Bills that didn’t pass out of committee in Olympia today are dead; those that did get passed, however, still have a chance (except for bills in the Ways and Means Committee, the money committee, which have until Tuesday to get the committee’s nod). Here are a handful of each.
First, pour out a 40 for these dead, dead bills:
A Senate bill that would create school health partnerships and fight child obesity died in the Senate, despite an “incredible hearing,” said Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36).
The bill that would relabel youth at-risk as“Kids at Hope” is, understandably, dead.
A bill recognizing October 9 as “Leif Erickson Day,” honoring the first European explorer to land in America, died in the Senate. This is probably good, because the explorer spelled his name “Leif Ericson,” without a “k.”
A bill that would prevent petition signatures from being released is so, so dead.
A bill decreasing minimum wage as inflation decreases died in the Senate.
As Cienna Madrid wrote about yesterday, a bill requiring limited service pregnancy centers to tell the truth to their patients died in the Senate.
And a bill prohibiting public art in certain prisons and halfway houses died in the Senate, too.
Bills that survived (for now) are after the jump.
Bills that are alive (for now):
It’s a good day for marijuana: Senate Bill 5798 passed today, expanding legal protections to medical professionals who authorize medical marijuana for treatment, including osteopathic physicians, physician assistants, naturopathic doctors, and nurse practitioners. It heads to the house. Meanwhile, SB 5615, the marijuana decriminalization bill whose companion bill died in the house, is still alive and kickin’ in the Senate. But chances are looking slim for the bill; even if it passes in the senate, it could die in the house all over again.
A bill (SB 6345) passed in the Senate to make holding a cellphone while driving a primary offense (it would effectively ban SEXTING WHILE DRIVING).
A bill (SB 6449) requiring signature gatherers to sign the affidavit on the back of petitions, attesting to the best of their knowledge that everyone who signed the petition is a registered voter, is still alive after passing out of the senate’s Government Operations and Elections committee. The bill also requires paid signature gatherers and employers to register with the state, so any abuses can be traced back to the culprit. The signature line has been on petitions for years, but there’s been no requirement to actually sign it.
A Senate bill requiring banks to pay fees to the Washington housing trust fund, which supports affordable housing, when reselling mortgages is moving to the full senate. “We cut [the budget supported by the fees] significantly last year,” said McDermott, “so this is great legislation.”
A bill that would ban the use of credit scoring for calculating premiums for auto and home insurance, died in the house, but it’s Senate companion bill is still alive. “A lot of people are looking at their credit scores decreasing,” said Representative Sharon Nelson (D-34), “and we’re penalizing them for this economy.”
Legislation that would officially make initiative signatures public records, died in the house, but is still alive in the Senate.
You know for all the hoopla over politics it seems like legislating has been reduced to a few minor functions. Ok, health care in Congress, right, but then it died. Ok, but then, what else? I don’t see any “flurry of new bills”. And from what you’ve written, it sounds like the usual stupid stuff gets archived and the reasonable stuff maybe gets passed.
What else is new in the world?!
That bill renaming “at-risk” kids as “kids at hope” just makes me want stab myself in the ear, especially since my senator is on the sponsor list. People wonder why people turn conservative; it’s right there, folks — liberalism doesn’t have to mean “soft, marshmallow-like brains”, but I have to admit it sometimes does.
“This is probably good, because the explorer spelled his name ‘Leif Ericson,’ without a ‘k.'”
No, not really. First, he didn’t speak Modern English — he would have spoken Old Norse, and the Old Norse form of the name is “Leifr Eiríksson.” Second, the concept of spelling a name one specific way at all times is a relatively modern one. People spelled as they thought things sounded, but mostly they didn’t worry much about spelling. You see tons of old records where people spelled the same name multiple ways — even within the same page, and even their own name.
Note that sometimes even in Modern English, he is “Erikson”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikso…
Nice info. Will this be a recurring post?
@3: the bill used “ck”
@5, yes, I am aware of that. I was not defending their spelling so much as commenting on the misstatement that ‘the explorer spelled his name “Leif Ericson,” without a “k.”‘ He did no such thing.
@5, @6: I very much doubt that he spelled it any way at all. Guys like Eriksson didn’t write sagas, or anything else; they starred in them. I’ll bet he was illiterate.
Don’t text while driving. You’re at hope of getting into a wreck.
SB 5516 also passed the senate. It provides immunity from drug possession charges to people who seek medical help in drug overdose situations.
Technically . . . in Old Icelandic/Old Norse his name would have been pronounced/spelled Leifr Eiríkssonr in the nominative case (Leif Eiríkssonu in the accusative case, Leifs Eiríkssonar in the genitive, etc.). The modern Icelandic spelling is Leifur Eiríksson where the patronymic doesn’t decline any more.
While it’s true that spelling wasn’t set in any language, really, until modern times and that Leif(r) himself was likely illiterate, his name would still have been pronounced in a certain way, which contemporary scribes did denote with great consistency in the texts that survive.
Yes, Simac, but I was trying not to get in a whole discussion about medieval onomastics and palaeography here. 😉 Scribes were pretty consistent in spelling things in some ways, oddly less so in others. But the concept of “My name is spelled this way, not that way” didn’t exist back then as far as I know.
Thanks for the Old Norse corrections, though — I don’t know enough Old Norse to get the cases right, I just know enough to recognize that something is Old Norse when I see it.