City’s intergovernmental relations team briefs council on key state bills, two-week cutoff

Seattle’s Office of Intergovernmental Relations (OIR) briefed the City Council on Feb. 10 on the status of the 2025 Washington legislative session and the city’s priorities, warning that the policy committee cutoff is two weeks away.

“We are now in week 5 of the 2025 legislative session, with only two more weeks until the February 21 policy committee cutoff,” said Mina Hashemi, director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, as she opened the briefing.

The update listed bills the city is tracking and where the city has “signed in” either in support or for informational purposes. Hashemi and OIR staff told the council the team has been registering positions, testifying and coordinating with sponsors on measures that could affect city services and residents.

Why it matters: the cutoff narrows the window for policy committee action on bills that could affect downtown and neighborhood development, housing conversions, public safety tools and state-level funding that flows to local programs.

Key items highlighted by OIR included:

- Executive Order 25-05: Gov. Jay Inslee’s executive order directing the Washington State Department of Revenue to convene a data center work group to evaluate the economic, tax, energy and environmental impacts of data…