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
House Bill 2404 repeals the 3‑cent‑per‑gallon special‑fuel diesel tax increase that took effect July 1, 2025, and cancels planned future diesel tax increases. The bill requires that the cumulative special‑fuel tax rate be reduced to the rate that applied on July 1, 2016, effectively undoing the recent diesel‑specific add‑ons. It leaves the general fuel‑tax indexation in place (annual 2% increases on the base fuel tax starting July 1, 2026), but prevents separate, extra escalators from being stacked on diesel going forward. Higher diesel taxes raise the price of food and goods because farm equipment and freight trucks rely on special fuels, and diesel in neighboring states often runs more than a dollar cheaper per gallon than in Washington.
Cutting the diesel tax is a straight tax rollback on commerce and work, not a new spending program. The bill explicitly notes that vehicles using special fuel are a mainstay in food production and Washington’s economy and that freight is moved by diesel‑powered vehicles. Lowering this input cost helps producers, independent truckers, and small retailers who can’t easily pass along higher prices in a tight market. Higher Washington diesel taxes encourage people and trucking fleets to fuel up in neighboring states instead of here, hurting Washington‑based fuel sellers and depriving the state of other economic activity tied to those stops. By moving the rate back to the 2016 level, HB 2404 aims to keep more fueling, spending, and jobs in Washington.
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Addiction & Mental Health
Establishing a pilot program for posttraumatic stress disorder treatment and research.
Bill Summary
As a bipartisan bill, HB 2405 establishes a Department of Labor & Industries pilot program to expand evidence-based treatment and research for work-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recognizing PTSD as a serious and growing concern in high-risk, trauma-exposed occupations. The bill explicitly authorizes the department to use Medical Aid Fund safety-and-health investment dollars to support workplace behavioral health programs such as suicide prevention, mental health training, and building supportive workplace cultures, while preserving existing guardrails that prohibit lobbying or political activity with grant funds. It directs L&I, in consultation with subject-matter experts and advisory committees, to design a pilot that reduces barriers to care for workers seeking PTSD coverage as an occupational disease. A key feature is allowing limited PTSD treatment before claim adjudication—so workers can get help when it matters most—without that early treatment being treated as a binding determination that a claim must ultimately be allowed. The pre-adjudication benefit is tightly scoped: a clinical diagnostic interview or mental health evaluation that results in a PTSD diagnosis plus up to 11 treatment sessions within 90 days, ensuring timely stabilization while controlling costs.
Bill Summary
HB 2407 creates the “Strengthen Washington Homes Program” under the Insurance Commissioner to provide financial grants for wildfire‑risk mitigation on insurable dwellings. It authorizes grants to: real property owners to retrofit owner‑occupied homes; nonprofits to improve wildfire resilience of single‑family dwellings occupied or owned by low‑ and moderate‑income households; and government entities to support local mitigation efforts. The bill requires work funded by the program to follow recognized wildfire preparedness standards and to be done by qualified contractors.
The legislative findings focus on wildfire losses devastating communities and the public interest in a functioning insurance market, not on climate activism or sweeping land‑use changes. Money goes into hardening actual homes (roofs, vents, defensible space, etc.), especially owner‑occupied and lower‑income single‑family dwellings, offering a hand up for practical safety upgrades rather than another open‑ended entitlement. By reducing risk on the ground, the program aims to support long‑term availability and affordability of homeowners’ insurance in wildfire‑exposed areas, a growing concern in Washington.
HB 2407 also establishes a dedicated fund in the state treasury, where grants, federal funds, and legislative appropriations for the program are deposited and retained with their interest. It ties into existing regulatory and insurance fraud surcharges on insurers with language allowing those surcharges to help fund the new program account and, over time, to reduce future surcharges as risk decline. The bill explicitly allows the commissioner to run localized pilot projects first, to find efficient administration methods and workforce models before full rollout, which can limit wasted spending.
Wildfire‑resilient homes reduce ignition and spread in the “home ignition zone,” protecting not only individual families but entire neighborhoods and local economies. Prioritizing low‑ and moderate‑income homeowners helps those least able to afford upgrades on their own, which can prevent post‑fire displacement, homelessness, and long‑term dependency on public assistance. Standards‑based mitigation ties the grants to proven, measurable safety outcomes, not vague resilience rhetoric. By funding pre‑disaster mitigation tied to recognized safety standards, this bill is a fiscally responsible way to protect families, stabilize insurance, and reduce the burden on taxpayers when fires strike.
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Agriculture
Placing agricultural employees under the jurisdiction of the public employment relations commission for the purpose of collective bargaining.
