Remote participation now firmly embedded in WA Legislature

Remote testimony is now a routine part of Washington’s Legislature, with hundreds of thousands engaging online each session to support or oppose bills. — The Senate chambers at the Washington state Capitol. Photo courtesy Legislative Support Services

A leading advocate said Washington is a model for the nation on how to open the door for more voices to be heard before laws are passed

Jerry Cornfield
Washington State Standard

Washington state lawmakers long resisted routinely taking testimony from those not seated in a committee hearing room.

But when forced by the pandemic to operate remotely for two sessions, their minds changed and it is reshaping public involvement in the legislative process.

Thousands signed up to testify remotely this past legislative session. They took part from their homes, their offices and their cars.

Thousands more, sometimes tens of thousands, who did not want to speak still went online to register support or opposition to pending legislation. Organizations pressing to pass or defeat bills sometimes cited the numbers to bolster their arguments.

When crowds did pack hearings on controversial bills, lawmakers wanted to know how many had taken a stand via the online option, as another barometer of public opinion.

“It’s encouraging to see more people engaging — testifying in committee, sharing comments on legislation, and emailing lawmakers,” said House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma. “We’ve worked to expand these options so that people across the state, including those far from Olympia, can participate.”

House committees held 326 meetings with public hearings this past session. For those, 11,768 people signed up to testify in person or remotely and 8,963, or 76%, did get to say their piece, according to tallies provided by legislative staff. Another 585,378 people signed in with a viewpoint but did not wish to testify.

In the Senate, there were 302 committee sessions with hearings and 10,037 people sought to speak. There were 615,023 people who weighed in without testifying in the course of the 105-day session, three times as many as the shorter 2024 session.

“It’s a good thing. It means more public engagement. Now they have a way to express their opinion on a deeply unpopular bill,” said Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia. “That’s good for democracy.

Braun points to what transpired with Democrat-sponsored legislation to repeal a voter-approved limit on property tax growth. Republicans fought the bill in both chambers, rallying residents to state their opposition at public hearings.

On March 31, when the Senate version reached the Senate Ways and Means Committee, 308 people signed in to speak, with 288 opposed. Of the 45,174 not wishing to testify, 42,865 signed in as opposed, based on sign-in logs posted online.

This chart shows trends with Senate testimony between 2019 and 2025 in the Washington Legislature. Chart courtesy of Washington State Senate Facilities and Operations Committee

A similar scenario unfolded April 3 in the House Finance Committee for a hearing on the original House bill to hike the cap on the annual property tax growth factor. This time, 16,027 people who did not testify signed in opposed, versus 2,183 in support. Eventually, the controversial provision was stripped from this bill.

“Providing the option of remote testimony helps open the door to the state capital and allows more voices to be heard before laws are passed affecting the daily lives of citizens and businesses,” said Jason Mercier, who lobbied hard for allowing remote testimony a decade ago while working at the Washington Policy Center.

Mercier recalled testifying remotely for the first time in May 2013 at a hearing chaired by Republican Mike Padden, the former Spokane state senator who embraced the idea early on as a way for his constituents to participate without having to travel to Olympia.

Six years later, the Senate committed to making remote testimony a permanent option and the House leaned into doing it on a trial basis with several of its panels.

This allowed Washington’s Legislature to hit the ground running during the pandemic, said Mercier, now vice president and director of research for Mountain States Policy Center in Idaho.

COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, worsening after that year’s short legislative session. Lawmakers worked entirely from home in 2021 and only a handful could be on the floor at any one time in 2022.

Since returning in-person, they’ve made it routine to participate from outside Olympia.

“It took time and effort, but Washington state is now the model for other states across the country for remote testimony,” Mercier said.

This report was first published by the Washington State Standard.