WA Legislature - Update
(April 28, 2025)

WA Legislature - Update (April 28, 2025) - Takeaways

Legislators passed the operating budget—somewhat narrowly in the House—and closed out the 2025 regular session having passed four cannabis-related bills and two relevant appointment confirmations.

Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Monday April 27th, the 1st day following the 2025 regular session.

My top 2 takeaways:

  • On Sunday and amidst the consideration of other revenue-oriented legislation, the conference committee report on the operating budgets was adopted and passed by both chambers.
    • SB 5167 - Operating Budget and Supplemental Operating Budget
      • See the bill text and the fiscal information website for more details.
      • On Saturday, conference committee members from the majority party supported the publication of a substantially revised version of the operating budgets on the penultimate day of the 2025 regular session.
        • Notably, a version of the language from HB 1551, the social equity program evaluation bill which had not been advanced by the Senate, was included as a pair of operating budget provisos.  As no budget appropriations were made in those provisos, their inclusion could be challenged as a breach of Article II, Section 19 of the Washington State Constitution requiring the title of a bill to match its subject matter, irrespective of the purpose or value of the particular included language.
          • At publication time, Cannabis Observer had not assessed the extent to which similar patterns of unfunded budget provisos were included elsewhere throughout the 1366 pages of legislation.
      • On Sunday, the House took up the legislation in their initial order of consideration, adopted the conference report, and somewhat narrowly passed the legislation after stridently partisan remarks.
      • On Sunday, the Senate took up the bill in mid-afternoon, adopted the conference report, and passed the legislation along more clearly partisan lines.
      • After passage, the Washington State House of Representatives Democratic Caucus and Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus published a joint announcement on the passage of the legislation.  And In the early evening, the Office of the Governor published a statement.
      • By late afternoon, both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House had signed the bill and sent it on its way to the Office of the Governor.  The Governor would have until May 20th to consider the legislation and potentially veto some sections.
        • Ferguson’s predecessor, former Governor Jay Inslee, repeatedly attempted to veto selected language within particular sections of budget bills, and was repeatedly rebuked by the Washington State Supreme Court for violating the Washington State Constitution as amended by a 1974 voter initiative granting limited line item veto power to the Executive.
  • Relatively early on Sunday evening, legislators adjourned sine die with no intention of returning to take up additional business in 2025 beyond planned interim work.
    • Sunday April 27th occasioned sine die, the end of the regular session, described as the “Last day allowed for regular session under state constitution.”  The Senate President and Speaker of the House had more or less simultaneously gaveled their respective chambers into celebration by 6:30pm PT.
    • In addition to the operating budgets, four cannabis-related bills and two relevant gubernatorial appointment confirmations were passed by the Legislature during the 2025 regular session:
      • HB 1141 - Cannabis Production Unions
      • HB 1341 - DOH Patient Data Sharing
      • SB 5206 - Cannabis Retailer Advertising
      • SB 5403 - Cannabis Retail Financial Interest
      • SGA 9188 - Confirmation - Jim Vollendroff
      • SGA 9203 - Confirmation - Pete Holmes
      • At publication time, SB 5206 and SB 5403 had not yet been scheduled for action by the Governor.
    • 25 cannabis-related and 9 adjacent bills tracked by Cannabis Observer during the 2025 regular session were not advanced.
      • Bills which were not advanced past their House of Origin would be preserved in their last assigned location and reintroduced during the subsequent session.
      • Bills which were advanced to the Opposite House were returned to their House of Origin at the conclusion of the regular session and assigned to their respective rules committee to be reviewed for calendaring for another second reading in the chamber.
    • Governor Bob Ferguson could demand that legislators subsequently continue working by calling for an initial up-to-30-day special session; legislators made no effort to muster a super-majority to do so themselves.
      • The Guide to Lawmaking indicated, “Special sessions can be called by the Governor or the Legislature and often are held to deal with fiscal matters. There is no limit to how many special sessions can be called but each special session is 30 days. The legislature may adjourn before the 30th day is [sic] their business is complete. Almost all special sessions are called by the Governor and occur when they issue a proclamation. For the Legislature to call a special session, a two-thirds vote is required in both chambers.”
    • At publication time, 2025 interim plans of standing committees in the House and the Senate had not been published.