Next Week: Floor Action

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Next week the Washington House and Senate will spend long days on the floor.

The first half of the week will be dedicated to advancing policy bills, not necessary to implement the budget, from the floor to the Governor’s desk.  Both chambers have until the end of day on April 15 to move bills.  A word to the wise be cautious what you consider to be a “dead bill”, things can come back to life at anytime.

Once this deadline passes it will be full throttle to the ultimate deadline – sine die.  April 26 marks the end of the regular session.

So where do things stand.

To date, the House has passed a proposed biennial operating budget to the Senate. It is now in Senate Ways & Means.  No further action has taken place on revenue, which underlies the operating budget. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to meet a week from today.  The House also advanced, with a strong bipartisan vote, a biennial capital budget.  The capital budget is now in Senate Ways & Means.

The Senate has passed an operating budget to the House. It is now in House Appropriations. This past week the Senate released and advanced a capital budget proposal. The Senate “gut-n-stuffed” the House’s capital budget (HB 1115/116) with their proposal in committee late this week. It is expected the Senate will take up the bill on the floor next week.

Policy Bills Head to the Floor

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Wednesday marked another major deadline, one of the last before sine die, in the process. All policy bills that were moved to a fiscal committee must have moved from committee to the floor.  The exception as always are any bills that are deemed necessary to implement the budget.

A few higher education policy bills have already passed off the floor. This includes legislation to modify the requirements of the State Need Grant program to make the grant available to students enrolled or accepted for enrollment at a qualifying institution of higher education for at least three quarter credits, or the equivalent semester credits (SB 5638) and “clean-up” statute language related to community and technical college provisions  (HB 1961).

A handful of higher education policy bills now await to be advanced from the Rules Committee to the floor and ideally to the Governor’s desk.

  • HB 1138: Creates a task force on mental health and suicide prevention in higher education
  • HB 1546: Makes changes to dual credit programs offered by higher education institutions
  • HB 1644: Allows children of eligible veterans or National Guard members to receive tuition/fee waivers before the age 18 and after age 26 in certain circumstances
  • HB 1825/SB 5355: Aligns state residency policies with federal policies
  • HB 1977: Creates a tuition and fees exemption for children and surviving spouses of certain highway workers.
  • HB 2041: Creates a pilot project on performance-based scholarships in the state need grant program
  • SB 5122: Encourages the public baccalaureate institutions to use multiple methods to determine whether a student must enroll in precollege courses and requires institutions to post placement information on institutional websites and in admissions materials
  • SB 5328:Requires the public baccalaureate institutions to provide financial aid application due dates and distribution policies for prospective and admitted students
  • SB 5518: Creates procedures to address campus sexual violence
  • SB 5534: Creates the certified public accounting scholarship program
  • SB 5719: Creates a task force on campus sexual violence prevention
  • SB 5746: Adds Everett Community College as an aerospace training or educational program
  • SB 5851: Concerns recommendations of the college bound scholarship program work group

Washington House Recognizes President Purce’s Dedication to Higher Education

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Earlier this month the Washington State House of Representatives took action to recognize President Purce’s nearly three decades of service to higher education in Washington by adopting a resolution to acknowledge his work and commitment to higher education.

In particular, the House Resolution honors Dr. Purce’s dedication to quality, efficiency, diversity, equity and sustainability in the liberal arts and sciences.

 

Senate Holds Public Hearing on Biennial Capital Budget

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This afternoon Evergreen testified in support of the Senate’s proposed biennial capital budget.

The Senate’s capital budget provides funding for several projects across higher education. This includes funding for three projects at Evergreen – Lecture Hall Renovation Construction, Lab I Basement Construction funding, and Seminar I Renovation Predesign.  The budget also provides authorization to purchase the Tacoma Campus property.

In addition the budget includes funds to support facilities preservation, minor works, and preventative facility maintenance and building system repairs.

