Friday, February 6^th,  was the last day to have a bill heard in its original committee. Tuesday the 10^th is the last day for a bill to be heard in a fiscal committee (House Appropriations, House Finance, Senate Ways and Means, etc.). Many of the issues we care about are still in fiscal committee so it is important to make calls and emails encouraging that they be passed out!

 

If you have any questions about what is happening in the legislature or anything written in these alerts, please contact me at: kristenrogers@palm.com.

 

If you need to find out who your legislators are, you can go to www.leg.wa.gov and click on the district finder. You can also leave a message for all three of your legislators (even if you don't know who they are!) and the Governor with one call to the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000.

 

 

Welfare Policies that Lift Families Out of Poverty

 

Hunger

 

House Bill 2769 is scheduled to be heard in House Appropriations today. It needs to be voted out of Committee by Tuesday. It has been changed to include all of the food stamp components but only require lunch in the 18 elementary schools that don't currently have lunch and to include $300,000 in incentives to encourage schools without breakfast to start a breakfast program. The Senate bill has had all of the school food pieces removed and now just contains the food stamp provisions, but was moved out of Senate Children and Family Services and Corrections and should go straight to rules (it shouldn't cost enough to go to Ways and Means).

 

ACTION NEEDED:

 

CALL OR EMAIL YOUR Representatives on the Appropriations Committee and ask him or her to vote HB 2769 out of committee!

 

Access to Health Care

 

Children's Health Insurance Premiums

Premiums for families up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level must be eliminated or thousands more children will become uninsured.

Last November alone, more than 10,000 children were forced off the Medicaid rolls by changes intended to make it harder for working families to obtain this health coverage for their children.  The Legislature can stop this plan with little or no impact on the state budget. We, as a state have the opportunity to tap into more than $22 million in newly available federal funds - enough to roll back most of the proposed premiums on the working poor. On top of that, the state has available unanticipated savings from the unfortunate loss of insurance for low-income children over the past year.

WE NEED PEOPLE TO SPEAK UP ON THIS ISSUE, not just eliminating premiums up to 150% but all the way to 200% of the FPL.

ACTION NEEDED:

Call or Email your legislators and ask them to support the elimination of ALL premiums for children in families with incomes up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. (There will not be a bill number for this it is just done in the budget).

General Assistance - Unemployable

 

Through a forecasting error when preparing for the budget last year, a decrease in the GA-U caseload was anticipated and budgeted for. In actuality, the caseload has stayed at about the same level. The Governor included the money needed to cover the current caseload in his supplemental budget.

 

ACTION NEEDED:

 

Call your legislators (especially your Representatives) and insist that they fully fund GA-U.

 

Fair and Equitable Tax System

 

Research and Development Tax Exemptions

 

HB  2654 requires the governor to release a tax credit report with his budget that would analyze whether tax credits were meeting their purpose. It was voted out of the Finance Committee Thursday with a party line vote. It is now waiting in House Rules.

 

ACTION NEEDED:

 

Call or Email your Representatives and ask them to pull HB 2654 from Rules so that it can be voted on on the floor.

 

Other

 

House Bill 2597 introduced by Representative Dickerson was heard Thursday in House Children and Family Services and voted out of committee on Thursday night. It would require clergy to be mandated reporters of child sexual abuse if they hear that another member of the clergy has perpetrated the crime. They would NOT be mandated reporters if that information came solely from the confessional.

  

REMEMBER: You can always leave a message for all three of your legislators and the Governor at the toll free hotline (the operators can even tell you who your legislators are!) 1-800-562-6000. You can always get more information on bills at www.leg.wa.gov. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at: kristenrogers@palm.com.