In today’s The Olympian newspaper, Lee Huntsman, president emeritus of the University of Washington, and Lee Hartwell, president emeritus of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published an opinion editorial urging the Governor and state lawmakers to preserve funding for the Life Sciences Discovery Fund in the supplemental budget.
Read the editorial.
This week, leaders of the Senate and House fiscal committees released their supplemental operating and capital budgets.
The budgets propose technical corrections and appropriation changes to the current 2013-15 biennial budgets.
Read UW’s Office of Planning & Budgeting brief (PDF) comparing the Governor, House, and Senate budgets.
In terms of process, the Senate budget was passed out of the Senate Ways & Means committee last night, debated and voted off the Senate floor today on a vote of 41 to 8.
The House has scheduled floor action for Saturday.
Once both chambers pass their respective budgets, negotiations begin towards a compromise budget.
Watch via TVW:
“Today’s action by the State Legislature was a vote of confidence in students and their importance to the future of our state,” said UW President Michael K. Young. “It sends a strong message that an education should be available to absolutely everyone. For years, our state has invested in these students’ success in our K-12 classrooms and in our communities. All students who work hard in school deserve an opportunity to go to college and have access to the financial resources to make it possible. Our representatives have passed a bill that will have a transformative effect on our students, their families and their communities for many years to come.
Two legislative proposals to help higher education institutions operate more efficiently cleared hurdles this week.
Each year a work group from higher ed institutions, made up of administrators and staff, meets to study and review efficiency efforts, and then recommends a range of efficiency measures to the state legislature that require changes to state law.
This year, those efficiency measures are contained in House Bill 2613, sponsored by Rep. Mia Gregerson (D-SeaTac) and Senate Bill 6362, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Bailey (R-Whidbey Island).
Both bills contain provisions that would help higher ed institutions save time and money, ranging from streamlining certain reporting requirements to allowing universities to move from semi-monthly payroll to bi-weekly payroll. For instance, UW estimates the latter provision alone would result in savings of $700,000 per year.
As of this writing, both bills have passed out of their respective policy committees, cleared fiscal committees, and are now moving closer to a floor vote in both chambers.
Stay tuned for more news as these two bills move through the process!
This week is policy cutoff in the House (Wednesday) and Senate (Friday). That means that if a policy bill hasn’t had a public hearing and been voted out of committee, it’s not likely going further in the process this legislative session.
Another cutoff date will occur next week, when the same process will unfold on bills in fiscal committees. Following fiscal cutoff will be the floor cutoff, the date by which a bill has to make it out of its house of origin, to be considered by the other chamber.
Legislative cutoff dates signal the ebb and flow of legislative activity, as committee, staff and legislative members’ workloads change in response to the winnowing list of bills left “alive.” Of curse, some bills considered “dead” may still be revived if they are deemed necessary to implement the budget (“NTIB”).
On Wednesday, President Michael Young returned to Olympia to continue meeting with lawmakers on the University’s top legislative priorities (Learn more: 2014 Legislative Agenda). President Young alsp took time out to meet with UW students from all three campuses interning in Olympia during the legislative session.
Students had a chance to hear from the President on his perspectives on public service, as well as share their individual experiences working in legislative and caucus offices. Students were given an opportunity to ask questions on a range of topics.
Today (Thursday), UW Regents Rogelio Riojas, Constance W. Rice, and Kiana M. Scott appeared before the Senate Higher Education committee for their gubernatorial appointment hearings. All three shared their personal stories, their qualifications for the position, and what they hope to accomplish during their tenure on the UW’s Board of Regents. Watch their testimony via TVW.
Finally, ASUW held its annual “Huskies on the Hill” student lobby day. As part of the day of activities, ASUW held a legislative forum, and invited UW Director of State Relations Margaret Shepherd to speak about her work as the University’s chief representative in Olympia. The forum also featured the University’s faculty representative, Prof. Jim Fridley, representatives from the alumni legislative advocacy group UW Impact, and State Representatives Marcus Riccelli (D-Spokane), Gerry Pollet (D-Seattle), and Chad Magendanz (R-Issaquah).
On Thursday (Jan. 30), UW Director of Student Financial Aid Kay Lewis presented during a work session of the Senate Higher Education Committee.
