WA Legislature - Update
(April 12, 2025)

WA Legislature - Update (April 12, 2025) - Takeaways

Representatives passed legislation seeking to rein in use of management agreements, the social equity bill was calendared, and the House would convene Saturday but no cannabis bills were well positioned.

Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Saturday April 12th, the 90th day of the 2025 regular session.

My top 4 takeaways:

  • On Friday, the Washington State House of Representatives (WA House) amended and passed SB 5403 to clarify the scope of allowable management agreements and returned the legislation to the Senate for a concurrence or dispute vote.
    • SB 5403 - Cannabis Retail Financial Interest
      • See the bill text, previous bill report, and previous fiscal note for more details.
      • On March 12th, the legislation was passed 41-7-0-1 by the Senate.
      • On March 26th during the public hearing in the Washington State House Consumer Protection and Business Committee (WA House CPB), members heard powerfully supportive testimony from across the cannabis sector and no opposition to the bill as written.  Emphasizing the statutory limit of individual ownership to five retail stores, testifiers recounted stories of larger conglomerate organizations exercising buying power to suppress wholesale pricing, require one-sided deals, and force the end of multi-year business relationships between retailers and processors.
      • On April 1st during the executive session, Representative Kristine Reeves introduced an amendment she described as providing more specificity and clarity to the bill language.  Minority Caucus Chair Peter Abbarno had supported the underlying bill language but opposed the change as he anticipated unexpected consequences.  Abbarno was conflicted about potential “retroactive” impacts on businesses operating under historically approved management agreements which may be found to be illegal once the new law went into effect if not spelled out more clearly.  The amendment was adopted by voice vote and the legislation was advanced in an 11-3-1 bipartisan vote.
      • After referral to the Washington State House Rules Committee (WA House RUL), the legislation was pulled by chamber leadership one week later on Tuesday April 8th.
      • On Thursday April 10th, amendment CLOD 371 by Representative Kristine Reeves was published and described as having the following effects:
        • “Adds management agreements entered under existing authorization for cannabis licensees to have their place of business conducted by a manager or agent to the types of agreements subject to the bill's prohibition on agreements conferring a financial interest across more than five retail cannabis licenses.
        • “Specifies that the bill applies both retroactively and prospectively.”
      • In the late afternoon on Friday, SB 5403 was added to an order of consideration and the WA House CPB version of the legislation was brought up for its second and third reading.
        • In her remarks on the amendment, Reeves emphasized the provision specifying retroactive effect, acknowledging that was not how effective dates of statutes would normally be interpreted.  However in this circumstance, Reeves said, “the problem that we are trying to solve, Mr. Speaker, does require us to make this policy retroactive…” (audio < 1m, video - TVW).
        • Abbarno spoke against the amendment which he described as “retroactively interfer[ing] with contractual relationships” as “there's laws against such things and actions that could be taken” (audio < 1m, video - TVW).
        • Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore Joe Timmons asked for a voice vote on the amendment, but then expressed his own uncertainty about the result, calling for division and a roll call vote.  The amendment was adopted 53-37-0-4.  Timmons then called for a voice vote on adoption of the WA House CPB bill as amended, but again expressed uncertainty in his interpretation.  The roll call vote mirrored the vote on the amendment, 53-37-0-4.
          • At publication time, the House roster included 59 Democrats and 39 Republicans.
        • In her remarks on third reading, Reeves said the legislation was intended to address a “loophole” around the statutory restriction against ownership of more than five retail licenses made possible “under management agreements…the ability to essentially use branded material like your name or your signage, folks have figured out how to get around that five license requirement and have created a dominance in the market that I think was unintended” (audio - 2m, video - TVW).
        • Abbarno again spoke against the bill, testifying that “I don't know if I've ever worked into a contractual relationship where a law was passed that retroactively interferes with that relationship, and not only interferes with the relationship, but the business expectancy, especially after those two businesses not only entered into an agreement, but relied on it, invested in it, and now have invested in funds and have maybe strategically planned their businesses.”  He alleged that “if you have two businesses that are unrelated, who just go to coffee and just talk about the price of cannabis, you could be thrown under this big, vague, broad definition of financial interest” (audio - 2m, video - TVW).
        • Representative Mike Volz also spoke against the legislation, noting he had voted to recommend the bill without the retroactive amendment in WA House CPB (audio - 1m, video - TVW).
        • The amended legislation was passed 57-37-0-4 in a strictly partisan vote.  
      • Following passage, the legislation will be returned to the Senate for a concurrence/dispute vote on the bill language as revised by the House.
  • At the close of business in the Senate on Friday, the Washington State Senate Rules Committee (WA Senate RULE) calendared legislation to extend and evaluate the social equity program following publication of an amendment seeking to graft on language from the inactive buffer zones bill.
    • HB 1551 - Social Equity Program Evaluation
      • See the bill text, bill report, and fiscal note for more details.
      • In the early hours on Friday morning, striking amendment S-2845.1 by Senator Rebecca Saldaña was published which appeared to keep the bill largely as written with the addition of the following effect:
        • “Prohibits a city, town, or county from requiring a cannabis retailer licensed through the Cannabis Social Equity Program to locate more than 250 feet from the premises of any other licensed cannabis retailer.”
        • The revised language was pulled from SB 5758 (Social Equity Buffer Zones), a Saldaña bill which was not advanced by the Washington State House Consumer Protection and Business Committee (WA House CPB) prior to the Opposite House Policy Committee Cutoff.
      • Members convened at the Senate Rostrum following adjournment on Friday to vote on a regular package of legislation and a set of gubernatorial appointment confirmations.  HB 1551 was among the regular package pulls selected by chamber leadership.
    • At publication time, one cannabis-related bill remained eligible for calendaring in WA Senate RULE.
    • At publication time, one gubernatorial appointment confirmation remained eligible for calendaring.
      • SGA 9188 - Confirmation - Jim Vollendroff
  • There were no introductions of cannabis-related legislation on Friday, and none staged for Saturday.
    • The draft introduction report in the House for Saturday April 12th did not appear to include any cannabis-related legislation.