We’re still celebrating the groups that joined us at IFAD 2023 and who continue to raise their voices! Pictured here are Temple Beth Am, Seattle and the Washington Poor Peoples’ Campaign at Interfaith Advocacy Day. You can see other photos of the day in our Facebook album and watch the video of the morning sessions at our YouTube page. We have updated our Blog with an inspiring prayer that FAN Governing Board Chair Rev. Carol Jensen delivered to legislators in the House chamber on the morning of IFAD. May it inspire our continued advocacy!


Take Action!
Sign in “Pro” and Testify

Please Note: For your sign-in choice to be counted, you need to sign in more than an hour prior to the beginning of the hearing. Also, if you are interested in signing in PRO on other bills, the general link for Committee Hearing Sign-Ins is https://app.leg.wa.gov/csi.

Today is the policy committee cutoff date; next week, February 24 is the fiscal committee cutoff date, the last day for reports from House fiscal committees, Senate Ways & Means, and Transportation Committees in house of origin.

Please take action on these bills:

By Monday 8am: SB 5427 Bias Incident Hotline would establish a reporting hotline, track hate crimes and bias incidents, and create an assistance fund. This bill will have a public hearing in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means on February 20 at 9:00am.

By Monday noon: HB 1447 Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) Improvements would strengthen the ability of TANF to meet the foundational needs of children, adults, and families. This bill will have a public hearing in the House Committee on Appropriations on February 20 at 1:30pm. Sign in PRO here.

By Tuesday noon: HB 1513 Traffic Safety for All would end stops for non-moving violations, to reduce disproportionate impacts on communities of color while allowing officers to stop people for impaired driving, distracted driving, speeding, and unrestrained passengers – the leading causes of traffic accidents. This bill passed the House Committee on Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry and will have a public hearing in the House Transportation Committee on February 21 at 1:30pm.

Please ask members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee to pass:

  • SB 5078 Firearm Industry Responsibility & Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act.
  • SB 5236 Safe Healthcare Staffing.

Please ask members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee to hold hearings on:

  • SB 5109 Unemployment Benefits for Undocumented Workers.
  • SB 5125 Washington Future Fund “Baby Bonds.”
  • SB 5241 Keep Our Care Act.
  • SB 5339 Free School Meals for All Students.

Please ask members of the House Appropriations Committee to pass:

  • HB 1131 Washington Recycling and Packaging (WRAP) Act.
  • HB 1260 Aging, Blind, & Disabled (ABD) Fix.
  • HB 1445 AG Investigations & Reform.

Please ask members of the House Appropriations Committee to hold hearings on:

  • HB 1025 Access to Fairness for victims of police misconduct and their families.
  • HB 1095 Unemployment Benefits for Undocumented Workers.
  • HB 1143 Require a Permit to Purchase Firearms.
  • HB 1238 Free School Meals for Students.
  • HB 1388 Protecting Renters from predatory residential rent practices.
  • HB 1389 Concerning Residential Rent Increases.

Legislative Session Week 6 in Review

Last Monday, HB 1784 Hunger Relief had a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee and was unanimously passed out of committee later in the week. This bill would address the “hunger cliff’ facing many states across the nation. This stop-gap measure would provide $20 million to supply food to food banks, $6 million for senior meals, and $2 million for fruit and vegetable incentives.

HB 1024 Real Labor Real Wages Act substitute bill passed out of the House Appropriations Committee. The initial aim of the bill was for incarcerated workers to be paid minimum wage instead of the current $0.49/hour average wage. Though minimum wage compensation will not happen this session, progress was still made. The substitute bill moving forward would mandate that incarcerated persons participating in certain Correctional Industries work programs must be paid no less than $1.50 an hour. It would also require that the amount paid to an incarcerated person participating in a Class III work program must be no less than $200 a month. The Department of Corrections would also be required to submit a report related to debt incurred by incarcerated persons for the cost of items and services while incarcerated.

HB 1087 Solitary Confinement Reform was scheduled for executive session, but no action was taken in the House Committee on Appropriations.

