Looking for a summary of our Top Bills?
These are the bills we deem major and significant. Click the image below.
Are you looking for a summary of our Top Bills for 2026? These are bills we deem major and significant. If so, use the filter below.
Bill Summary
HB 2250 e‑states that the purpose of charity care law is to provide affordable hospital care to low‑income Washingtonians, while still covering emergency care for people from outside the state. The bill adds a definition of Washington state resident for charity-care eligibility and clarifies that immigration status cannot be used to deny charity care if someone actually lives in Washington. The legislation responds to a 2023 Health Department interpretive statement that forced hospitals to remove geographic restrictions from their charity‑care policies by January 2024, which effectively opened the door to broad out‑of‑state use of Washington charity care. It declares the bill an emergency measure, taking effect immediately to protect access and financial stability for in‑state patients and hospitals. The bill stresses that hospitals remain free to exceed statutory charity‑care requirements, including serving non‑residents if they choose; it simply re‑establishes a statewide floor that prioritizes in‑state low‑income patients. That fits a conservative preference for clear rules plus voluntary charity rather than open‑ended legal entitlements to out‑of‑state care.
When non‑residents use Washington charity care for non‑emergency services, the cost is shifted to Washington families, employers, and insured patients through higher charges and premiums. HB 2250 restores guardrails so Washingtonians are not subsidizing routine care for other states and countries. Legislative findings explicitly warn that the new no‑geographic‑limit policy could turn Washington into a “medical tourism destination” for free or reduced‑cost hospital care, particularly at border hospitals, which can become the default provider for entire regions outside the state. Border hospitals can be flooded by out‑of‑state charity‑care patients, undermining finances and limiting capacity for local residents, especially in small or rural communities. This bill helps ensure scarce charity‑care dollars and hospital beds remain available to Washington patients first.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2251 restructures the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) accounts, replacing three existing accounts with a new CCA Operating Account and a CCA Capital Account and changing how carbon‑auction revenues are distributed. These auction revenues come from a cap‑and‑trade style program that functions as a C02 tax on fuels and large emitters. The new Operating and Capital accounts have broadened allowable uses, including ongoing environmental justice activities, electric vehicles and infrastructure, and a wide range of climate‑related projects tied into the state operating and capital budgets. The bill also makes environmental justice spending permanent, rather than time‑limited, and explicitly adds EVs and alternative fuels as eligible spending categories.
This legislation broadens what CCA revenue can fund, aligning it more with general state budget priorities and less with narrowly defined, measurable emissions reductions. That means billions in new revenue from the CO2 program become a flexible pot for favored projects, subsidies, and constituencies. The bill also reduces the frequency of required reports on how CCA money is spent from annual to every other year, making it harder to track outcomes and hold agencies accountable. Less frequent reporting and more diffuse spending categories make it easier for waste and mission creep to go unnoticed. Additionally, by weaving CCA money more tightly into the operating and capital budgets and by creating broad, attractive spending programs, HB 2251 increases political dependence on auction revenue. That makes it harder to roll back or reform the underlying program that has driven up energy and fuel costs.
HB 2251 moves away from targeted environmental benefits. Shifting money away from specific air‑quality and overburdened‑community projects toward broader economic and political goals dilutes any environmental justification for the tax in the first place. If the revenue isn’t tightly tied to clear emissions reductions, the program increasingly looks like a general revenue source rather than an environmental tool. To add insult to injury, this bill removes payments to agricultural fuel purchasers as an allowable use of CCA funds. That means the bill explicitly eliminates a mechanism that was promised to cushion or offset CO2-driven cost impacts on farmers and other agricultural fuel users. The bill is sponsored exclusively by Democrats and is identified as a partisan measure in legislative tracking, with Republicans in the House unanimously voting against the bill.
