WA House APP - Committee Meeting
(February 22, 2021)

Here are some observations from the Monday February 22nd Washington State House Appropriations Committee (WA House APP) meeting.

My top 3 takeaways:

• Staff reviewed two proposed amendments to HB 1443 ("Concerning social equity within the cannabis industry") for committee members prior to caucusing.
  • Washington State House Commerce and Gaming Committee (WA House COG) Counsel Kyle Raymond gave a briefing on the legislation to WA House APP members on February 19th as part of the bill’s public hearing. The legislation was subsequently added to the final WA House APP agenda before the House of Origin Fiscal Committee Cutoff.
  • On Monday, expecting procedural challenges in the remote context, Chair Timm Ormsby asked for “a firm deadline for amendments” prior to staff briefings on the planned executive sessions for the day (audio - 4m, video). After the first committee caucus, WA House APP Committee Counsel Kristen Fraser identified two newly proposed amendments to HB 1443. Raymond provided a quick overview describing the suggested changes to the bill (audio - 2m, video):
    • Amendment RAYM 143 - “Requires the Liquor and Cannabis Board to consult with stakeholders, rather than advocates, in adopting rules to establish certain criteria to be considered a social equity applicant and to further define disproportionately impacted area criteria.”
    • Amendment RAYM 144 - “Removes certain required recommendation topics for the Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis, including recommendations regarding the social equity impact of altering residential cannabis agriculture regulations, shifting primary regulation of cannabis production from the Liquor and Cannabis Board to the Department of Agriculture, removing nonviolent cannabis-related felonies and misdemeanors from obtaining a cannabis license, creating workforce training opportunities for underserved communities, redirecting funding from the Washington State Patrol Drug Enforcement Task Force to the Cannabis Social Equity Program, and creating new cannabis license types.”
      • Raymond noted that the previously required recommendations from WA SECTF wouldn’t change.

• The amendments, proposed by the House Republican caucus appointee to the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis (WA SECTF), were briefly discussed and both voted down.
  • Assistant Ranking Minority Member Kelly Chambers sponsored both amendments and served as the Washington House minority caucus appointee to WA SECTF. She opposed HB 1443 during the WA House COG executive session on the legislation on February 12th.
    • Chambers had not been involved in drafting HB 1443, nor was she present at the January 25th WA SECTF meeting during which motions were passed which helped bolster the bill. Task force Co-Chair and fellow WA House COG member Melanie Morgan stated she reached out to include Chambers.
  • Amendment RAYM 143
    • The amendment proposed to modify section two, changing a description of whom WSLCB should consult with in defining ‘social equity applicants’ from ‘advocates’ to ‘stakeholders.’
    • Chambers pointed out that “using advocate only sort of implies that it’s only supporters of this and only one voice that would be allowed” on a topic that “requires a lot of different voices and perspectives” (audio - 1m, video).
    • Representative Pat Sullivan, also the House Majority Leader, said he was “respectfully asking for a no vote” on Chambers’ amendment as he’d been told in caucus “the word ‘stakeholder,’ while it’s used very frequently within our, our realm, it takes on a negative connotation with a number of groups. It’s believed that the term actually came about from a time when there was land grabbing in North America and ownership titles were distributed to people based on where they would place their stakes” without regard for the land rights of indigenous communities. He asked that his colleagues work with him as the bill was advanced to “find a term...that is appropriate” (audio - 1m, video).
      • There has been disagreement around the etymology of the term ‘stakeholder’, though most don’t trace usage to the colonial belief in manifest destiny, when occupation of indigenous lands and denial of rights was common. According to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word first appeared in 1708 and meant the holder of a wager. It is possible evidence for use of ‘stakeholder’ in land claims isn’t more widely evident.
      • However, the similar term ‘staking a claim’ was terminology still in use regarding mining claims by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management at publication time.
    • Following a voice vote by the committee, the amendment was not adopted (audio - 1m, video).
  • Amendment RAYM 144 
    • The amendment proposed to excise all additional topics the bill would task the task force with providing recommendations on.
    • Chambers argued that the recommendations added in the bill were "all important topics" but WA SECTF’s mission “should stay focused on that original mission of addressing those [retail] licenses” that WSLCB was required to distribute “in an equitable manner.” She said the suggested “big topics” were worthy of “scrutiny and process and involvement” from others, calling attention in particular to “redirecting the funding from the state patrol drug enforcement task force.” Chambers pledged to work with her colleagues on Washington State Patrol (WSP) drug enforcement funding for the legislative session “next year...but I think it makes the job of the task force quite a bit bigger than it was originally intended” (audio - 2m, video).
    • Vice Chair Nicole Macri asked legislators not to support the amendment. While she expressed understanding for Chambers’ point of view, Macri said “it’s unmistakable that the years of the war on drugs had a particularly negative impact on communities of color” and society had undergone “a racial reckoning and awakening this year." Macri supported the “original scope” of the task force, but felt that “at all levels” of the legal cannabis sector “we need to really examine how we infuse broader racial and social equity" (audio - 1m, video).
    • After another voice vote by members, the amendment was not adopted (audio - 1m, video).

• Lawmakers discussed the bill ahead of a final vote in which HB 1443 was recommended out of committee along strict party lines.
  • Macri asked for a ‘yes’ vote on HB 1443. While Washington state had been “at the forefront of, of cannabis legalization and regulation...we have learned that we have not gone far enough" to develop an equitable industry. She noted, “We made good strides last year in passing the cannabis social equity [task force] and this bill really...provides a model for the nation and other states.” Macri commented that there was still “a lot of work to do to unwind the injustices of the past and this bill sets a path out to do that” (audio - 2m, video).
  • Chambers explained that Republican members of the committee would oppose the bill in its current form and “look forward to continuing the conversation with anybody on the committee” as the bill was advanced (audio - 1m, video).
  • A roll call vote of the committee resulted in 19 yeas, 13 nays, and one excused. The majority caucus voted in favor of the legislation, while Republican members were split between voting ‘do not pass’ and opposing the bill ‘without recommendation’ (audio - 3m, video):
    • Do not pass:
      • Assistant Ranking Minority Member Chris Corry, Assistant Minority Floor Leader
      • Representative Matt Boehnke
      • Representative Mary Dye
      • Representative Larry Hoff
      • Representative Skyler Rude
    • Without recommendation:
      • Ranking Minority Member Drew Stokesbary
      • Assistant Ranking Minority Member Drew MacEwen, Assistant Minority Floor Leader
      • Representative Kelly Chambers
      • Representative Michelle Caldier
      • Representative Paul Harris, Minority Caucus Chair
      • Representative Cyndy Jacobsen, Assistant Minority Whip
      • Representative Joe Schmick
      • Representative Mike Steele
    • Representative Bruce Chandler was excused from the vote.
  • HB 1443 was sent to the Washington State House Rules Committee (WA House RUL) to await calendaring for that chamber’s order of consideration. On Wednesday February 24th, WA House RUL was ”relieved of further consideration” of the bill by representatives during debate and added to the floor calendar for its second reading. Legislation must be passed by its chamber of origin by March 9th, according to the legislative session cutoff calendar.
  • The first WA SECTF work group meeting, centered on Disproportionately Impacted Communities, was scheduled for Thursday February 25th. Task force members Cheri MacLeod and Christopher Poulos agreed to co-chair the work group at the December 2020 task force meeting.