Bill Summary
HB 2409 declares that extending collective bargaining rights to agricultural employees is a vital state interest and creates a plan to implement those rights for almost all farm and food‑processing workers. It places agricultural employers and employees under the jurisdiction of the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC), giving a state agency ongoing power to police farm labor relations, define bargaining units, certify representatives, and adjudicate disputes. In addition, the bill creates and defines farmworker labor organizations as bargaining representatives, excludes company unions, and positions those organizations as exclusive negotiators once certified, requiring them to represent all employees regardless of membership. It authorizes PERC to certify a union via cross‑check based on authorization cards if more than 50% of workers sign, without a secret‑ballot election when certain federal filings exist, which critics see as undermining secret‑ballot protections.
Once a bargaining representative is certified, employers must bargain before changing any wages, hours, or working conditions, and unilateral changes can be taken to arbitration, increasing legal exposure for routine management decisions. If the parties do not reach agreement within three months of certification or contract expiration, all unresolved issues must go to “interest arbitration,” where an arbitrator can impose a binding contract based on factors like ability to pay, comparable employers, and local cost of living, limiting employer leverage and flexibility.
Bill Summary
This bill establishes a Washington state commercial truck safety and education council to reduce serious crashes involving large trucks while strengthening an industry that underpins the state’s economy. It brings together law enforcement, transportation agencies, workforce education, and trucking industry leaders to analyze crash data and implement evidence-based training and safety programs. By focusing on driver education, regulatory compliance, and public awareness, the council targets the real causes of truck-related collisions such as fatigue, distraction, and inconsistent training standards. It is worth noting the rash of recent crashes involving trucks and illegal immigrants as another reason to support the bill.
The bill provides a dedicated, transparent funding stream through an updated commercial vehicle safety fee, ensuring safety investments are stable and industry-supported. Funds are tightly controlled, capped for administration, and directed toward grants and programs that measurably improve roadway safety. The modest fee is put back into a restricted account for use in trucking safety efforts. The money does not go to the general fund and does not apply to cars or non-commercial vehicles. Confidentiality and liability protections encourage honest data sharing and rigorous analysis without fear of litigation, leading to better outcomes for everyone on the road. With trucking responsible for moving goods to most Washington communities and supporting more than 170,000 jobs, safer operations benefit drivers, businesses, and the traveling public alike.
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Citizenship & Immigration
Modifying shared leave provisions to authorize shared leave for victims of a hate crime and those whose absence is due to immigration enforcement actions against the employee or the employee’s relative.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2411 expands Washington’s public-employee shared leave program to cover employees who are victims of a hate crime and employees whose absence is tied to immigration enforcement actions involving themselves or a family member. It does this by adding “hate crime” to the existing list of qualifying circumstances – which already includes domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking – and by creating a new eligibility category for absences stemming from detainment, deportation proceedings, family separation hardship, and related immigration enforcement impacts. The bill allows agencies to accept relatively broad forms of verification for immigration-enforcement-related leave, including a written employee statement, and it requires confidentiality and redaction safeguards if any immigration-status information is disclosed.
In practice, that combination lowers the documentation threshold and increases the likelihood of inconsistent standards across agencies, creating administrative and supervisory ambiguity about when shared leave is justified. Because shared leave is donated by coworkers and administered by agencies, expanding eligibility without clear, uniform verification expectations risks workplace friction and perceived unfairness among employees competing for a finite pool of donated leave. The measure also puts agencies in a sensitive adjudicative role around immigration-related claims, even with confidentiality rules, which can invite disputes, grievances, and uneven application.
It should be noted that the bill does not create new leave; it reallocates a limited shared resource, so broadening qualifying events can reduce availability for employees facing extraordinary medical conditions or other long-standing priorities already covered by the program. If the Legislature wants to address these hardships, a more transparent and appropriately structured benefit—rather than expanding a coworker-donation system—would be cleaner and more equitable. The policy also risks turning shared leave into a substitute for clearer statewide standards on paid leave, victim services, or emergency employment protections, while leaving costs and workplace management burdens at the agency level. House Bill 2411 is a problematic expansion that should be opposed.
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Military & Veterans
Changing the Washington code of military justice so that it includes certain protections for victims of an offense while serving within the organized militia of Washington.
Bill Summary
HB 2417 adds a new victims’ rights section to the Washington Code of Military Justice for Guard members serving in the organized militia, including rights to notice of key proceedings, to confer with prosecutors, to restitution, and to proceedings free from unreasonable delay. It requires Guard leaders to improve how victims are treated and how cases are processed across Washington Air and Army National Guard commands, reinforcing a culture of accountability within the chain of command.
