House passes renter protections (again)
Plus health care bills that survived and some recommended reading
Editor’s Note: Today is the house-of-origin deadline in the Legislature. Most bills that haven’t passed the House or the Senate by the end of the day are considered dead. We’ll round up the casualties on Friday. Here’s a look at some survivors.
The House passed a rent restriction bill for the second consecutive legislative session—one that promises to escape the fate of its predecessor in the Senate.
House Bill 1217, carried by Rep. Nicole Macri, D-Seattle, made it off the floor with little drama on Monday. Lawmakers approved an amendment from Macri that capped move-in fees and security deposits to no more than two months' rent if a tenant has a pet in tow. Late fees would be capped at 2% of monthly rent for the first month it’s past due; then 3% the following month and 5% the month after that. Tenants would also be entitled to a 90-day notice before any rent increase rather than 180 days for increases of 3% or more.
Otherwise, most of the original proposal from now-Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, remains intact. The bill still aims to cap yearly rent increases at 7% for rentals 12 years and older. The market-rate housing folks and like-minded Republicans insist rent control of any breed is repellent for real estate investors and kills the rental industry in the process. On the flipside, housing advocates argue it’ll save that many more tenants from double-digit rent hikes. Washington renters currently have zero protection from major rent increases.
The House GOP was ready and waiting with a barrage of amendments intended to kill the bill on the floor. The chamber’s Democratic leadership deemed the vast majority of those tweaks out of order and debated just a smattering of them before the final vote amid the rush of mid-week cutoff.
If this all seems like a major case of déjà vu, that’s because it is. The House passed a bill along the same idea last session with flying colors. We went deep into the weeds last session on how the idea died in the Senate—in short, the moderate Democrats weren’t in favor of rent stabilization. This time around, the chamber looks like a stacked deck of progressives in rent control’s favor.
HB 1217 passed by an even wider margin than its predecessor on Monday, with a 53-42 vote. House Democrats Dan Bronoske of Lakewood, Amy Walen of Kirkland, Sharon Tomiko Santos of Seattle, and Mari Leavitt of University Place, joined Republicans in voting no.
TG
Revised dental bill exits Senate floor on unanimous vote
After contentious negotiation between the Washington State Dental Association and Delta Dental insurance company, the stakeholdering process led by the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, Senate Health and Long-term Committee Chair Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, and prime sponsor Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, Senate Bill 5351 yielded a bill that left the floor on a unanimous bipartisan vote.
The dentists kicked off the session with a confrontational ad campaign accusing Delta Dental, Washington's biggest dental insurance carrier, of unfair and deceptive practices. We’re told getting the sides to agree was like pulling teeth.
The version of the bill that passed the floor would prohibit dental insurers from denying coverage for multiple procedures performed on the same day; stipulates when a dental insurer can levy a processing fee for paying a claim; and directs the Insurance Commissioner to investigate a solution to the dental loss ratios and address the risk of balanced billing for consumers seeking out-of-network care.
Before asking for a “yes” vote, Cleveland acknowledged this is the first step in a bigger conversation about appropriate dental insurance policies and practices regulation.
SK
Join us for happy hour in Olympia on March 25
Want to chew over all this stuff in person? Come join The Observer the evening of March 25 at The Heritage Room in downtown Olympia for tasty snacks, beverages, adult and otherwise, and a spicy debate on the state of the budget and related issues. To register, go here.
PQ/TG/SK
Expanding paid family leave
Workers welcoming a new kid into the family or caring for an ailing parent may have better guarantees of longer leave under another bill that passed the House.
House Bill 1213 from Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle, would extend employment protections under Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program to everyone who began working for their current employer—big or small—180 calendar days before taking leave. To that end, the bill would dole out $3.4M in grants by 2029 to small businesses to help cover the costs of hiring temps to carry the workload.
Part of the wider problem the bill addresses is “stacking,” or the thorny situation in which workers exhaust their leave rights under one law, but take leave under another. The Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and state laws all offer leave under different circumstances and don’t always run concurrently, leaving many workers high and dry when a family emergency hits.
Business lobbies opposing the bill were a hard nope on the prospect of new-ish workers still on probation taking extended leave.
HB 1213 passed the House 55-41 with Democratic Reps. Alicia Rule of Blaine and Larry Springer of Kirkland joining Republicans in voting no. It’ll most likely head on over to the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee where pro-worker bills have been having a banner year so far.
TG
A partisan split on guiding health departments to trust science
A bill from House Health and Wellness Committee chair Rep. Dan Bronoske, D-Lakewood, passed the chamber on a 58-35 vote after a fierce partisan debate stretched into the late hours of Friday night. House Bill 1531 directs state and local public health departments to use the best available scientific evidence when establishing health policy to address the spread of disease.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, that would mean the horse deworming drug ivermectin is out; masking while sick, staying updated on vaccines and boosters, are in.
