Legislative Update: Week 10

What has the Northwest Harvest Advocacy team been up to in Olympia this week?

HB 1784 (emergency hunger relief bill) had a public hearing in Ways & Means on Monday. Brian Clark, one of our Community Advisory Network (CAN) members, gave testimony on the impact of SNAP emergency allotments ending earlier this month: “I wasn’t eating extravagantly on the emergency supplements. I was just finally able to afford to eat three complete meals each day,” Clark said. You can watch Brian’s whole testimony on TVW. HB 1784 passed out of the Senate Ways & Means committee on Thursday this week. Next, this bill will need to be scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor.
HB 1477 (WFTC technical fix bill) had a public hearing in Ways & Means on Monday as well. It needs to be voted out of committee next. You can watch testimony for this bill on TVW.
HB 1238 (school meals bill) was heard in the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee this week. You can watch testimony from the bill sponsor Rep. Marcus Riccelli describe how “food is health” on TVW. The bill is scheduled for executive session in the Senate Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education at 1:30 PM on Monday, 3/20.
HB 1559 (basic needs act/college hunger) was voted out of committee this week and is scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Ways & Means committee next Tuesday, 3/21, at 4:00pm.
Support agenda bills HB 1260 and HB 1447 both just passed out of the Senate Committee on Human Services and have been referred to Ways & Means.

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