Essential information on each bill is below. For more details, click on the bill number – e.g., “SB 5000.” The new page will show the progress of the bill, videos of debate, and the link to send a comment to your legislator about the bill.
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Health Care
Standardizing basis training and certification requirements for long-term care workers who provide in-home care for their family members, including spouses or domestic partners.
Bill Summary
House Bill 1142 standardizes basic training and certification requirements for long-term care workers providing in-home care, especially for family members, including spouses and domestic partners. The bill modifies existing laws (RCW 18.88B.041 and 74.39A.076) to establish specific training hour mandates based on care recipient relationships and care hours provided. Specifically, the bill explicitly includes long-term care workers caring for spouses or domestic partners as exempt from standard certification requirements, and outlines specific training requirements for different categories of family caregivers. For example, a parent caring for a developmentally disabled child must complete 12 hours of specialized training within 120 days of becoming a caregiver, while a spouse caring for another spouse must complete 15 hours of basic training and at least six hours of additional focused training based on the care recipient’s specific needs.
The bill also provides flexibility for different types of family caregivers, such as those providing limited hours of care or respite services, by establishing tailored training requirements. Additionally, the legislation maintains the principle that exempted workers are not prohibited from voluntarily enrolling in training programs and allows the department of social services to adopt rules to implement these provisions, including potential adjustments during emergencies like pandemics that might impact training accessibility.
Bill Summary
House Bill 1150, pedaled by Democrats as an environmental bill, is actually a hidden tax on groceries. This bill expands government control over recycling by creating extended producer responsibility (EPR) organizations, which will ultimately drive up costs for Washington families. Producers will be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars. These costs will be passed directly to consumers at the grocery store. Industry leaders have warned that grocery prices could spike as much as 16% because of this bill. Washingtonians are already paying some of the highest grocery prices in the country. The last thing families need right now is another cost hike, especially one driven by our government, once again, imposing additional regulations on businesses. This is a carbon copy of what has happened in our housing industry.
There remain serious questions as to whether EPR programs actually improve recycling rates and reduce waste, or if they create inefficiencies and bureaucracy without any significant environment benefits. For instance, without proper investments in recycling facilities and technology, requiring producers to take responsibility for recycling could lead to logistical challenges, in addition to the higher costs. Lastly, these imposed compliance costs and regulations will disproportionately impact smaller producers and businesses that will struggle to meet these requirements. Please oppose this bill.
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Environment
Ensuring environmental and public health protection from solid waste handling facility operations.
Bill Summary
HB 1154 is an environmental power grab. It shifts permitting authority for landfills and solid waste facilities from local jurisdictional health departments to the state’s Department of Ecology, and thus centralizes power at the state level and undermines local control. Communities know their unique needs and challenges better than state agencies that are often overburdened and out of touch with local realities. The bill mandates that all landfill permits—new or renewed—must receive Ecology’s approval, effectively adding a layer of bureaucracy that could delay essential waste services and drive up administrative costs. It also gives Ecology unilateral power to suspend permits and impose steep civil penalties, even without proven wrongdoing or local consultation. The threat of fines up to $10,000 per day could put smaller or rural waste facilities out of business, especially when enforcement criteria are vague and overly broad. In addition to landfills, it shift power to the state regarding solid waste facilities.
The bill’s five-year reporting requirement creates more red tape for local health districts, requiring staff time and resources without guaranteeing improved outcomes. It does not come with clear funding assurances, despite mandating new responsibilities, and includes a vague “null and void” clause about funding that makes implementation uncertain. In short, HB 1154 risks penalizing good actors for the missteps of a few, while straining local governments and waste management operations. Instead of voting for a sweeping state takeover, we should pursue smarter, more collaborative reforms that support both environmental goals and community-driven solutions. Please register CON against this bill in order to protect local control, efficient regulation, and balanced enforcement.
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Health Care
Authorizing access to certifications of birth and death to additional family members.
Bill Summary
House Bill 1157 is a simple yet meaningful improvement to Washington State’s vital records laws, ensuring that great-grandchildren have access to certified birth and death records of their ancestors. This bill expands the list of family members eligible to obtain these records, recognizing the increasing role that extended family members play in genealogy research, estate matters, and family history preservation.
Currently, Washington law allows spouses, children, parents, grandparents, and other close relatives to request certified birth and death records, but great-grandchildren are excluded—despite being direct descendants. This can create unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles for individuals seeking vital documents for legal, historical, or personal reasons. By passing HB 1157, Washington will modernize its record-access laws to reflect the needs of families today. Whether it’s settling inheritance matters, conducting genealogical research, or preserving family legacies, this bill ensures that great-grandchildren have the same rights as other close relatives when it comes to obtaining vital records.
Bill Summary
House Bill 1162 is another example of government overreach – particularly in the health care arena. This bill aims to enhance workplace violence prevention in health care settings by amending existing regulations and introducing new requirements. It mandates that each health care setting develop and implement a workplace violence prevention plan, which must be updated at least once a year. The plan should address various factors contributing to workplace violence, including security measures, staffing patterns, job design, and employee training. Additionally, health care settings with established safety or workplace violence committees are required to involve these committees in the development and monitoring of the prevention plan.
Furthermore, the bill introduces a new section that requires health care settings to conduct timely investigations of workplace violence incidents. These investigations must assess the contributing factors of each incident and include a detailed report submitted to the relevant committee. The report should analyze systemic causes of violence and provide recommendations for modifying prevention strategies. The frequency of these reports varies based on the type of health care setting, with some required to submit summaries twice a year and others quarterly. The act is set to take effect on January 1, 2026.
The vast majority of health care entities in Washington State are not government facilities; therefore, they should not be mandated by state government to follow through on this “order”. Furthermore, why the focus on health care entities? If the government is going force this on healthcare entities, it should be required of every business. Can you imagine how well that would go over? Democrats need to stay out of the health care realm altogether. They can’t even manage government well.