UW provided an overview of cost of attendance, tuition and fees, sources and types of student financial aid, along with several UW-specific pride points and challenges.
View the UW PowerPoint:
Watch the work session on TVW.
Yesterday (Jan. 30) at an afternoon press conference, Senate Higher Education Chair Barbara Bailey (R-Whidbey Island) announced the introduction of Senate Bill 6523, referred to as the REAL Hope Act.
The proposal, which mirrors the so-called “DREAM Act” would allow students who were illegally brought to the United States as children to be eligible for state financial aid. Notably, the bill appropriates $5 million to the State Need Grant program.
Also sponsoring the bill are Senators Tom, Fain, Litzow, Hill, and Dammeier.
A vote is expected as early as today (Jan. 31) on the REAL Hope Act, along with Senate Bill 5318, which removes the one-year waiting period for veterans or active members of the military for purposes of eligibility for resident tuition.
Read more in the Seattle Times.
Today is day 17 of the 60-day 2014 Regular Session.
This week, Regents and Trustees from the state’s six public four-year universities and college, and the state’s two-year community and technical colleges, descended on Olympia for a full-day of meetings with state lawmakers and Gov. Jay Inslee.
Topics included the need to return to pre-recession levels of state funding, expansion of programs in science, technology, engineering and math to meet the needs of employers and the state economy, and fully funding successful state financial aid programs like the State Need Grant.
Also this week, the House and Senate Higher Education committees have continued work sessions on relevant policy areas, held hearings on a range of legislative proposals, and begun passing bills out of committee (read agendas here and here).
Tomorrow, UW Director of Student Financial Aid Kay Lewis will present during a work session before the Senate Higher Education Committee. Her presentation will provide an overview of cost of attendance, and student financial aid options at UW.
House Democrats celebrating the life of #MLK. https://t.co/eOxwpMH3RR #waleg #IHaveADream
— Marcus Riccelli (@marcusriccelli) January 20, 2014
Sen. Joe Fain welcomes Kent student leaders to the Capitol; remembers Dr. King. #waleg #MLK #WASenate pic.twitter.com/clXEiJNu
— Majority CoalitionWA (@WashingtonMCC) January 22, 2013
Today (Jan. 24) is Day 12 of the 60-day 2014 Regular Session.
The week kicked off on Monday with a full day of events at the State Capitol to celebrate and remember Martin Luther King, Jr. (See sidebar for two tweets from Rep. Riccelli and Sen. Fain, both UW alums serving in the State Legislature)
On Tuesday, the House Higher Education Committee held a work session on Higher Education Performance and Results (watch TVW video of the session). The Senate Higher Education Committee held a similar work session on Thursday, getting an update on the Technical Incentive Funding Model Task Force report, presented by the Office of Financial Management and the 4-year public institutions of higher education (watch TVW video of the hearing session).
On Wednesday, Director of UW State Relations Margaret Shepherd gave an update to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. Shepherd’s presentation focused on how institutional funding as appropriated in the 2013-15 Operating Budget impacted the UW. (View PowerPoint slides of the presentation, watch TVW video of the session).
In the middle of the week, President Young visited Olympia for meetings with legislative leaders, in both the House and Senate, to discuss the University’s 2014 Legislative Agenda. Topics of conversation included the University’s commitment to preserving the resident undergraduate tuition freeze in 2014 (so long as there are no funding reductions), the importance of fully funding the State Need Grant Program, and how small investments in the University’s core strengths can produce high-impact outcomes for the state economy and its people.
The successful day of meetings wrapped up with the Council of Presidents‘ annual legislative reception.
Next week will be a whirlwind of committee hearings on bills, with the first cutoff date (for policy bills to be heard in committee) now just two weeks away (Feb. 7). Floor activity is also possible in the House and Senate. Stay tuned!
Today (Jan. 16), Director of the UW Veterans Center Tim Wold presented to the Senate Higher Education committee on a panel titled, “Veterans: Transition to the workforce.”
Wold’s presentation shared quick facts about UW’s growing student veteran enrollment (currently 1,344, an 108% increase since 2008-2009), explained the UW Veterans Center’s objectives, highlighted best practices, shared details on some of the Center’s innovative programming, and provided an overview of future initiatives.
Wold’s presentation to the committee is available below:
Watch the presentation on TVW:
Learn more about the UW Veterans Center.