriations committee or to the House floor by end of day today.
The Senate has a few more days to get bills through the process. The Senate must move House policy bills to an appropriations committee or to the floor by 5:00 p.m. February 26.
Washington State House
This morning, the House Higher Education Committee moved three bills Evergreen has tracked this session.
Senate Bill 6355 a.ka. the system design bill, implements the recommendations put forth by the Higher Education Coordinating Board’s (HECB) System Design Plan work during the interim. The bill identifies a process for expanding the higher education system upon proven demand and for reaching the goals in the HECB’s Master Plan.
The bill was amended to: (1) Require the HECB to consider the strategic and operational use of technology in higher educaiton as part of the process developing the state needs assessment; and (2) Provide the HECB additional direction in awarding grants from the Washington Fund for Innovation regarding improving the use of technology.
Senate Bill 6357 requires The College Board in consultation with the four-year sector, workforce training and education board, private career schools, business, and labor to develop policies for awarding academic credit for learning from work and military experience, military and law enforcement training, career college training, internships and externships, and apprenticeships.
Senate Bill 6467 allows institutions of higher education to confer honorary degrees upon persons who were students at those institutions in 1942 but did not graduate because they were ordered into an internment camp.
This afternoon the House State Government & Tribal Affairs Committee moved House Bill 5041. HB 5041 encourages state agencies to award 3 percent of all procurement contracts under $35,000 in value to certified veteran-owned businesses.
Senate
This morning the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development took executive action on two bills of interest to Evergreen.
House Bill 2973 includes, in the definition of “resident student,” a student who resides in Washington and is on active military duty stationed in one of nine Oregon border counties. In addition, the bill adds a student who resides in Washington and is the spouse or dependent of a person who resides in Washington and is on active military duty stationed in an Oregon border county to the definition of “resident student.”
House Bill 2638 provides a specialized-format version of instructional material may not require that the student return the specialized-format version.
The Committee amended the bill to clarify that neither a public nor an institution may require a student to return purchased materials.