Sunday, April 11, was the Washington State legislative deadline for all bills to pass the second chamber, except for bills that are determined to be NTIB — “Necessary to Implement the Budget.” This typically refers to revenue and tax exemption bills, such as the proposed capital gains tax and the working families tax exemption, as well as the budget itself. This label is used liberally to prevent legislation from dying.
There have been many environmental and climate bills in this year’s legislative session that will improve the future for a justice environment. However, SB 5126 which is a NTIB, is NOT one of them according to Earth Ministry and WA 350. Earth Ministry writes,
“This bill creates loopholes for polluters to avoid their responsibility to reduce pollution directly and creates offsets that undermine the goal of truly reducing emissions.”
It has a public hearing Wednesday, April 14th but after that it will go to vote. Both organizations recommend people write their legislators to oppose this bill.
- Go to SB 5126
- Find the comments
- Add your name and address then click ‘find your district’
- Be sure to select at least one representative.
- You can add a comment. Ex: the Earth Ministry’s quote from earlier in this article
- Finally, click submit!
Other than NTIBs, all other bills that have passed the second chamber with amendments must be sent back to the original chamber for concurrence. The original chamber can accept or reject the amendments. If they reject the amendments, the second chamber can withdraw their amendments or request a conference committee to resolve the differences. The budget bills passed by each chamber almost always go to a conference committee.
The bills below are some that were supported by Faith Action Network, Fix Democracy First or Earth Ministry and have passed both chambers of the legislature. The next two weeks will be used to reach concurring (or not) on differences between the House and Senate, bill signing by the governor, and finalizing the 2021-23 biennial budgets that will begin on 7/01/21.
Thank you for being part of the legislative process by contacting your state legislators in support of these bills. It is exciting to be part of the process and know that we can make a difference. There will be more to report as this session comes to an end so stay tuned!
*HB 1054 – Prohibiting certain police tactics
**HB 1078 – Restoring voting rights for those exiting of prison; Governor Inslee has signed
*HB 1091 – Clean Fuels Standards
**HB 1151 Bolstering economic recovery; Governor Inslee has signed
*HB1287 – Zero Emissions
*SB 5051 – Decertification standards for law enforcement
*SB 5141 – HEAL act – Implementing the recommendations of the environmental justice task force of 2016*SB 5164 – Three Strikes law reform for Robbery 2 convictions