With just over a week to go in the 2023 legislative session, the House and Senate on Wednesday reached their last major cutoff deadline, when bills coming from the opposite chamber needed to receive a vote. Community and technical college system-supported bills on dual credit, College Bound Scholarship expansion, student basic needs and data transfer were all approved. >>
Tuesday marked the last committee cutoff of the 2023 legislative session when bills with a fiscal impact needed to be voted out of those committees in order to continue in the legislative process. For the community and technical college system, bills on Running Start, nursing education, data sharing and College in the High School moved out of fiscal committees. >>
Washington state will have almost $500 million less in its budget over the next two years, according to projections released Monday by the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. The $483 million dip represents about 0.7% of the projection released in November. >>
House and Senate fiscal committee hearings were long this week but testimony was short as committee members worked to hear and vote on bills ahead of today's fiscal committee cutoff deadline. Following the Feb. 17 policy committee cutoff, the budget-related committees had just this week to complete their work. That meant marathon meetings with time-limited public testimony for committees to work their way through dozens of bills. >>
Legislators gathered in Olympia Monday for the first time in two years to kick off the 2023 legislative session. It was nearly pre-COVID business as usual, but some pandemic-related changes — like allowing members to vote remotely and remote testimony during committee hearings — will remain in place. >>
Tuesday marked the House of Origin cutoff, the deadline when bills that started in the House or Senate needed to be voted on by members of the entire chamber. Bills that did not receive a vote or failed to pass, unless a necessary part of the budget, will not move on in the legislative process for the 2021 session. >>
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Legislative News is published weekly during the legislative session by the staff of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to highlight issues impacting the two-year college system.
SBCTC is led by a Governor-appointed board and provides leadership, advocacy, and coordination for Washington’s system of 34 public community and technical colleges. Each year, about 337,000 students train for the workforce, prepare to transfer to a university, gain basic math and English skills, or pursue continuing education. Visit our website at SBCTC.edu or email us a SBCTCCommunications@sbctc.edu
