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.
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Taxes & Financial
Making the property tax exemption for multipurpose senior citizen centers permanent.
Bill Summary
As a bipartisan bill, House Bill 2133 makes permanent the existing property tax exemption for multipurpose senior citizen centers in Washington State. Under current law, this exemption was created as a temporary tax preference subject to expiration and periodic review. The bill removes that uncertainty by exempting the preference from the sunset and review requirements (see RCW 83.32.805). In practical terms, it ensures that senior centers can continue operating without the risk of sudden increases in property tax costs. These centers provide essential services such as meal programs, social engagement, wellness activities, and access to community resources for older adults.
Making the exemption permanent allows nonprofit operators to plan long-term, stabilize budgets, and focus resources on serving seniors rather than covering rising taxes. The fiscal impact is limited, while the community benefit is significant, particularly as Washington’s senior population continues to grow. Stable senior centers help reduce isolation, support healthy aging, and can lower long-term public health and social service costs. The bill reflects a clear policy choice to prioritize aging with dignity and community-based support over administrative uncertainty.
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Military & Veterans
Modifying and extending the adaptive housing retail sales and use tax preference for disabled veterans.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2135 strengthens Washington’s commitment to disabled veterans by extending and expanding the existing sales and use tax remittance program for adapted housing projects. The bill extends the program through 2038 and increases the maximum remittance per adapted housing project from $2,500 to $5,000, providing more meaningful financial relief to veterans with service-connected disabilities. It applies to the state portion of sales and use taxes paid on construction materials and labor for homes adapted or built under federally approved Veterans Affairs housing grant programs. By doubling the statewide annual cap on remittances to $250,000 and indexing both the individual and statewide limits to inflation beginning in fiscal year 2028, the bill ensures the program remains effective over time.
The legislation maintains clear eligibility standards tied directly to federal VA grant approvals, ensuring the benefit is targeted to veterans with the greatest needs. It also requires transparent administration, including quarterly remittances and monthly public reporting on remaining funds, which promotes accountability and predictability. Importantly, the bill recognizes that federal housing grants intended to help disabled veterans too often end up paying state taxes instead of improving accessibility and independence. By returning those dollars to veterans, the bill directly supports safer, more accessible housing and a higher quality of life. The fiscal impact is modest, capped, and carefully monitored, while the human impact for disabled veterans is substantial and immediate. House Bill 2135 gives the very assistance meant to help them live independently and with dignity.
Bill Summary
As a bipartisan bill, House Bill 2138, known as the Building Opportunities for Student Success (BOSS) Act, responds directly to Washington’s significant academic performance gaps by overhauling how reading and math are taught, supported, and measured in public schools. The bill requires schools to adopt evidence-based structured literacy programs grounded in the science of reading, ensuring students receive systematic, explicit instruction that research shows works for the vast majority of children. It prioritizes early intervention by strengthening literacy supports in kindergarten through third grade, so students are prepared to transition successfully from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” by fourth grade. The legislation also creates the READ grant program, directing resources to schools with the greatest literacy challenges and funding trained reading coaches where they are most needed.
Importantly, the bill increases transparency by requiring the publication of long-term student performance data, giving families, educators, and policymakers a clearer picture of what is working and where improvement is needed. It also modernizes teacher preparation and certification. Finally, the bill takes a forward-looking approach to mathematics by requiring a review of state standards against high-performing international models like Singapore math. Rather than lowering expectations, this measure sets clear, achievable standards and backs them with resources, coaching, and training.
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Taxes & Financial
Exempting land classified under current use that is sold or transferred to a governmental entity from additional tax in certain circumstances.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2140 makes a targeted and sensible adjustment to Washington’s current use taxation system by exempting certain land transfers to governmental entities from punitive additional taxes. Under existing law, landowners can face significant back taxes, interest, and penalties when classified farm, forest, or open space land is sold or transferred, even when the transfer serves a public purpose. This bill clarifies and expands exemptions so that land sold or transferred to a government entity is not penalized when the land will continue to be managed consistently with conservation, forestry, or public-use objectives. By doing so, it removes a financial disincentive that can discourage landowners from cooperating with local governments on infrastructure, conservation, or public land acquisitions. The bill refines existing law to align tax policy with public benefit outcomes, and in doing so, it establishes a smarter tax policy that encourages cooperation instead of punishment.
