What the WSBA is Tracking in Washington’s 2021 Legislative Session

The 2021 session of the Washington State Legislature is certainly like none in the history of the state—but so far things are going smoothly.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature like many other government bodies is conducting nearly all of its business virtually during the 105-day session. The first day of session was Jan. 11 and it will continue through April 25. Between now and then, the Senate and House have the following important dates ahead of them:

• Feb. 15: House of origin policy committee cutoff;
• March 9: House of origin passage cutoff;
• March 26: Opposite house policy committee cutoff;
• April 11: Opposite house passage cutoff (except fiscal and budgetary matters among others).

As has been the case in most sessions, the Bar supports legislative proposals initiated by WSBA sections and approved by the Board of Governors. We are currently tracking 432 bills for sections. This year, the Bar has two request bills, both of which originated from the Business Law Section:

• SB 5005 was brought forward by the Business Law Section’s Corporate Act Revisions Committee. An act relating to business corporations, this bill is part of the annual legislation to update the Business Corporations Act by changing notices by electronic transmission to an opt-out rather than opt-in.
• SB 5034 is an act relating to nonprofit corporations identified by the Business Law Section’s Nonprofit Corporations Committee to modernize the Nonprofit Corporations Act. This legislation outlines a comprehensive revision and modernization of the Washington Nonprofit Corporations Act, which will apply to all new and existing nonprofits, and it is loosely based on the ABA’s Model Nonprofit Corporation Act.

On Feb. 3, SB 5005 passed the Senate unanimously. SB 5034 was on the Senate consent calendar awaiting a floor vote as of this writing.

We will provide regular updates throughout the session on NWSidebar and other WSBA communication channels.