Overall the budget supports Evergreen’s focus and commitment to responsible stewardship of our public facilities and infrastructure to meet current technological needs and demands, and to provide the needed facilities and infrastructure to provide a quality educational experience for students.

The Senate Ways & Means committee will take executive action on the budget tomorrow afternoon in Committee.

Senate Releases Proposed Biennial Capital Budget

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This morning the Washington Senate released a proposed biennial capital budget for higher education. The Senate’s capital budget provides funding for several projects across higher education, authorizing $923.7 million ($558.7 million state bonds) in higher education facilities in the next biennium.

The Senate capital budget provides funding for three key projects at Evergreen – Lecture Hall Renovation Construction, Lab I Basement Construction funding, and Seminar I Renovation Predesign.  The budget also provides authorization to purchase the Tacoma Campus property.

In addition the budget includes funds to support facilities preservation, minor works, and preventative facility maintenance and building system repairs.

Next Steps

The Senate Ways & Means Committee will hold a public hearing on the proposed capital budget this afternoon with action scheduled to move the budget to the Senate floor on tomorrow afternoon.

Fiscal Committees Work Long Days to Meet Deadline

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All policy bills in fiscal committees must move from committee to the floor by the end of today (April 7).

The fiscal committees in both chambers spent long hours yesterday taking testimony on over sixty bills combined.  Today both committees will hold a brief public hearing and then spend the remainder of the day advancing bills from committee to the floor.

A handful of higher education policy bills are on the list to advance to the next step. Many more have already moved directly from the policy committees to the floor. Bills that are expected to advance from fiscal committee to the floor today include:

  • HB 1138: Creates a task force on mental health and suicide prevention in higher education
  • HB 1546: Makes changes to dual credit programs offered by higher education institutions
  • HB 1825: Aligns state residency policies with federal policies
  • HB 2041: Creates a pilot project on performance-based scholarships in the state need grant program
  • SB 5518: Creates procedures to address campus sexual violence
  • SB 5534: Creates the certified public accounting scholarship program
  • SB 5746: Adds Everett Community College as an aerospace training or educational program
  • SB 5851: Concerns recommendations of the college bound scholarship program work group

Next Week: It is All Budget All the Time

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Next week the Legislature kicks into high gear again.  Given the actions of this week the focus will be on advancing key components required to reach a final budget deal.

The House passed a proposed biennial operating budget along party lines on Thursday.  However further action on revenue, which underlies the operating budget, has yet to be scheduled (at the time of this blog).  The House also advanced, with a strong bipartisan vote, a biennial capital budget.  The House operating and capital budgets now go to the Senate for consideration.

The Senate spent nine hours debating a proposed operating budget on Thursday and Friday.  However a final vote was not taken to advance the proposal to the House. It is expected that the Senate will take the operating budget up again next week for a final vote.  The Senate has also not released its proposed biennial capital budget.  It is expected that the Senate’s capital budget will likely be released next week followed by action to advance it to the House.

Within that context both the House and Senate must take action on bills referred to a fiscal committee by the end of day on April 7.  Dozens and dozens of bills await their fate in the fiscal committees.

For higher education this includes legislation to create a task force on mental health and suicide in higher education, remove tuition-setting authority, align state and federal student veteran residency policies, a study of higher education cost drivers, the display of campus data, and recommendations to the College Bound Scholarship program.

Senate Budget Proposal Awaits Vote on Floor

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The Washington Senate spent the wee hours of Friday morning on the floor debating a proposed biennial operating budget.  No final vote was taken on the budget.

Over seventy amendments were offered and five were passed.  The debate began with a vote to change the rules. Know as Rule 53, the rule change required a higher vote threshold for amendments to the operating budge.  The change required thirty votes to approve an amendment not a simple majority (25).

After nine hours of debate, a final vote on the budget was blocked.  A Senate procedural rule requires additional time before a bill can be voted on.

A final vote is expected some time next week.