Bill Summary
As a bipartisan bill, House Bill 2141 reforms Washington’s building code process to bring stability, predictability, and transparency to a system that has become increasingly costly and disruptive for builders, homeowners, and local governments. The bill pauses further statewide building and energy code updates for ten years following the 2024 adoption, allowing the construction industry time to adapt and plan without constant regulatory changes. After that pause, substantive updates would occur no more than once every six years, replacing the current rapid-cycle approach that drives up costs and confusion. By slowing the pace of code changes, the bill helps control construction and housing costs, a critical step in addressing Washington’s housing affordability crisis. One other note is important to mention, especially for citizens who wish to use natural gas: This bill ensures that energy codes cannot prohibit nor penalize the use of gas, protecting consumer choice and energy flexibility.
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K–12 Education
Replacing statutory references to alternative learning experiences with remote and hybrid learning.
Bill Summary
This bill updates Washington’s education statutes by replacing outdated references to “alternative learning experiences” with clearer, more accurate terms: “remote learning” and “hybrid learning.” It reflects how schools, students, and families actually engage with instruction today, particularly after the widespread and successful use of online and blended models. By modernizing the language in law, the bill reduces confusion for school districts, parents, and educators about what types of learning options are authorized and supported. It ensures consistency across multiple sections of the education code, improving clarity and administrative efficiency.
To be clear, the bill does not eliminate learning options; instead, it affirms that remote and hybrid models are legitimate, recognized forms of instruction. This clarity helps districts plan programs, allocate resources, and communicate expectations more effectively. Families benefit from more transparent descriptions of learning models when choosing what best fits their children’s needs. The bill also supports innovation by acknowledging flexible learning approaches that serve students who thrive outside traditional classrooms. Importantly, it is a technical but meaningful update that aligns statute with real-world practice rather than imposing new mandates. Supporting this bill, then, is supporting clarity, modernization, and an education system that reflects how students learn in the 21st century.
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Technology & Privacy
Requiring notices to employees when electronic monitoring is used to assist employers conducting performance evaluations.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2144 establishes clear transparency requirements when employers use electronic monitoring, including artificial intelligence, to assist in evaluating employee performance. The bill requires employers to provide written notice to employees before monitoring is implemented, ensuring workers are not unknowingly evaluated by hidden or opaque systems. It defines key terms such as electronic monitoring, artificial intelligence, and performance evaluation so expectations are clear for both employers and employees. Existing monitoring must also be disclosed, closing loopholes that allow silent or retroactive surveillance.
By requiring employers to explain how monitoring is used and how data is verified, the bill promotes fairness and accountability in performance reviews. Enforcement authority is given to the Department of Labor and Industries, providing a balanced administrative process with investigation, appeals, and reasonable penalties. The bill focuses penalties on willful or repeat violations, discouraging bad actors while allowing flexibility for good-faith compliance. Employees are also given a limited right to pursue civil action, reinforcing accountability without encouraging frivolous claims. Importantly, the bill does not ban electronic monitoring; it simply ensures transparency and due process as technology becomes more powerful and prevalent in the workplace.
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Healthcare
Protecting patient access to discounted medications and health care services through Washington’s health care safety net by preventing manufacturer limitations on the 340B drug pricing program.
Bill Summary
HB 2145 creates a new chapter in Title 69 RCW protecting patient access by preventing drug manufacturers, distributors, and logistics providers from placing certain limitations on 340B drug pricing arrangements with covered entities. It authorizes civil enforcement: courts may enjoin violations and impose civil penalties of up to 5,000 dollars per day per violation, plus attorneys’ fees and costs, with each package of 340B drugs counting as a separate violation.
