Whoa! We’re Halfway There! State Legislative Session, Week Five

We are officially over the half-way point of this year’s state legislative session. At this point, some important deadlines have passed, and both the House and the Senate will be debating and voting on bills to send to the other chamber. Here’s where we stand on our legislative priorities to help increase equitable access to nutritious food and ensure that all Washingtonians have their basic needs met.

Our two bills that will protect enhanced access to school meals for struggling, hungry kids, are not only alive, but have passed with unanimous, bipartisan support out of their House committees. House Bill 1878 will provide the state and federal resources to help high poverty, high need schools distribute breakfasts and lunches at no cost to their students, increasing access to free school meals to 92,000 Washington students. HB 1833 will increase accessibility for families to find and complete important paperwork so that low-income students can be enrolled in the free/reduced price meals program and schools can collect the household income data they need to maintain their education funding. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have said giving kids the fuel they need to focus on learning is a Washington value. We hope to see this continued bipartisan support when these bills come to the House floor for a vote.

But hunger persists because families every day make the painful decision to skip meals in order to pay the rent and other bills. This is why our support agenda prioritizes bills and investments to help promote housing and economic security so no household has to worry about whether they’ll be able to eat if it means keeping a roof overhead and bill collectors at bay. One important bill that does just that is HB 2048: it protects Temporary Assistance for Needy Famllies (TANF) for families with children living in deepest poverty who are doing everything they can to maintain work and service plans needed to receive TANF’s monthly cash assistance, child support, and other supportive services. However, they are suffering a setback such as being unhoused or needing to stabilize a mental health crisis when they have hit the 60 month, lifetime limit for TANF. HB 2048 says we won’t pull the rug out from these families when they need it most, giving them some more time to receive TANF assistance until these crises are resolved.

There’s still plenty more work to do on these and other bills from our agenda. We may be half way done with session, but that’s another 5 weeks to speak up and take action.

What You Can Do