Senate Ways & Means advances substitute Senate Bill 5,167 after votes on 58 amendments

The Senate Ways & Means Committee met in executive session Thursday and moved substitute Senate Bill 5,167 — the biennial operating budget — with adopted amendments and a due-pass recommendation to the Rules Committee.

The committee began with staff briefing of 58 proposed amendments to the chair's budget and then caucused before returning to vote. Staff described the package as a mix of technical corrections, funding restorations, one-time grants and program extensions; several items were noted as not included in the House budget.

Why it matters: The substitute package sets the Senate's starting point for floor consideration and reconciliation with the House budget. Several amendments would change capital and operating priorities, add one-time grants, or extend task forces and work groups; a subset of those changes were adopted by the committee and will appear in the substitute bill.

Most consequential items discussed included technical corrections, extensions of task forces and advisory bodies, targeted one-time grants, program rate changes and studies. Examples debated in the committee included:

- A technical packet of nonfiscal corrections adopted early in the session.

- Funding to continue a riparian task force aimed at improving riparian habitat and supporting salmon and steelhead recovery (an amendment describing a $680,000 general fund impact across the 2025-27 biennium was offered in committee). The committee adopted the amendment.

- An amendment to extend the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force and the Truth and Healing Tribal Advisory Committee one year with a one-time $500,000 appropriation; that amendment was adopted.

- A $300,000 amendment to fund a reparative-history research study (the Charles Mitchell and George Washington Bush study) for descendants of victims of U.S. chattel slavery was adopted.

- Several education, workforce and public-health items were offered; some were adopted, some were withdrawn, and others failed. For example, a proposal to increase Medicaid dental reimbursement for silver diamine fluoride (a $2.2 million change) was debated but not adopted; a proposal to increase funding for the state's learning assistance program (multi-hundred-million-dollar scale) was offered and later withdrawn.

- Security, public-safety and agency-study items: the committee adopted an amendment shifting funding for bomb squad equipment into the state general fund ($913,000 in 2025-27 as described in committee) and adopted an amendment adding a sundry claim payment for a wrongful conviction (approximately $450,000 in FY2025).

Committee process and outcome: After voting through the amendment packet, members voted to roll the adopted amendments into substitute Senate Bill 5,167 and gave the substitute a due-pass recommendation to the Rules Committee. Senator Robinson moved the final roll-up and the chair put the question; the committee recorded a voice vote and the substitute received a due-pass recommendation to Rules, "subject to signatures." The committee adjourned after the vote.

Votes at a glance (Amendment —erred by / outcome):

Adopted: 1 (technical packet); 2 (Robinson); 3 (Robinson); 4 (Wernick); 5 (Dhingra); 6 (Kaufman); 7 (Saldana); 8 (Behnke); 9 (Hasegawa); 10 (Stanford); 11 (Trudeau); 13 (Dozier); 16 (Hasegawa); 18 (Gildan); 20 (Conway); 21 (Hasegawa); 22 (Dhingra); 25 (Dhingra); 27 (Robinson); 30 (Saldana); 34 (Robinson); 35 (Robinson); 36 (Robinson); 37 (Robinson); 38 (Robinson); 39 (Warnock); 41 (Robinson); 50 (Richelli); 51 (Richeli); 52 (Robinson); 53 (Kaufman); 55 (Saldana); 57 (Robbins); 58 (Robinson).

Not adopted: 12 (Behnke); 14 (Torres); 15 (Dozier); 23 (Behnke); 24 (Mazzall/Musal); 26 (Wornick); 32 (Torres); 40 (Wernick); 42 (Wagner); 48 (Braun); 49 (Torres).

Withdrawn by sponsor: 17 (Brown/Braun/withdrawn in committee), 19 (Richeli duplicate), 28 (Saldana), 29 (Conway), 31 (Cleveland), 33 (Gildan), 43 (Wagner), 45 (Gildan), 46 (Hasegawa), 47 (Torres), 54 (Hasegawa), 56 (Dhingra).

What the committee did not decide tonight: Several high-dollar items and policy proposals were discussed but either failed, were withdrawn by sponsors, or were left out of the House chair's budget; the committee did not adopt every proposed change. The substitute bill now proceeds with the adopted amendments for further floor action and conference with the House.

Quoted remarks and context: During the briefing, a staff presenter opened with a light remark, saying, "Happy opening day. Go Mariners." Senator Gildan, in closing remarks after the roll call votes, criticized some adoption choices while thanking colleagues, noting differences in funding decisions across amendments. Senator Hasegawa pointed to the volume of amendments this year and thanked members for their work in a difficult budget year.

Next steps: Substitute Senate Bill 5,167, as amended by the adopted items, will proceed to the Rules Committee with a due-pass recommendation, then to the Senate floor for consideration and, later, to any House-Senate reconciliation processes.