Guard members often face the same risks as active‑duty troops but historically have had fewer explicit statutory protections when they are victims of crimes such as assault, domestic violence, or sexual offenses while in a military status. This bill closes that gap by codifying rights at each major step of the military justice process—pretrial confinement hearings, investigations, courts‑martial, sentencing, clemency, and parole—so victims are informed and not sidelined.
Supporting HB 2417 affirms that backing the troops includes standing up for Guardsmen who are wronged by fellow service members, without undermining commanders’ discretion or exposing the state to new liability. The legislation explicitly states it does not create new grounds to sue the state or limit commanders’ lawful discretion, which respects military discipline and conservative concerns about excessive litigation. Clear victim protections can improve trust in the Guard justice system, making it more likely that crimes are reported and addressed promptly, which supports unit cohesion and readiness. When soldiers and airmen know that, if something happens, they and their families will be kept informed and allowed to participate in the process, it reinforces commitment, retention, and the Guard’s reputation as a professional force.
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Community Concerns
Concerning participation in the address confidentiality program by administrative law judges and staff employed by the office of administrative hearings.
Bill Summary
This bill expands Washington’s Address Confidentiality Program to include administrative law judges and Office of Administrative Hearings staff by allowing them to substitute a secretary of state address if they claim to be targets of threats or harassment. It broadens eligibility categories and relies heavily on sworn statements rather than objective findings, significantly widening access to a powerful anonymity tool. While protecting public servants is important, the bill weakens transparency by shielding decision-makers who exercise quasi-judicial authority from public accountability. Administrative law judges adjudicate disputes involving the state and private parties, and their anonymity risks undermining confidence in the fairness and openness of administrative justice.
The proposal also creates a precedent for extending address secrecy to additional appointed officials, steadily eroding public records norms. By centralizing service of process and mail through the secretary of state, the bill adds administrative complexity and costs without clear evidence of widespread harm to OAH staff. Existing criminal statutes already penalize threats and harassment, and targeted protective measures could address legitimate risks without sweeping secrecy. The low evidentiary threshold invites misuse and makes oversight difficult, even with penalties for false statements that are rarely enforced. Public trust depends on balancing safety with transparency, and this bill tilts too far toward secrecy for officials wielding government power. For these reasons, citizens should oppose the bill and insist on narrower, more accountable solutions that protect safety without compromising open government.
Bill Summary
” . . . And then they came for your tires.” House Bill 2421 is a tax on tires. It targets the tire additive 6PPD by imposing new fees, creating a growing regulatory regime, and ultimately banning tires with 6PPD or state-defined “regrettable substitutes” starting in 2035. The bill relies on a punitive fee-and-ban approach before proven, scalable, and safety-certified alternatives are widely available. It adds new per-tire mitigation fees beginning in 2027 that automatically increase by 10 percent every year, guaranteeing rising costs that will ripple through supply chains and ultimately land on drivers, fleets, farmers, and small businesses.
The bill also prohibits sellers from itemizing the mitigation fee on receipts, reducing transparency and preventing consumers from understanding why prices are rising. Enforcement authority and chemical determinations are centralized in the Washington State Department of Ecology, giving regulators broad discretion to label substitutes “regrettable” even as technology continues to evolve. That uncertainty discourages manufacturers from investing in Washington’s market and risks limiting tire availability, especially for heavy-duty and rural uses where performance and safety margins matter most. The measure layers civil penalties, audits, certifications under penalty of perjury, and testing requirements that disproportionately burden smaller retailers and distributors.
Although the bill promises innovation, it effectively mandates outcomes on a fixed timeline rather than supporting voluntary transition, research partnerships, or infrastructure solutions that reduce runoff pollution directly. By focusing narrowly on tires, it ignores broader stormwater contributors while creating a de facto tax that grows every year without legislative reapproval. For these reasons, the bill’s costs, rigidity, and regulatory overreach outweigh its benefits, making opposing HB 2421 the more balanced and responsible choice.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2427 establishes the Ink of Hope Act, requiring a brief annual training for licensed tattoo artists on recognizing and responding to signs of human trafficking. The bill directs the state to develop or contract for a free, accessible, one-hour training that teaches how to identify red flags, respond safely, connect clients to resources, and report concerns to anti-trafficking organizations. Tattoo artists are uniquely positioned to notice indicators of coercion or abuse because of the private, trust-based nature of their work and repeated contact with clients. By standardizing training statewide, the bill creates a consistent, informed frontline that can help identify victims earlier and connect them to help faster. It strengthens public safety and victim protection without expanding law enforcement powers or imposing intrusive mandates. The policy is narrowly tailored, low cost, and grounded in prevention rather than punishment.