2024 Legislative Agenda

Each year we shape our legislative priorities alongside our coalition partners, statewide network, FAN Policy Committee, and FAN Governing Board. We seek to advocate for and implement policies that advance our values grounded in faith and spirituality: belonging and human dignity, justice and equity, interconnectedness, collaboration and pluralism.

Download the 2024 Legislative Successes – Outcomes of Your Advocacy!

2024 Legislative Agenda

You Helped Protect and Expand the Social Safety Net

  • Ensuring Families on Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) keep 100% of their child support payments (HB 1652 Rep. Taylor) beginning January 2025.
    $16.3 million included in the final approved budget to pass through TANF payments to families.
  • $10 million additional funding for Food Banks and Pantries (Budget) addresses the increase in hunger in Washington via Emergency Food Assistance Program.
  • $45 million for Healthy Free School Meals (Budget) ensures schools have sufficient funding to implement previous legislation that expanded free school meals to 90,000 more students.
  • $12 million for Senior Nutrition Programs to Promote Health and Stability (Budget) helps low income seniors and people with disabilities gain access to healthy food programs.
  • $12.23 million to launch a robust Summer EBT Food Assistance program this year (Budget) for low income students and includes proactive family-facing communications that will make the program more effective for families and more efficient for schools.
  • $767,000 to fund Basic Needs Navigators on college campuses (Budget) at .75 FTE as intended in last year’s HB 1559.

You Helped Advance Immigrant and Refugee Rights

  • Funding for Services for Newly Arrived Immigrants (HB 2368 Rep. Gregerson) provides emergency and legal services for people who do not qualify for federal refugee resettlement programs.
    $25.25 million was allocated to DSHS Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance plus $7.5 million to Department of Commerce for King County and City of Tukwila.
  • $28.4 million for Health Equity for Immigrants Campaign (Budget) to fund a Medicaid-like program for people ineligible for federal assistance due to their immigration status, including outreach.
  • $100,000 for Unemployment Benefits for Undocumented Workers establishes a group to study and identify dedicated revenue streams to create a wage replacement initiative in the future.

You Promoted Economic Justice

  • Concerning Employment Standards for Grocery Workers (SB 6007 Sen. Conway) retains grocery workers’ jobs and protects them from layoffs caused by corporate mergers.
  • $1 million for Working Families Tax Credit (Budget) to fund community outreach strategies to increase participation especially in rural, BIPOC, and immigrant communities.

Your Increased Safe Affordable Housing and Prevented Homelessness

  • $127.5 million to increase funding for the Housing Trust Fund (Budget) to build affordable homes.
  • $60 million for Homeless Services (Budget) to backfill the shortfall in document recording fees and prevent cuts to homeless services including shelters, rapid rehousing, and transitional housing.

You Addressed Climate Change and Environmental Justice

  • Clean School Buses (HB 1368 Rep. Senn) funds the transition of Washington’s 10,000+ diesel school buses to electricity, helping both climate change and children’s health.
    $40 million in the transportation budget from the Climate Commitment Act was directed for this purpose.

You Helped Foster Public Safety and Civil Rights

  • Nothing About Us Without Us (HB 1541 Rep. Farivar) ensures the meaningful participation of people with direct lived experience on statutorily created or mandated state committees.
  • Bias Incidents Hotline (SB 5427 Sen. Valdez) supports people who have been targeted or affected by hate crimes and bias incidents by setting up a hotline within the Attorney General’s office.
  • Reporting Lost and Stolen Firearms (HB 1903 Rep. Berry) requires gun owners to report guns that have been lost or stolen.
  • Dealer Responsibility (HB 2118 Rep. Walen) establishes responsible standards for care of merchandise for gun dealers.
  • Concerning Firearms in Sensitive Places (SB 5444 Sen. Valdez) prohibits carrying a weapon into judicial or law enforcement facilities.
  • $1.5 million for Security Grants for Non-Profits and Faith Communities (Budget) to increase the grant pool for organizations that have been experiencing unprecedented threats.
  • $400,000 for Police Pursuits Study (Budget) to prepare a report with policy proposals for the Legislature, with input from individuals who have had encounters with law enforcement.

You Expanded Access to Health Care

  • Supporting Young Adults Following Inpatient Behavioral Health Treatment (HB 1929 Rep. Cortes) will fund supportive residential programs, one each in eastern and western Washington.
  • Increasing Access to Behavioral/Mental Health Care (HB 1946 Rep. Eslick) creates a Health Corps Behavioral Health Scholarship Program with graduates working in underserved areas.
  • Extending the Crisis Relief Center Model (SB 5853 Sen. Dhingra) provides behavioral health crisis services for minors.
  • Coordinating Regional Behavioral Health Crisis Response and Suicide Prevention Services (SB 6251 Sen. Dhingra).
  • $11.26 increase in funding for Youth Behavioral/Mental Health (Budget).

We Will Persevere for Criminal Justice Reform and Police Accountability

We regret that our state legislators did not pass any of the Criminal Justice or Police Accountability bill proposals we supported. We will continue to work with our coalition partners to find ways to move forward these important reforms.