Bill Summary
HB 2252 directs the state archives division to work with the University of Washington’s Institute on Human Development and Disability, the Department of Social and Health Services, and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation to create a comprehensive preservation plan for certain state historical records and artifacts. The bill also clarifies that restricted public records transferred to the state archives become open to inspection and available for copying after 75 years from the record’s creation, setting a clear rule for long‑term public access.
Many records and artifacts documenting Washington’s institutional history and treatment of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are at risk of damage, loss, or destruction if not systematically identified and preserved. By requiring an inventory of at‑risk materials, an assessment of their condition, and concrete steps for preservation (including storage standards, handling, digitization, and transfer to archival microfilm), the bill helps prevent permanent loss of historically significant information. The bill requires that the preservation plan include future plans for public access “for historical and educational purposes,” which supports transparency, academic research, and community understanding of state history. Opening restricted records after 75 years strikes a balance between protecting personal privacy in the near term and ensuring eventual public scrutiny and learning from past state actions over the long term.
This legislation requires a timeline and overall budget for the preservation work to be reported to the appropriate legislative committees, promoting oversight and accountable use of public resources rather than ad‑hoc or unfunded archival efforts. Centralizing valuable historical records in the state archives helps avoid duplicative storage and inconsistent handling by multiple agencies, which can be more costly and less secure over time. Supporting HB 2252 reflects a commitment to open government and long‑term civic memory, ensuring that future Washingtonians can study, critique, and learn from the state’s history with a more complete and accurate documentary record.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2257 is another tax increase. It is presented as a technical cleanup bill requested by the Department of Revenue that purports not to affect overall state or local tax collections, yet it makes sweeping amendments across numerous sections of Title 82 RCW that materially expand and redefine what constitutes a “sale at retail”. The bill adjusts the administration of the $5 per tire fee by directing the Department of Revenue to incorporate reconciliation audits into its regular audit cycle and to collect additional reporting data from tire retailers, increasing compliance burdens on small businesses. It substantially revises the definition of retail sale to include a wide array of personal and professional services, digital products, digital automated services, advertising services, live presentations, athletic and fitness activities, and temporary staffing services, thereby broadening the tax base in ways that go far beyond mere “technical corrections”.
By narrowing exclusions for affiliated group transactions and clarifying sourcing rules when local attribution is unclear, the bill gives the Department greater discretion in allocating and enforcing tax liability, which may expose businesses to higher audit risk and interpretive uncertainty. The measure also continues and modifies the workforce education investment surcharge structure for select advanced computing businesses, including a significant rate increase beginning in 2026, reinforcing Washington’s already high marginal tax burden on large technology firms. In addition, it adjusts the additional business and occupation tax imposed on specified financial institutions, locking in elevated rates that could ultimately be passed along to consumers through higher fees or reduced lending flexibility.
Although characterized as revenue-neutral, expanding definitions and clarifying taxable categories often results in more aggressive enforcement and fewer ambiguities resolved in favor of taxpayers. Businesses that rely on digital services, online platforms, fitness facilities, event operations, or technology-based offerings may face new compliance complexities and increased administrative costs under the bill’s expanded statutory language. The cumulative effect is a more intricate and expansive tax code that consolidates authority within the Department of Revenue while reducing flexibility for employers, entrepreneurs, and service providers across the state. For these reasons, and because it quietly broadens taxable activities under the guise of technical refinement, citizens concerned about regulatory growth and business climate competitiveness should oppose HB 2257.
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Community Concerns
Protecting the integrity of the state initiative and referendum process by requiring a demonstration of support before issuance of a ballot measure title and authorizing citizen actions for certain signature gatherer compensation violations.
Bill Summary
HB 2259, a.k.a. “the initiative killer”, requires an initiative or referendum sponsor to gather at least 1,000 signatures from legal voters—and submit their names and full addresses—before the Secretary of State will even issue a ballot title. This forces grassroots campaigns to spend time and money mobilizing supporters before they know what the final ballot title – which shapes legal challenges and public perception – will be, a disadvantage that well‑funded interest groups can absorb but ordinary citizens often cannot.
