With the 2022 legislative session underway this week, leading Republicans say they’re looking to prioritize police reform, a “return to affordability,” in part by continuing efforts to repeal the WA Cares long term care tax, and rebuild the public’s trust in government by reforming the governor’s emergency powers.
But with the Democrats holding solid majorities in both the House (57-41) and Senate (29-19) this 60-day session, and with a fraught political environment, the scope of what’s possible for legislative Republicans this year is unclear but likely minimal.
But leaders say the next year looks promising.
Despite challenges ahead, House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, and Senate Minority Leader Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, said last week during an interview with The Chronicle they were optimistic there would be movement this coming year on some “big ideas” being proposed by their Republican caucuses, and that they could leverage public disapproval on Democrat legislation and low public confidence to make headway.
“I think it’s going to be brutal, from the Democrats’ point of view, but I’m going to find a whole bunch more ways for Democrats to have to show whether or not their convictions matter more than their caucus discipline,” Wilcox said.
Reforming Emergency Powers Through the Balance Act
Could Jay Inslee be the final governor to go about declaring emergency proclamations without recourse from the Legislature? Wilcox and Braun sure hope so.
Part of a slew of prioritized legislation Senate Republicans are proposing includes Senate Bill 5039, entitled “The Balance Act,” which would require all gubernatorial orders issued during a declared state of emergency to be subject to legislative approval after 30 days.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and the issued state of emergency that followed, Republicans have called for substantial reform to Inslee’s powers. This bill may be the closest Republicans get to such reforms.
Braun said this legislation is part of the Senate Republican Caucus’s effort to rebuild trust in government statewide.
“For us, it starts with reforming the governor’s emergency powers, and this isn’t particularly partisan. This is the sort of reform that, if the roles were reversed, it’d be exactly the same and, frankly, we should be supporting this regardless,” Braun said.
Washington is one of only four states that allow executive office holders unending emergency powers, Wilcox said.
Braun said, if passed, the legislation would place some responsibility on legislative Democrats to sign off on or pass alternative legislation in a more democratic way.
Reforming Police Reform and Public Safety
Both parties are likely to prioritize fixes to some of the police accountability laws passed in 2021.
Police agencies, both in Lewis County and statewide, have voiced frustration over the laws, specifically ones that stipulate “probable cause” as a higher standard to arresting suspects and another law that restricts the ability for officers to engage in pursuits.
“Not all of them are terrible, but there are some that are terrible and have caused enormous problems around the state in terms of the way our law enforcement officials are able to provide safety to our communities,” Braun said.
Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, has filed two bills that would broaden the police authority for use of physical force to either “prevent or protect” against criminal conduct (House Bill 1589) and allow officers to engage in vehicular pursuit where there’s reasonable suspicion a law has been violated (HB 1588).
Senate Republicans are also highlighting two bills (SB 5521 and SB 5522) from Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, concerning “good-faith exceptions” to the exclusionary evidence rule and increasing the penalty for assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Padden has also filed a bill (SB 5523) that would reclassify simple drug possession from a misdemeanor to a class C felony. Last session, Democrats passed a last-minute temporary fix on possession following the landmark Blake decision, which found the state’s felony drug possession statute was unconstitutional.
Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, has also filed a bill (SB 5524) that would impose a life sentence for controlled substances homicide for fentanyl-laced drugs.
Braun said he felt the state was on a “path to full legalization” with what the Democrats have proposed.
“This is a disaster on many levels, both for individuals struggling with substance abuse, for the crime they often commit to support that habit, and for the public safety that hurts as a result,” Braun said.
Affordability, Transportation and Republican Gains in the Legislature
Wilcox is championing Rep. Andrew Barkis’ Reprioritizing Existing Appropriations for Longevity (REAL) Act as an example of the big-picture thinking his caucus is ready to engage Democrats in, despite the base legislation that was prefiled (HB 1603) only having support among Republicans so far.