HB 1531 did not introduce new immunization or vaccination requirements for Washington residents but was intended as a safeguard against local governments gagging public health officials from sharing evidence-based solutions to health problems. Immunizations and vaccinations continue to be required in some settings, such as public schools, though families can request an exemption under certain circumstances.
The partisan split over what, if any, lessons were gleaned from the pandemic was on clear display in the debate. Republican lawmakers pushed multiple amendments to weaken the bill, including an amendment that would have permitted health officials to promote “drug repurposing, supplements, and new emerging treatments that would enhance the immune system,” which would leave the door open for homeopathic remedies or non-FDA approved materials. By our understanding, if the amendment had passed, public health officials could conceivably argue ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment is back on the table, despite research showing no positive impact on halting disease progression.1
The amendment failed and HB 1531 moved on to the Senate.
Why this matters: HB 1531 takes on new significance as a measles outbreak due to lower vaccination rates threatens the health and well-being of children and vulnerable adults nationwide. Head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wrote an editorial promoting the measles vaccine for Fox News after an outbreak in Texas killed one child, but also peddled misinformation about the use of Vitamin A and other homeopathic remedies to protect against the highly transmissible virus. Measles is among the most contagious of all airborne communicable diseases, infecting nine in 10 unvaccinated people who come into contact with a symptomatic patient. There is no evidence that vitamins or a healthy diet can meaningfully protect a person from contracting measles.2
SK
Curtailing uninvited state militias
Washington’s National Guard will be the only national guard welcome in the state without an invitation per a House bill that cleared the floor Monday.
On paper, House Bill 1321 from Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma, aims to curtail the chance a governor from a different state sends National Guard members across our borders to enforce their laws on unwitting neighbors. The idea for this bill came after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent his state’s national guard troops to quell immigration on the Texas-Mexican border, which the Lone Star tipped its hat to. Mena and House Democrats argue it’s better we have a law thwarting any unwelcome backseat driving from state governments that aren’t our own from the get-go rather than tempt fate.
The current version of the bill passed the House via a party-line vote and added territories and districts to the pool of governments that require permission from Washington’s governor to send in troops. Should our governor give permission, written or otherwise, there would be no take backs. The U.S. President would still have carte blanche to send whomever he wants to any state in a national emergency.
Putting HB 1321 on the books is among Ferguson’s stated priorities this session, per his State of the State address. As such, it’s bound to get his signature if the Senate sends it to his desk.
All that said, should things deteriorate so badly that the Idaho National Guard starts massing in Coeur d’Alene, is a line in the RCW going to stop them rolling into Spokane?
TG
Recommended Reading
Senate Ways & Means Chair presents pay cut for teachers
Claire Bryan of The Seattle Times reported on the upcoming hearing for a bill to cut bonuses for some of Washington’s most qualified teachers. Senate Bill 5737 from Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, would suspend bonuses for teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and the supplemental bonus for board-certified teachers working in high-poverty school districts.
The bonus has been part of Washington statute since 2005. If the bill passes, the bonus would be suspended for the next four years, saving the state about $239 million.
We touched on the proposal to cut National Board Certification bonuses in December, when it first appeared in then-Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget. The proposal landed poorly with the Washington Education Association and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Both organizations cited these bonuses as a major incentive for highly qualified teachers to teach in low-income school districts.
Robinson’s bill is set for a hearing in Senate Ways & Means on Thursday. We’ll know more about the viability of the proposed cut then, but it would still need to make it past now-Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has been protective of existing spending on K-12 education. 3
SK
Ferguson promises to limit his own emergency powers
Jerry Cornfield over at the Washington State Standard breaks down Gov. Bob Ferguson’s pledge to limit his own emergency powers should that ever become necessary. Ferguson offered to work with Republicans to put some sideboards on the governor’s power, but couldn’t reach agreement with majority Democrats in the Senate. The long state of emergency declared by former Gov. Jay Inslee during the pandemic fired up folks on the right who chafed at the various restrictions on business and everyday life.
PQ
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RIP to a pup who could really rock a sweater
Yo-Yo, submitted in memoriam by her human, subscriber Dallas Roberts. Yo-Yo left us last week. All ya'll hug those pets. Want to see your pet in this space? Drop us a photo and some caption material.
The use of ivermectin to manage COVID-19 infection was a hot-button topic for many years after then-President Donald Trump touted it as a possible solution to the crisis. A 2022 study by the New England Journal of Medicine debunked this theory, showing ivermectin was not effective in reducing the severity of COVID-19 infection.
Paul had measles as an adolescent thanks to a bad batch of vaccine and the low vaccination rate in rural Colorado in the 1970s. It was no bueno.
Because this bill would be “necessary to implement the budget,” it’s likely immune from Wednesday’s deadline.