Senate Ways and Means advances scores of bills, approves amendments on paid leave and public-safety tax

The Washington State Senate Ways and Means Committee met in executive session April 8 and voted to send more than 30 bills to the Rules Committee with due-pass recommendations, while debating and disposing of a number of committee amendments.

The most contested item was engrossed second substitute House Bill 1213, which would expand the state Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program and extend job-protection and health-coverage rules to employees at smaller employers. Committee staff told members the Employment Security Department projects higher PFML uptake and an estimated four-year fiscal effect including $7.2 million in administrative costs, $81 million in small-business assistance grants, $251 million in benefits and $103 million in additional fund revenue.

Josh Hammond, staff to the committee, said the bill "is subject to appropriation and therefore has an indeterminate fiscal impact," and added that PFML assistance "is meant to be temporary, but for a minimum of 12 months." The committee adopted amendment 2 (offered by Senator Robinson), which phases in reduced employer-size thresholds (50 to 25 in 2026, 25 to 15 in 2027, and 15 to 8 in 2028) while keeping a 180-day work-history requirement. The committee rejected amendment 3 (offered by Senator Gildan), which would have removed the bill's broad health-coverage expansion and tied health coverage to existing FMLA thresholds.

On child-welfare housing, substitute House Bill 1177 — which would allow the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to provide housing services to some families no longer receiving DCYF child-welfare case services and to serve families on a wait list — received a due-pass recommendation after Senator Gildan withdrew an amendment that would have limited assistance to two years. Gildan told the committee she "originally proposed this because there is no end date" but withdrew the amendment after staff cautioned about potential conflicts with federal program requirements.

The committee also adopted a…