On Tuesday, the 3-day Environmental Lobby Days started with Rep. Beth Doglio, Chair of the Environment & Energy committee, speaking to the participants about the current environmental bills. These are the priority bills that you should contact your legislators about passing:

  • HB 1181/SB 5203 Planning for a Climate Friendly Future, which would improve the state’s climate response by updating the Growth Management Act.
  • HB 1131/SB 5154 Washington Recycling and Packaging (WRAP) Act, which would modernize our recycling system by incentivizing producers to use reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging and significantly increase recycling rates for beverage containers by establishing a deposit return system.
  • HB 1329/SB 5366 Extreme Heat Utility Shutoff Moratorium, which would prohibit utility providers from discontinuing electricity and drinking water services to residential customers during extreme heat.

FAN Policy Engagement Director Kristin Ang testified before the Senate Ways & Means Committee in support of SB 5533 Creation of a Model Vehicle Pursuit Policy. This bill would set up a deliberative stakeholder process, including research and data gathering, to create a vehicular pursuit model policy that uses modern technology. She asserted that the policy work group should be inclusive and consist of law enforcement, community organizations, experts in police tactics, and academics and researchers in criminal justice and transportation safety. This would be a way to properly identify the problems, evaluate the impacts, and produce substantive data-driven solutions. Currently, pursuits are allowed only for violent crimes, sexual offenses, escapes, and DUIs. The goal of the statewide legislative change in 2021 was to decrease the significant number of individuals, particularly bystanders, who were killed or injured due to vehicular pursuits. Preliminary evidence suggests that the current law is saving lives by decreasing fatalities.

One of our economic justice priorities, HB 1473/SB 5486 Extreme Wealth Tax was heard in the House Finance Committee. This wealth tax would collect a 1% property tax on intangible property over $250 million from multi-millionaires and billionaires, by taxing wealth held in stocks, bonds, and other financial intangible property that currently remains untaxed by Washington’s revenue system. Fewer than 0.01% of Washingtonians would ever pay this tax. Anti-taxman Tim Eyman testified against the bill, citing how unfair it would be to very wealthy people. Rep. Thai, the bill’s sponsor, countered that the tax would raise billions of dollars to help people with disabilities and fund early learning, childcare, and housing, the programs we need to make Washington a healthier state.

On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee heard HB 1131 Washington Recycling and Packaging (WRAP) Act, which would modernize our recycling system, and HB 1260 Aging, Blind, & Disabled (ABD) Fix, which would end the requirement that extremely low-income, disabled people pay back ABD benefits. Your advocacy is needed before the 2/24 fiscal cutoff.

Thursday was Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) Advocacy Day. Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, along with many organizers, spoke at the rally on the Capitol steps. Sen. Saldaña is a sponsor of the Health Equity for Immigrant’s Campaign (HEIC) budget ask, which would help create a health coverage program by 2024 for people who are ineligible for federal assistance. She is also the prime sponsor of HB 1095/SB 5109 Unemployment Benefits for Undocumented Workers. The House bill passed out of the House Committee on Labor & Workforce Standards earlier in the week and was referred to Appropriations. The Senate bill also passed out of its Senate policy committee and was referred to Ways & Means.

As part of Environmental Lobby Days, FAN Policy Engagement Director Kristin Ang presented at the BIPOC breakout session, “Building Power in our Communities.” She spoke about decarbonizing the transportation industry and HB 1723/SB 5651 Environmental Justice in the Growth Management Act, which would require that both climate change and environmental justice are explicitly addressed in local comprehensive planning, with specific goals, progress reports, and measures to reduce impacts and disparities. The bill would ensure that overburdened communities and populations vulnerable to climate change are specifically considered as a priority, not as an afterthought or sacrifice. It passed out of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use, & Tribal Affairs that day.