The bill prohibits compensating petition workers based on the number of signatures they collect, exposing campaigns to penalties if compensation structures are deemed improper. Per‑signature pay bans raise costs and compliance complexity, making it harder for grassroots efforts to hire gatherers at scale and easier for unions and large organizations—with salaried staff and lawyers—to dominate the field.
By conditioning ballot‑title issuance on the new 1,000‑signature threshold and expanding enforcement around compensation rules, this legislation increases the Secretary of State’s role as a gatekeeper over which measures advance. Citizen‑enforcement provisions and stricter technical requirements create more ways for opposing interests to sue initiative campaigns, raising the legal risk for volunteers and donors who want to challenge the Legislature.
Washington’s initiative and referendum process is one of the few remaining tools for citizens to check a one‑party Legislature. Recent successful initiatives have visibly frustrated lawmakers, and HB 2259 appears designed to blunt that tool. Integrity is already protected by signature verification, fraud penalties, and judicial review; adding front‑loaded signature thresholds and pay rules is about control and deterrence, not honesty.
This bill tilts the playing field toward big, establishment‑backed campaigns and away from citizen‑driven reforms by putting bureaucratic toll booths at the very front of the process. If Democratic legislators truly respected direct democracy, they would make it easier—not harder—for Washingtonians across the political spectrum to qualify initiatives and referenda and let the voters decide at the ballot box.
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Community Concerns
Concerning requirements pertaining to signatures and addresses of ballot measure petitioners and petition signature gatherers.
Bill Summary
HB 2260 requires petition signers to provide full residence addresses (not just name and signature), and tightens address‑matching rules for signature validation. It also Imposes new requirements and penalties on petition signature gatherers, including identification and address rules, expanding what can be used to challenge signatures or disqualify sheets.
More technical requirements mean more signatures get rejected on paperwork details, not because the signer isn’t a real voter, forcing grassroots campaigns to collect far above the legal threshold. In addition, complex rules about gatherers’ information and addresses create additional grounds for lawsuits, investigations, and after‑the‑fact challenges that can wipe out months of citizen work.
SB 5973 will front‑load barriers (extra signatures before a title, pay rules, added litigation paths), while HB 2260 tightens verification and compliance at the back end; together they constrict the initiative process from both directions. Democratic lawmakers can claim each bill is a modest integrity measure, but the combined effect is to make it much harder for ordinary citizens to ever get a measure to the ballot, entrenching a one‑party Legislature.
For those who rightly believe initiative power is a necessary check on Olympia, any bill that materially raises costs, technical traps, and legal exposure for petition efforts undermines that check. True election integrity focuses on punishing fraud, not layering on technical pretexts that can be weaponized against disfavored causes; HB 2260 shifts power from citizens to bureaucrats and lawyers.
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Healthcare
Ensuring transparency in credentials and communications between patients and health care professionals.
Bill Summary
HB 2261 ensures patients receive clear, consistent information about who is providing their care by requiring health care license holders in clinical settings to visibly display an identification badge stating their name and professional credential, including any health care-related degree initials and title. It also requires that any advertisement for health care services that names a license holder must disclose that person’s credential and relevant degree, covering modern communications such as websites, emails, videos, and brochures. The bill is grounded in legislative findings that titles and professional labels strongly influence patient understanding and trust, and that ambiguity—especially around the use of “doctor” in clinical settings—can cause confusion about whether a person holds an MD or DO. By defining “advertisement” broadly, the measure closes loopholes that can mislead patients through marketing while still recognizing the importance of every member of a team-based care model. That transparency protects patients from credential inflation and helps them make informed decisions about the appropriate level of care for complex or surgical needs.
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K–12 Education
Concerning civics education for public school students through instruction and information about the production and use of official signatures.
