As the week nears an end, the House and Senate continue to work hard to move bills through the final stages of the legislative process.

Earlier in the day, the House passed HB 3178 with a vote of 97-1.  House Bill 3178 organizes, consolidates, and, where appropriate, contracts with private providers for technology systems and resources.  In addition, the bill establishes spending restrictions for information technology for the 2009-2011 biennium.

The House passed a striker put forth by the House Ways & Means Committee which replaces the current language but maintains the intent of the bill. In addition, the final bill passed off the House floor with two amendments attached:

• Amendment 119:  Adds the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to the list of higher education entities exempted from provisions of the bill.
• Amendment 118: Removes the section of the bill that changes the Data Processing Revolving Fund from a non-appropriated to an appropriated account.

House Bill 3178 now goes to the Senate for further consideration.

The Senate was also busy moving bills through the process. The Senate passed House Bill 2481 with a vote of 47-0.

HB 2481 allows the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to become a viable partner in the area of biomass and a potential partner with Evergreen in our Biomass Gasification Project. 

As passed by the House, HB 2481 will allow the DNR to do the following:

• Allows the department to enter into contract terms up to 15 years when an entity plans and commits to a capital investment of at least 50 million dollars prior to the contract and completes that investment prior to removal of biomass under the contract.
• Allows the department to include provisions in the agreement that are periodically adjusted for market conditions.
• Requires the contract to include provisions that allow the department, when it is in the best interest of the trust beneficiaries, to maintain access to existing users of biomass.
• Ensures that biomass volume conveyed under this chapter will not be counted toward the department’s sustainable harvest target, except that appraised timber sold in a conventional timber sale will count toward the target whether individual trees are ultimately used by that purchaser for timber or biomass energy.
• Excludes wood from existing old growth forests from the definition of forest biomass

The bills now goes to the House for concurrence.