The supplemental operating budget’s final form would be released Wednesday morning as time ran short for the two remaining cannabis-related bills awaiting concurrence votes ahead of sine die on Thursday.
Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Wednesday March 6th, the 59th day of the 2024 regular session.
My top 2 takeaways:
- On Tuesday, House representatives accepted the Senate request to form a conference committee on the supplemental operating budget, appointing conferees for the formality of a signing ceremony on the committee report which was set to be released the next day.
- SB 5950 - “Making 2023-2025 fiscal biennium supplemental operating appropriations.”
- On Monday, senators registered their “do not concur” vote on the supplemental operating budget as modified by the House, and called for a conference committee to formalize negotiations on the legislation which were already nearing completion.
- Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore Dan Bronoske made short work of accepting the Senate request to form a conference committee without objection from representatives, appointing Washington State House Appropriations Committee (WA House APP) Chair Timm Ormsby, Representative Mia Gregerson (WA House APP Vice Chair), and Assistant Minority Floor Leader Chris Corry (WA House APP Ranking Minority Member) as the House conferees (video - TVW).
- Later in the afternoon, legislative staff announced the conference committee report signing ceremony would be hosted on Wednesday March 6th at 11:30am PT.
- The announcement indicated “Conference documents on budget bills will be available on the LEAP website at the start of the meeting.”
- SB 5950 - “Making 2023-2025 fiscal biennium supplemental operating appropriations.”
- On Wednesday, the public would learn which legislation was funded in the supplemental operating budget as lawmakers convened floor sessions to debate and vote on legislation ahead of sine die on Thursday March 7th, the end of the 2024 regular session.
- On Wednesday, the WA Senate was scheduled to convene at 10:30am PT and the WA House starting at 12pm PT.
- At 11:30am PT, the WA Legislature Conference Committee on SB 5950 was scheduled to release the likely final revision of the supplemental operating budget and members would be offered the opportunity to provide public remarks.
- Following the release, “Both houses must adopt the conference committee report for the bill to pass the Legislature. If one house does not adopt the conference committee report (whether by vote or inaction), the bill has not passed.”
- Two cannabis-related bills were awaiting concurrence/dispute votes, both of which included mandates which had not previously been funded in the supplemental operating budget.