BIAW Bulletin: Good Bill Facing Cutoff Deadline

February 8, 2021

BIAW Bulletin

Welcome to what I am legally obligated to call the BIAW Bulletin, but what all the cool kids call The Hammer with Himebaugh.

Virtual session has been hard. Not just on folks like us, but on legislators. It is both fast and slow all at the same time. But we are coming up on our first major deadline of session. Next Monday, Feb. 15, is Policy Committee cutoff. This means all the policy bills need to be out of their policy committees by that date.

They get passed on to a fiscal committee if there is a fiscal impact, or to the rules committee if there is not one. Now the rules committee, bills sit there a little bit like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette contestants, waiting for a rose, or what we law leg nerds call “getting pulled to the floor” and that way they can be voted off the chamber floor.

There is still time to get good policy bills out of committee this week. We’ve got a good bill, SB 5380, up for a hearing in the Senate Housing and Local Government Committee on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. This bill eliminates the “bring me a rock, no not that rock” nonsense at the permit counter. It would limit local governments to three reviews before they approve your permit. This is a great bill to streamline the process and get building faster. We’d love to have you testify.

See the link below for how to sign to do that on Tuesday at 8 a.m., or, at the very least, register your support for this bill, also in the link below, and we will try to get this committee to move this bill so we can streamline housing and help Washington recover.

To show industry support, please sign in or testify for SB 5380 here.

Thank you for watching another excellent, fabulous and tremendous episode of The Hammer with Himebaugh. Homes start here. Himebaugh out!