Dear Maureen,
Today is the first day of the 2021 legislative session. Legislators are gathering in Olympia briefly to take the votes needed to allow for everything else to happen remotely. This is a “long session” which means it will last 105 days, including weekends and holidays, and will end on April 26. In those 105 days, lawmakers will adopt a biennial (two-year) budget and pass other bills.
We've never had a remote session before, so there are a lot of unknowns, but some things we’re fairly sure about. We know that the legislature will have capacity to pass far fewer bills than usual, so there will be more chances for good policy changes to get stalled. We also know that lawmakers will try to prioritize the most urgent and important issues, including policies responding to the pandemic.
Our policy priorities respond to the immediate and long-term needs for safe shelter, permanent housing, eviction prevention, and more. On this first day of the session, would you take a moment to contact your lawmakers to send them our legislative agenda and tell them that meeting the housing needs of everyone in Washington must be a priority? |
