The 2023 session of the Washington State Legislature began with lawmakers returning to Olympia for the first in-person session in two years!
Legislators will consider a variety of issues this year. However, a primary focus of the 120-day “long” session is to pass a state budget for the next two years. The first day of session was Jan. 9 and it will continue through April 23. Between now and then the Senate and House of Representatives have the following important dates ahead of them:
- Feb. 17: House of origin policy committee cutoff.
- March 8: House of origin passage cutoff.
- March 29: Opposite house policy committee cutoff.
- April 12: 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. The Bar has one request bill this year from the Business Law Section:
- SB 5004 was initiated by the Business Law Section’s Corporate Act Revisions Committee. This bill aims to modernize and clarify portions of Washington’s Business Corporations Act (WBCA) by amending chapters of the WBCA regarding holding company reorganization transactions, stock splits, and other provisions.
The Senate Law & Justice Committee heard SB 5004 on Jan. 10. As of this writing, the bill was in the Senate Rules Committee.
As always, we (WSBA Legislative Affairs) will continue to provide updates during the session on NWSidebar and other WSBA communication channels.
Sanjay Walvekar. Sanjay is the WSBA outreach and legislative affairs manager. He joined the WSBA staff in 2017, after several years working in local and statewide politics. He earned his BA and JD from the University of Washington. He can be reached at sanjayw@wsba.org.