Other bills heard on Thursday included:

  • HB 1445 AG Investigations & Reform was heard in the House Appropriations Committee. This bill would give the Attorney General’s office $3.5 million per biennium for investigations, litigation, outreach to law enforcement, and help ensure a fundamental baseline for policing across Washington state.
  • SB 5236 Safe Health Care Staffing was heard in the Senate Ways & Means Committee. This bill would establish minimum staffing standards, improve rest and meal breaks, and create overtime provisions to improve worker safety and patient care. This KUOW story highlights some of the current issues with nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals.
  • SB 5241 Keep Our Care Act passed out of the Senate Committee on Law & Justice and was referred to Ways & Means. This bill would ensure that health entity consolidations improve rather than harm access to affordable health care, including reproductive, gender-affirming, and end-of-life dignity care.

Today (Friday) is policy committee cutoff, and we are awaiting the outcomes of morning executive sessions on SB 5435 Concerning Residential Rent Increases in the Senate Committee on Housing, and on SB 5566 Hunger Free Campus in the Senate Committee on Higher Education & Workforce Development.

Connect with FAN Policy Engagement Director Kristin Ang at ang@fanwa.org.

Please see our Bill Tracker for how other bills on our agenda are progressing. We update the Bill Tracker every Friday.


Moving Forward
the Working Families Tax Credit

We are working with an incredible coalition for the implementation and expansion of the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC). We have two requests of you:

Outreach: The WFTC launched on February 1, and there’s good news! According to the Department of Revenue, 53,000 people have already applied for the WFTC! We know that about 400,000 qualify, so we still need your help in getting the word out. FAN has a web page that you can share in your faith communities that includes the links for people to get more information and enroll. We will continue to update that page with relevant links as we get them. We also have posters in multiple languages that we can send you to post in your faith communities, social service spaces, and neighborhoods. Please contact us at fan@fanwa.org if you’d like us to send you some posters.

Advocacy for Expansion: Become familiar with the WFTC fact sheet and prepare to keep advocating for proposed expansion and fixes as these bills move through the session. The coalition invites you to learn about writing letters to the editor about WFTC on March 1, 4:30-6:00 pm.


Events

Sunday, February 19, 1:30pm, Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation and online. A Learning Right Relations Gathering with Elizabeth Satiacum.

Friday, February 24, 10-11am, online. Black History Month 2023: Black Resistance. Join the Washington State Department of Health for a panel discussion on health and wellness in the Black community through overcoming health disparities and promoting social injustice, featuring Dr. Umair A. Shah, Michelle Y. Merriweather, and Rev. Dr. Leslie David Braxton.

Sunday, February 26, noon-1:00pm, online. Criminal justice reform, racism, and mass incarceration, hosted by Meaningful Movies at First United Methodist Church, Seattle. Discussion about criminal justice reform and dismantling the U.S. system of mass incarceration, featuring a panel of speakers including Tiarra Dearbone, Program Director for Seattle/King County’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program. Event will also include a discussion of the film True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, which highlights Stevenson’s work with the Equal Justice Initiative and efforts to address systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system. 

Tuesday, February 28, 9:00am-1:00pm, online. The 200 Years Since the Origin of Federal Indian Law, presented by Redthought.org & Original Free Nations. February 28 marks 200 years to the day of the 1823 decision in the case Johnson & Graham’s Lessee v. McIntosh. This Supreme Court case is not only noted as the origin of federal Indian Law, but also the beginning of U.S. property law, and significantly, it includes an early defense of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. Join us for a presentation providing detailed analysis of this case and its historical and modern-day impacts. 

Wednesday, March 1, 3:30pm, Port Plaza, Port of Olympia, Totem Pole Journey to Protect Oak Flat begins the journey to Arizona to protect Apache sacred land. Find out more about the Washington State stops on the journey between March 1 and March 10, and how to get involved.


2023 Lobby Days

February 20, 9:00am, online, Children’s Alliance’s Have a Heart for Kids Day.

February 20, 10:00am, Olympia Friends Meeting and online. Quaker Lobby Day 2023. Optional orientation and legislative process review online on Friday, February 17 (today), 7 pm; optional preview from the working groups of the priority bills for lobbying online on Sunday, February 19, 9:30am. 

February 20, 10:30am-2:30pm, online. APRI Seattle’s Annual Charles Roland African American Legislative Day 2023.