A wicked tweet? After Ranker complains that Democratic bills are getting short shrift in the Senate, Majority Coalition Caucus tweets a photo from happier times.
OLYMPIA, Feb. 25.—Just when everything was going so smoothly! Senate Democrats staged mini-revolts in three committees as cutoff day approached Friday, charging that the coalition majority in the Senate was abusing its power as it squelched bills on gun control and the environment.
And when the Majority Coalition Caucus tweaked back with a Friday-afternoon tweet touting bipartisanship on the Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee, state Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, let loose with all the thunder available to him – by issuing a press release. “The flagrant disregard for the rules of the Senate to prevent good public policy from even having a vote is the exact opposite of bipartisanship,” he declared.
In the scheme of things, the kerfuffle really doesn’t matter a whit. Nothing is ever truly dead in the Legislature until the final gavel of the session. But the parliamentary battles in committees and the vitriolic denunciations that followed showed at least that at least some members of the Senate Democratic Caucus aren’t taking this year’s power-shift lightly. The deadline Friday was the first truly significant hurdle of the session, the day by which the Legislature’s policy committees were required to pass bills if they are to be further considered during this year’s legislative session. Except that the deadline really isn’t that significant. There are seemingly a thousand parliamentary tactics that can be used to revive a bill. And in a divided statehouse, where the Democrats control the House and the Senate is controlled by a Republican-leaning majority, each party has the ability to ensure that its top issues are considered. That means, no matter what, a bipartisan outcome is assured when the gavels fall to end the session sometime on or after April 28.
Still – the Democrats in the Senate were every bit as peeved as Republicans have been in previous sessions when the Democrats ran the show and Republican bills went nowhere. Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, was just as sympathetic as one might expect. “I understand the frustration of the minority, having been there many years,” he said. “And in many cases, it is true, some bills didn’t get out. But companion bills are coming from the House and there is still plenty of time, and we will remain focused on the real priorities of jobs, education and a sustainable budget.”
Battle Lines Now Being Drawn
What the deadline really does is to offer a chance to step back, take a deep breath, and see how a few of the Legislature’s policy debates are shaping up. The most important debate of the session, over the budget and plans to beef up K-12 spending by $1 billion or more, really doesn’t launch until the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council adopts a new estimate of the amount of money the state can expect during the 2013-15 biennium. That comes March 20.
But on other matters it seems clear the House and Senate will butt heads over abortion, gun control, environmental legislation, sick leave, family leave, workers’ compensation and a full deck of union-backed legislation that might be offered in trade.
It should be noted that bills with a fiscal impact – a large percentage of the measures that are filed – face a deadline for passage Friday in the Legislature’s budget committees. But even if they die there, those bills can easily be revived by a reference in the final budget. Non-fiscal bills can be revived through a myriad of other tactics, including amendments to surviving measures.
War of the Press Releases
Whether turnabout is fair play, there was plenty of either one or the other in the Senate last week as high-profile Democratic bills ran into a brick wall. In what appeared a coordinated effort in three committees Thursday, Democrats demanded votes for their bills and raised a stink when members of the Majority Coalition balked. Committee chairmen typically do not permit votes on bills they are unwilling to pass, lest the votes come back and haunt their candidates in campaign brochures. In one case there was a procedural boo-boo: At the final meeting of the energy committee before the cutoff, Ranker moved that it consider a measure that is a high priority for environmental groups this session. That’s Senate Bill 5181, a measure that would ban the flame retardant TRIS in children’s products and upholstered furniture. Chairman Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, seconded the motion, then did a double-take. “Which one did you bring up?” he asked. “5181? Oh.”
Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, a member of the majority coalition, moved for immediate adjournment. Ranker said his motion was already on the floor and demanded a roll-call vote. Ericksen, flustered only a moment, immediately declared that the motion was out of order, and he banged down his gavel to declare the meeting adjourned. Here is the crucial parliamentary issue at stake: If Ranker was demanding a roll-call vote on the bill, Ericksen was correct and Ranker was out of order, because a motion to adjourn takes precedence over other motions. But if Ranker was demanding a roll-call vote on the motion to adjourn, he could have been entitled to one. The trouble was, Ranker didn’t specify which motion he meant. After Sheldon moved for adjournment, Ranker’s exact words were, “We have a motion on the floor for a bill and I demand a roll call on this as well.” So whether there was an violation of parliamentary procedure awaits the verdict of history, not to mention that of the lieutenant governor. Ranker has submitted a formal complaint.
