Opinion: A few bills that didn’t make the cut

Date: Friday, February 2, 2024

The following bills failed to pass in committee before the legislative cut-off date of Jan. 31.

Paul Guppy provides a look at the bills that are ‘technically’ dead for the year

Paul Guppy
Washington Policy Center

The following bills failed to pass in committee before the legislative cut-off date of Jan. 31. These bills are technically “dead” for the year, although House and Senate leaders can always resurrect a bill putting it into the budget bill that is passed late in the session. The 2024 legislative session is scheduled to end on March 8.

SB 5961 – to impose statewide rent control limiting rent increases to 5% a year.
(Note: a version of this bill passed in a House committee, so statewide rent control may come up again later in the session)
SB 5427, “Hate crimes” bounty bill, to pay up to $2,000 to people who report their neighbors for “bias incidents”
SB 2150, to keep the name of Donald J. Trump off the presidential ballot in Washington state
SB 5770, to repeal the voter-approved 1% property tax-increase limit and replace it with a 3% limit
HB 2030, to let prisoners serving time vote, serve on juries and run for public office
HB 2177, to put a sex offender on the State Sex Offender Policy Board
HB 1868, to ban small gas motors used in outdoor equipment
HB 6064, to effectively ban pets from rental properties by limiting how much landlords can charge for pet damage to a unit.

We will keep monitoring the session to see what bills do move forward, and if any of these or other ideas are resurrected in the budget process.

Paul Guppy is the vice president for research at the Washington Policy Center.