It is day 44 of the 105-day legislative session.
Last Friday was the house-of-origin policy committee cutoff, meaning that bills that didn’t pass out of the policy committees they were introduced in are considered dead unless necessary to implement the budget. Policy committees are subject-matter committees so for example, Higher Education & Workforce or Health Care & Wellness.
Bills that passed out of their policy committees moved to the appropriate fiscal committee if they impact the state budget. Legislation must pass out of their fiscal committee by this Friday, Feb. 28 to stay alive and continue moving through the process to becoming law. The house-of-origin fiscal committee cutoff is the second major deadline of legislative session.
To learn more about how a bill becomes a law in Washington state, click here.
Chancellor Lange seeks permanent state funding for student support services at UW Tacoma
UW Tacoma Chancellor Sheila Edwards Lange visited Olympia last week to advocate for permanent state funding for student success serves at the Tacoma campus. In the last biennial budget, UW Tacoma received a one-time appropriation for student support positions in re-enrollment, financial aid, mental health, and career readiness. Specifically, this funding enabled the launch of the HuskiesCare online resource hub, expanded mental health support with little to no waitlist, fully stocked The Pantry, and created the new Department of Career and Social Mobility. Retaining these services are imperative for continued student success and wellbeing.
Chancellor Lange also highlighted UW Tacoma’s request to help build nursing capacity in the South Puget Sound region by establishing a new undergraduate pre-licensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, a Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and expanding the existing Bachelor of Science program for registered nurses.
Finally, in her meetings, Chancellor Lange acknowledged the budget challenges the state faces and emphasized how deep budget cuts would uniquely impact the UW Tacoma, where nearly half of he students are Pell eligible, more than half are first generation, and one-fifth are military-affiliated.
*Picture: Chancellor Sheila Edwards Lange & Sen. Drew Hansen
Questions?
The Office of State Relations is in Olympia throughout legislative session to advocate on behalf of the UW. For questions on the UW’s legislative priorities or advocacy efforts, please reach out to Morgan Hickel at mhickel@uw.edu.