Week 4: One-third of the session is in the rear-view mirror! This week, we hit our first big milestone, the House of Origin Committee cutoff. As the Legislature begins the "weeding" process of bills, many on tracking and watch lists will officially be marked dead. It's the first step in honing the focus and priority policies for the legislature. On a positive note, HB 2422/SB 5967 has already moved out of committee, and we expect our other WSALPHO priority, SB 6291, to move on Monday. Key hearings this week: Several committees will exclusively focus on Executive session - meaning that most public hearings will include bills that are more "courtesy" than anything. This is often a way for committees to signal additional policy bills for next session, or to do a favor for leadership. Focus will now turn to House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means as these committee calendars become packed with bills identified with fiscal notes. One question we often get is - how do we know if a bill has to go through fiscal committees? One of the key supporting reports bills receive are fiscal notes. These notes capture the state cost (agencies who have oversight, administrative, or operational directives within bills) as well as local cost (local mandates) to implement. Bills with fiscal notes must also be heard in fiscal committees. Bills that do not have a fiscal note (example, SB 6291) are referred straight to Rules... the waiting room for floor debate. FPHS Advocacy: Thank you for the increased advocacy on FPHS! Now is the time to put pedal to the metal and continue your outreach efforts. We've updated the FPHS local support map with those who've reached out with updates. Please continue to let us know! If you need some help in starting, please reach out to Brynn and I - we're happy to help craft, review, and assist your advocacy work! - We've also updated our link to advocacy materials through the Box folder for easier access: https://wsalpho.box.com/s/b4pkrasrtm2u2oscmmu2yv03umchrreo Important Dates This week: February 4 – Policy Committee Cutoff (House of Origin) Next week: February 9 – Fiscal Committee Cutoff (House of Origin) February 17 – Floor Cutoff February 25 – Policy Committee Cutoff (Opposite House) March 2 – Fiscal Committee Cutoff (Opposite House) March 6 – Floor Cutoff March 12 – Sine Die Thank you! Jaime Jaime Bodden, MPH, MSW Managing Director Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials jbodden@wsac.org 360-489-3011 (direct) � 360-280-5301 (mobile) 206 10th Ave. SE � Olympia, WA 98502 Disclaimer: Documents and correspondence are available under state law. This e-mail may be disclosable to a third-party requestor. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited and may be a violation of law. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this message to an intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the agency.