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House panel advances ticket-resale and winter-rate bills to the floor
Summary
The House Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection moved HB 4,024 (ticket-resale restrictions) and HB 4,025 (limits on winter residential rate increases) to the full House with "do pass" recommendations after brief work sessions and roll-call votes on Feb. 5.
The House Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection on Feb. 5 advanced two bills to the House floor: HB 4,024, which would bar a reseller from reselling an admission ticket unless the reseller possesses the ticket or holds a written contract to obtain it from an initial sale, and HB 4,025, which would prohibit public utilities that provide electricity or natural gas from raising residential rates between Nov. 1 and March 31.
Committee staff summarized both measures as having minimal fiscal and no revenue impacts. For HB 4,024 staff said the measure designates a resale violation as an unlawful trade practice; for HB 4,025 staff said the rate freeze would take effect 90 days after adjournment.
Vice Chair Chi Chi moved HB 4,024 to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation; the committee conducted a roll-call vote in which members recorded yes votes from Representatives Johnson, Gomberg, Wallin, Walters, White, Vice Chair Chi Chi and Chair Sosa, and no votes from Representatives Kate, Rushdie and Vice Chair Osborn. The motion passed; Rep. Marsh was assigned as the floor carrier.
Vice Chair Taichie moved HB 4,025 to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation. A roll-call vote recorded yes votes from Representatives Shuttles, Gomberg, Wallen, Walters, White, Vice Chair Chi Chi and Chair Sosa and no votes from Representatives Tate, Reschke and Vice Chair Osborne. Chair Sosa said she will carry HB 4,025 to the House floor.
Representative discussion was brief. Representative Ropeshki flagged a statutory-interpretation concern about whether a downstream intermediary (for example, a carrier or a person affiliated with a reseller) could be considered "affiliated with the reseller" under HB 4,024; she said she would register a no on the work session to highlight that uncertainty. No amendments were adopted in committee.
The committee closed both work sessions and moved on to scheduled public hearings on other bills.
The committee has not yet taken final action on either bill; both will appear next on the House floor calendar for further consideration.
