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Jan. 13, 2025 | Session Day 1/105
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Welcome to the 2025 legislative session with SCC!
The 2025 legislative session has begun! I’m glad to say that we are hitting the ground running on day one. I started as the legislative director at SCC just eight weeks ago, quickly getting up to speed on the critical services conservation districts provide for local communities. I have spent the last few weeks connecting with legislators and legislative staff to highlight our priorities and advocate for locally-led conservation.
Washington is facing plenty of transition in 2025. This week, we will see the inauguration of a new governor for the first time in 12 years. Not only does this bring a new administration, but also new executive priorities. In the coming days, we will learn more about how this will impact the work of conservation districts — so stay tuned!
There are also many newly elected legislators, as well as continuing legislators in new leadership roles. While these changes require more time to educate policymakers on conservation district's valuable services, it is also an opportunity to build new relationships at the legislature. We are using this period of transition to share our message and advance our priorities.
I am honored to serve conservation districts in this role! Over the next 105 days of session, you can expect every other week updates from SCC that keep you informed on legislation that impacts our priorities, the evolution of the budget, and other updates and information on the legislative process.
-Dani Madrone, Legislative Director of the State Conservation Commission
Resources
Legislative Headlines
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What’s next for the state budget?Â
Passing the state’s budget is one of the most important tasks of the Legislature. In odd-numbered years (like this one), the Legislature passes three biennial budgets: operating, capital, and transportation. Together these make up the overall state budget for the next two years. SCC is focused on the operating and capital budgets, which contain the funding for all our programs.
In this process, the Governor’s Office proposes a balanced budget for the Legislature to consider. SCC staff work closely with the Office of Financial Management (OFM), which is part of the Governor’s Office, to develop our budget requests to fund our important conservation programs. You can learn more about SCC’s budget requests in our decision packages booklet. In December, OFM releases the Governor’s proposed budgets based on a forecast of state revenues.
Get more info on how the Governor's proposed budget impacts SCC.
The final adopted budgets have the potential to change considerably from the Governor’s proposals throughout the legislative process. The first order of business is for the Legislature to introduce bills that reflect the Governor’s proposed budgets and hold public hearings in both chambers. In the Senate, the Ways and Means Committee receives both operating and capital budgets. In the House, the Appropriations Committee takes the operating budget, and the Capital Budget Committee takes the capital budget.
After the hearings, each committee drafts their own version of the budget, which will need to be passed in each chamber and then reconciled with the opposite chamber. We’ll cover that part of the process in more detail in a future newsletter!
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Read
Want to know what the current status of a bill? You can look up any bill by number on the legislative website.
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Learn
Curious what SCC's main issues are this legislative session? Check out our latest legislative news!
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Watch
Missed a committee meeting? Want to watch some live floor action? Check out TVW to watch legislative action.Â
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