Committee hears bill to make full bank-garnishment protections automatic and permanent

Senators and witnesses on the Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee on March 21 heard testimony on Senate Bill 56-51, which would make automatic the full amount of Washington’s bank-account exemption for consumer debt and remove a July 1, 2025, sunset on automatic protections.

The bill was presented to the committee by staff member E. E. D. Adams, who summarized the measure as “remov[ing] the specific dollar amounts and instead insert[ing] blanks that must be filled in with the appropriate inflation adjusted amounts” and making the temporary automatic protections permanent. Adams said the bill also would require the Department of Revenue to adjust exemption amounts every three years beginning July 1, 2027.

The legislation would preserve a nonbankruptcy exemption that currently protects $2,000 of “other personal property” in a bank account, of which $1,000 is automatically protected for consumer debt under current law; SB 56-51 would make the full $2,000 automatic in nonbankruptcy proceedings and make that automatic protection permanent. The bill also adds an exemption for alimony or spousal support payments to the extent they are traceable, with an exclusion for actions by a child support or spousal support agency operating under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act.

Senator Emily Alvarado (prime sponsor)…