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February 28, 2025

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We have reached a benchmark in the 2025 legislative session. Friday, Feb. 28, is fiscal cutoff, meaning all bills must be passed out of their respective fiscal committees to be considered alive this session. On Monday, March 3, we start 10 consecutive days of floor action to vote on hundreds of bills until the 5 p.m. deadline for House of Origin cutoff on March 12. By that point, any bill that hasn’t passed out of its original chamber will be considered done for this session, except for bills considered necessary to implement the budget. In this email, I will recap some of the bills that have survived and some that haven’t.

Virtual Town Hall – Save the Date

But first, I want to invite you to a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday, March 13, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. I will be joining my fellow 17th District legislators, Rep. Kevin Waters and Sen. Paul Harris, for this Zoom meeting. In addition to reviewing some of the bills passed in the Senate and House and providing an update on our legislation, we will answer your questions and address your concerns. If you wish to participate in the meeting, you must register for the event by clicking here.

Doing the Work of the People

I came to Olympia to get things done and pass good legislation that helps the people of Washington. Obviously, there are two parties with different ideologies, but the reality is both sides want to help the people of Washington. Of course, we don’t see eye-to-eye on many things, and there are times when our ideas completely contradict one another, but there are many times when we work across the aisle to pass good legislation.

However, even though we offer numerous good policies, the majority party leaders often ignore those ideas and vote for their own legislation. I continue trying to make a difference and work on my priorities, including making communities safer, reducing the cost of living, fixing our housing crisis, and empowering all families. However, despite those efforts, bad bills continue to advance. Yes, there are some good bills from both sides of the aisle moving forward, but unfortunately, many other good bills were never given a chance.

For example, I introduced House Bill 1708, which would help local governments better track the impacts of homelessness and create more effective ways to address it. This legislation would make it possible for communities to examine homelessness issues more closely on a local level and see where to make changes. Would this solve the homelessness crisis? No, but it would be another effective tool leading to real solutions. However, the majority party chose not to hear it in committee. You can read more about this in a recent op-ed I wrote that will appear in The Columbian on Monday.

Good Republican Bills Still Alive

These bills are still alive, but not all will become law. However, this is a small sample of both sides working together to pass good legislation for the people of Washington, but there could be so many more.

• House Bill 1457 (SVP electronic monitoring) – Requires electronic monitoring of sexually violent predators granted conditional release.
• House Bill 1267 (Special education funding) – Removes the special education funding cap, which is currently 16% of enrollment.
• House Bill 1285 (Financial education) – Establishes financial education as a high school graduation requirement for the class of 2031.
• House Bill 1293 (Litter) – Increases litter penalties from Class 3 to Class 2 infraction and forms a work group to recommend solutions.
• House Bill 1011 (School safety capital grants) – Creates a new capital grant program for school safety upgrades.
• House Bill 1179 (Property tax value freeze) – Freezes property values for taxation purposes for anyone who otherwise qualifies for the SPTE without regard to income.

More Bad Bills

Meanwhile, here are some of the bad bills still alive this session (for a comprehensive list, click here). Despite their good intentions, these bills are not good for Washington, and they will have negative consequences. We are working hard to improve these bills, but ultimately the majority party will determine their fate.

• House Bill 1015 – Requires sellers to obtain a home energy performance report prior to selling.
• House Bill 1125 – Allows judges to resentence convicted criminals with lighter penalties.
• House Bill 1178 – Reduces sentences for certain drug crimes, including those involved in gang-related felonies.
• House Bill 1217 – Enacts rent control (7% cap on annual rent increases).
• House Bill 1296 – Revises/undermines the Parent’s Rights Initiative (I-2081).
• House Bill 1319 – Creates a wealth tax of 1% on intangible assets over $100 million.
• House Bill 1320 – Imposes a 10% increase in B&O rates and a 20% total increase for services for 2 years before reverting to 10%
• House Bill 1971 – Requires health plans to extend gender affirming care prescription coverage to 12 months at a time.
• House Bill 1921 – Creates a new per-mileage tax on drivers (road usage charge).

As a member of the House Transportation Committee, I want to particularly mention House Bill 1921. This bill would implement a 2.6-cent-per-mile road usage charge for highway maintenance and preservation. That would be on top of the current state gas tax, essentially creating a double tax on drivers. An additional assessment (10% of the road usage charge) would be allocated to rail, bicycle, pedestrian, and public transit projects. Nearly 20,000 people signed in against the bill during a public hearing on Feb. 13.

Fortunately, the bill did not get voted out of the House Transportation Committee. However, it’s not necessarily dead. The majority party could still move the bill forward until the last day of session because it’s necessary to implement the budget. I will keep you posted if there is a change. In any case, this is a bad policy that would hurt Washingtonians. We will continue fighting against it.

Help Us Stop Bad Bills

You might be wondering how you can help stop these bad bills. House Republicans have introduced a new website detailing some of the worst bills this session. I encourage you to learn about these policies by visiting our new website: Stop Bad Bills. This page contains detailed information, news articles, and videos explaining why these policies would harm Washington. Please visit this website and make your voice heard by taking the survey or share your story about how bad bills have impacted you or your family. This is a great way for you to get involved and express your concerns.

Do You Want to Pay More Taxes?

Another major topic this session is our statewide budget deficit, which, according to some estimates, could be as much as $14 billion. However, the state is not suffering decreased revenue. The real problem is overspending on government programs and services, for which the state lacks money. We need to be more responsible and only spend what we have. Unfortunately, to address the deficit, many in the majority party want to raise your taxes. They have introduced nearly 30 bills that would increase taxes in the state. Click here to see the entire list. We can’t continue to place more burden on taxpayers who are already struggling to get by. State government needs to show some discipline and control its spending.

Thank You for Your Support

Your input is so valuable in the legislative process. Thank you for contacting me and sharing your feedback. Please continue reaching out. It’s an honor to serve you.

Sincerely,

David Stuebe