​Legislative update, Week 5

We’re in the 5th week of the 2022 legislative session, just over the halfway mark.

Cutoff
The legislature has moved from committee hearings to floor votes this week, where bills will be debated and voted on by the entire House or Senate. Bills must pass the House or Senate by February 15 at 5pm in order to keep moving through the legislative process.
Some of the good bills still alive at this point include SB 5847, a bill that will give employees help navigating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; HB 1992, a bill that raises the cap on state employees’ annual leave from 240 hours to 280 hours; and HB 1806, a bill to give collective bargaining rights to legislative branch employees.

WPEA Bill Tracker
Our WPEA Bill Tracker is live, where you can see which bills affect WPEA members, what our position is, and where they are in the legislative process. The bill tracker will be updated at the end of each week throughout the session.

​Upcoming
Next week the state’s Revenue Forecast Council will release its estimate of how much revenue the state will generate in the coming years. This report tells state budget writers how much money they have to work with when writing the budget. House and Senate budget proposals are then expected early the following week.