The Gall of it All
The big thing is that as soon as the tape appeared on the TVW website, the Washington Toxics Coalition was pumping out the news on Facebook and Ranker was denouncing the undemocratic-ness of it all. The Majority Coalition followed by tweeting a photo of Ericksen and Ranker in happier times, captioned “Sens. Ericksen (GOP) and Ranker (Dem.) working together to make energy committee a bipartisan success.”
The gall of it all, Ranker declared. “The Senate Republican majority has already shown disrespect for the rules of the Senate, but to openly break the rules and then tout it as a bipartisan success is a new and unbelievable low,” his press release stated. Majority coalition staffers point out that the committee passed other bills sponsored by Ranker for carbon-emission planning and accelerated cleanup of hazardous waste sites. At any rate, the bill might be dead but the idea isn’t. A House committee passed its own version, House Bill 1294, and it is expected to land in the Senate later in the session.
Battles of similar importance played out in the Senate Health Care Committee, which failed to take a vote on a diabetes-planning bill, and in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which adjourned Thursday before voting on a pair of gun measures. In the latter case, Senate Judiciary Chairman Mike Padden, R-Spokane, relented at the final meeting Friday, declaring that he would be happy to take a vote in favor of the Second Amendment. So votes actually were taken and the measures promptly failed. Their sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Kohl Welles, D-Seattle, issued a statement accusing Republicans of holding bills hostage to “deny Democrats a legislative victory on popular mainstream legislation [rather] than act to protect the public from easily preventable gun fatalities.” Not that it ends debate: Gun-control bills are on the way over from the House.
Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, then issued a press release touting bipartisanship on his Human Services and Corrections Committee, pointing out that many of the 19 bills passed by his committee had Democratic sponsors. “I can’t stress enough how proud I am of our ability to work together and pass so many good bills for the benefit of the people of Washington,” he said. And so it went.
What’s Alive, What’s Dead
Here’s a rundown on the status of some of the session’s biggest policy bills:
Abortion – The House Friday passed the Reproductive Parity Act (HB 1044) setting up a collision with the Senate on abortion. The measure requires insurance companies to cover abortion services. A similar measure (SB 5576) died in the Senate, but it is worth noting that a diametrically opposed measure (SB 5156), requiring parental notification before minors obtain abortions, died in the Senate.
Business and Labor – The Senate early in the session passed a series of bills aimed at expanding the workers’-compensation reforms adopted by the Legislature in 2011, the most significant being SB 5127, which would allow settlement of disability claims for workers age 40 and over. Meanwhile, still alive in the House are a series of union-backed measures that include an extension of prevailing wage requirements (HB 1023) and make it make it more difficult for businesses to hire independent contractors (HB 1440) — possibly setting up horse-trading later in the session. Other House bills still alive would mandate minimum standards for sick leave (HB 1313), which has its polar opposite in a Senate measure that would forbid cities and counties from requiring manadatory sick leave (SB 5759). Just as polarized are bills regarding the state’s never-implemented family leave insurance program: A House measure (HB 1457) would expand the benefits and impose a payroll tax to pay for it, while a Senate bill (SB 5159) would repeal the 2007 legislation.
Gun Control – Among the dead in the Senate are the Kohl Welles bills, one of which would have allowed adults to be charged with crime of reckless endangerment when youths gain access to loaded weapons (SB 5710) and another that would have created a task force on gun safety (SB 5714). However, other gun measure are moving ahead in the House, and while their topics are somewhat different, they provide a vehicle for amendments later in the session. One would increase penalties for juveniles convicted of gun crimes (HB 1096) and another would expand background checks for gun purchases (HB 1588).
Education – As lawmakers debate big increases in K-12 funding, reform bills are being presented as a quid pro quo. The big ideas are taking shape in the Senate. Measures would assign letter grades to schools based on performance and mandate action for failing schools (SB 5328 and SB 5329), require consideration of summer school for 3rd graders who are failing at reading (SB 5237) and require advanced courses be made available for high-achieving students at the high school level (SB 5243). In the House, a measure would allow alternate – and thus lower – standards for teacher assessments (HB 1178).
Energy – Moving forward in the Senate is a bill that would relax the renewable energy purchasing requirements imposed by Initiative 937, which mandates that utilities purchase an increasing share of their power from green-energy sources – essentially windpower – regardless of whether they need it to meet electricity demand (SB 5648). A similar measure has died in the House (HB 1699).
Gambling – A measure that would gut the power of the state Gambling Commission and give its regulatory authority over cardrooms and charitable gaming to the Legislature (HB 1295) has died in the House. Critics had called the bill a move by tribal gambling interests to quash competition.
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