Bill Summary
A bipartisan bill, House Bill 2262 strengthens civics education by ensuring students learn how to produce a legible, consistent handwritten signature and understand how signatures are used in elections, initiatives, and other official civic processes. The bill responds to the reality that many students now graduate without learning cursive or signature skills, even though wet-ink signatures remain essential for voting, legal agreements, and financial transactions. By integrating signature instruction into the existing required high school civics course, the bill adds practical life skills without creating a new standalone mandate or crowding out other subjects. It directly supports voter participation by reducing signature mismatches, which are a leading cause of ballot rejection, especially among younger voters.
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Jobs & Business
Concerning unemployment insurance benefits for workers separated from employment as a result of employer-initiated layoffs or workforce reductions.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2264 would amend Washington’s unemployment insurance (UI) statute to deem certain employees eligible for benefits if they volunteer to be included in an employer-initiated layoff or reduction in force announced in writing. Under the bill, if an employer first announces plans to reduce its workforce and invites employees to offer to be part of the layoff, any worker who volunteers and is subsequently terminated would automatically be considered unemployed through no fault of their own. The measure applies to separations occurring on or after June 14, 2026, and limits eligibility to situations where the employer initiated the reduction process and the employee’s separation resulted directly from that plan. Even if an employer allows employees to rescind their offer to be laid off, the availability of that option would not disqualify the individual from receiving benefits so long as the statutory criteria are met. The bill does not apply to early retirement incentives or other separation programs that fall outside the specific written announcement and volunteer framework outlined in the legislation.
The bill reinforces the core conservative idea that UI is an insurance pool funded for precisely these events: when an employer, not the worker, decides to cut jobs. It does not create a new entitlement class; it refines eligibility rules so that genuinely laid‑off workers—who have already paid into the system—can bridge to their next job and keep off other, more expansive welfare programs. Clearer eligibility rules give both employers and employees a more predictable framework; businesses know which separation programs will trigger UI, and workers know when they can rely on UI versus needing private savings or severance. Additionally, the bill still assumes UI is temporary and work‑linked; it does not remove general expectations that beneficiaries search for work and re‑enter the labor force.
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Housing & Property
Encouraging permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, indoor emergency housing, and indoor emergency shelters.
Bill Summary
HB 2266 requires cities and counties to allow permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, indoor emergency shelters, and indoor emergency housing (“STEP” projects) in any zone that permits multifamily housing or hotels, and prohibits them from denying permits in those zones based on the use alone.This limits local governments’ ability to impose conditions that increase development or operating costs, and bars density restrictions that prevent adding up to 50% more units inside an existing building envelope for affordable or supportive housing.
This legislation encourages rapid expansion of subsidized, service‑heavy projects that typically depend on ongoing state and local funding streams, while constraining local governments from managing where and how those dollars create long‑term obligations. By making it easier and cheaper to site STEP projects, the bill advances an expensive statewide build‑out without direct, offsetting reforms or funding limits, contributing to structural pressure on the state budget and local tax bases. Additionally, it preempts local attempts to locate shelters and supportive housing in areas with better transit, services, and police coverage and away from vulnerable residential or commercial blocks, weakening the ability to mitigate crime, open‑air drug use, and disorder often associated with poorly managed sites.
HB 2266 is being promoted with calls to “stop the criminalization of homelessness,” signaling a policy push away from enforcement and toward unlimited siting of low‑barrier projects, regardless of local experience with encampment‑related crime. It is also being promoted as ensuring “every community does its part” and as giving the state oversight to stop local governments from blocking supportive housing and shelter, meaning Olympia—not local voters—will referee where and how these projects are instituted. Cities and counties still bear the downstream costs (policing, EMS, cleanup, code enforcement) but lose core zoning and permitting tools they would normally use to balance compassion with safety and fiscal responsibility.
HB 2266 doubles down on a top‑down, housing‑first model that has not solved street disorder in places like Seattle, while tying the hands of communities that want accountability, treatment requirements, and prudent siting. A responsible homelessness strategy must allow local governments to set reasonable limits, protect neighborhoods, and safeguard taxpayers—not mandate that every city open the door to dense supportive projects wherever activists and developers prefer.