“I think I’ve got a caucus right now that is presenting more productive legislation than any minority caucus I’ve been a part of. I think they’re absolutely preparing themselves for holding the gavel and being a majority in the future, and they’re addressing some of the most important things we’re talking about,” Wilcox said.
Barkis, R-Olympia, serves as the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee.
If passed, the REAL Act would significantly change how the Legislature funds transportation, partly by shifting expenses such as fish passage barrier removal programs, multimodal programs and Amtrak funding from the state’s shrinking transportation budget over to the general operating budget, according to a news release from Barkis’ office.
It would also redirect sales tax paid on transportation projects from the general fund over to the transportation budget. The bills would also prioritize fish barrier passage projects.
“This is a powerful idea. It’s coming from a minority party. The Democrats are not going to pass that bill, they’re probably going to incorporate some of the ideas. We’re going to push to enlarge that as much as possible, but when Andrew has the gavel, that bill is going to change the way that we do transportation in the future,” Wilcox said of the eight-bill transportation package.
Braun said Democrats would be “fools” not to take Barkis’ REAL Act on.
“They’re facing some serious headwinds in 2022 from all the silly things they’ve done over the last two cycles,” Braun said. “They have an opportunity, based on the enormous surplus in the operating budget, to put in a major transportation plan in a short session without a new tax and be heroes to all the folks who are tired of waiting in traffic, are frustrated with the lack of maintenance, that need a new bridge over the Columbia, or a new trestle or Highway 18, or whatever.”
Senate Republicans are also prioritizing legislation and efforts they say would bring some affordability back to Washington state. Part of that includes repealing the WA Care payroll tax, reforming policies that make renting or buying a home more expensive and staving off a state income tax.
With seats in the Legislature up for reelection this year, Wilcox said later in a text message that 2022 could be a “very good year” for voters who lean red, and that it’s possible Washington Republicans could flip some blue seats, with growing frustration and attention turning toward the midterms.
Local Control in Education
After a summer of contentious school board meetings surrounding “critical race theory,” Republicans say they’ll look to “expand local control in education” and work to protect school choice.
Sen. Mark Scheosler, R-Ritzville, has introduced legislation (SB 5205) that would establish a K-12 education voucher program, which would distribute vouchers of at least $9,000 to be designated to school districts of a family’s choosing.
Braun said they should be empowering school districts and school boards to establish their own policy and curriculum.
“We have a lot of kids around the state that essentially lost two years of education, and that is going to be very hard to get back. And there’s things we’re working on to both empower school boards, to empower parents and to help kids regain that lost learning,” he said.
Long Term Cares Staved Off
Last month, Inslee and state Democrats reached a deal to delay the collection of a 0.58% payroll tax to fund the WA Cares long-term care program, following criticism. House Democrats have now proposed delaying the collection through 2023, the Seattle Times reports.
But Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, and Sen. Padden have both proposed bills that would outright repeal the program and tax, which is ultimately the end-goal for legislative Republicans.
“Ultimately, I don’t see it as a sustainable program. It’s an unfair program, honestly, and we might see through some lawsuits that it may not even be constitutionally legal,” Abbarno, the primary sponsor of HB 1594, previously told The Chronicle.
A Remote Session Just Like 2021
As the 2022 short legislative session convened Monday, it became clear that the beginning of this year’s session would look a lot like last year’s — remote hearings, a hybrid work schedule for some lawmakers and a Capitol building under modified operation.
You can thank the omicron COVID-19 variant — which has resulted in a rapid escalation in caseloads statewide — for that.
“It’s just wrong,” Braun said, noting that the Senate and House have testing capabilities.
But Braun admits there’s a lot of open questions at the moment, especially since COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations often lag behind cases by a few weeks.
Lawmakers in Olympia are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and have been boosted for longer than two weeks in order to gain access to their respective chamber’s floor.
Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, last week came out against rules requiring the state Senate to start remotely, saying that “If we can send our kids to school, we can send legislators to Olympia.”
In a Tweet, Carlyle laid out that they could easily follow vaccine, social distancing and masking requirements to make it as safe as possible. Wilcox said he agreed with that sentiment.