The bill sets up a private‑right‑style enforcement posture where manufacturers can be sued in state court over business practices that are already governed by federal 340B law and federal agencies. Because each package can be a separate violation, penalty exposure can quickly reach large, punitive levels, increasing legal risk and compliance costs that may be passed on to consumers or reduce willingness to serve the Washington market.
The bill sponsors claim the 340B program is essential and say that restricting manufacturer practices is necessary, but the bill essentially substitutes Olympia’s judgment for the negotiated relationships and federal oversight that already structure 340B. The bill explicitly acknowledges it must not conflict with federal law, yet it pushes into an area (340B program conditions and restrictions) that is already the subject of complex federal guidance and litigation, inviting preemption fights and uncertainty.
By singling out one class of discount contracts (340B) for special state protection and penalties, HB 2145 can distort how manufacturers allocate limited discounted inventory, ship product, or decide which pharmacies and hospitals to work with in Washington. Heavy penalties aimed only at manufacturers, without parallel accountability for covered entities or pharmacy partners, risk a one‑sided regime that could encourage overexpansion or abuse of 340B contract pharmacy arrangements, with downstream cost pressures elsewhere in the system.
This bill turns a federally managed discount program into a state‑enforced hammer against manufacturers, inviting lawsuits and higher compliance costs instead of cooperative solutions. If each package of 340B drugs can trigger 5,000‑dollar‑per‑day penalties, manufacturers may simply reduce availability or raise list prices, hurting the very patients the bill claims to protect. The bill is framed as “protecting access,” but it does so by giving the attorney general and 340B entities new tools to punish manufacturers, which can have unintended consequences for prices, supply, and the broader market.
Bill Summary
House Bill 2146 strengthens Washington law to more clearly and forcefully combat the sexual exploitation of minors. The bill clarifies that sexual exploitation occurs when any person compels, aids, invites, authorizes, or causes a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct knowing it will be photographed or performed live. It also explicitly holds parents, guardians, or custodians criminally accountable if they knowingly permit a child under their care to be exploited in this way. By tightening statutory language, the bill closes loopholes that could allow offenders to evade responsibility based on technical interpretations of involvement.
HB 2146 reinforces that exploitation is not limited to direct coercion, but includes facilitation and knowing permission. The legislation maintains sexual exploitation of a minor as a serious class B felony, underscoring the gravity of the crime. This clear standard supports law enforcement and prosecutors in protecting children and pursuing justice effectively. It also sends a strong deterrent message to anyone who might enable or profit from the abuse of minors. The bill prioritizes the safety, dignity, and well-being of children above all else in order to send a clear message that Washington will not tolerate any form of sexual exploitation of minors.
Bill Summary
For years, taxpayers have greatly funded the government education system in Washington State: they already pay more than $20,000 per student. More money is not the root problem — yet this bill aims, once again, to increase funding for a system that has largely failed taxpayers in terms of actual education results. House Bill 2147 proposes a significant increase in state funding for school materials, supplies, and operating costs. While inflationary pressures are real, the bill permanently ratchets up per-pupil allocations and layers on automatic inflation adjustments that will drive long-term spending growth regardless of state revenue conditions. The proposal expands ongoing obligations in the basic education formula without identifying a dedicated or sustainable funding source, increasing the likelihood of future tax increases.
It also embeds new minimum allocations and floor payments that reduce legislative flexibility to respond to economic downturns or competing priorities. Although the bill adds reporting requirements, it largely trusts districts to spend the new funds appropriately without meaningful performance-based accountability tied to student outcomes. Much of the funding increase is explicitly restricted to operating costs, limiting local discretion to address district-specific needs in more strategic ways. The bill further centralizes education spending decisions at the state level, continuing a trend that diminishes local control and innovation. By locking in higher baseline costs, HB 2147 risks crowding out future investments in targeted reforms such as literacy, math recovery, or workforce-aligned programs. By opposing this bill, taxpayers can stand against the “more money, less results” pattern of recent years.