Warnick talks successes, challenges of 2023 session

OLYMPIA – The Washington State 2023 regular legislative session adjourned sine die on April 23. District 13 legislator Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, looked back at the 2023 legislative session and talked about successes and failures this session.

“We are done,” said Warnick. “And the thing is – I'm personally like this, I need deadlines – so if we didn't have a deadline, we could continue and continue to debate and go back and forth and back and forth, and if we didn't have the rules in place that our state forefathers put in place, we would never finish in my opinion. And so these deadlines are very important.”

Warnick introduced 11 bills this session. Out of the 11, two have been signed by Governor Jay Inslee with a third awaiting the governor’s signature.

The two that have been signed are Senate Bill 5113 and SB 5439. SB 5113 concerns dental school faculty, particularly related to Pacific Northwest University in Yakima, and SB 5439 concerns livestock identification. The one that has passed but is awaiting the governor’s signature is SB 5460, which addresses the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District.

Warnick said she is really proud of those three bills passing and that they make different impacts in different areas.

“Well, for the Moses Lake area, clarifying the irrigation and rehab districts,” said Warnick. “Senate Bill 5439 is statewide, that's the livestock ID bill. That's extending that program – keeping that program going for now is very important to me. And then the Yakima area, and it also spills into our area in Moses Lake, that's the dental school faculty because Pacific Northwest University is a pretty important school. I've watched it, since I was elected, go from one building and one beginning class to now they have a full-fledged college campus and so it's pretty impressive to see what they're doing at that school.”

While she is happy with her bills that passed, she said something that surprised her this session didn’t even concern one of her bills.

“I think what surprised me the most is the bipartisan work that was done regarding riparian buffer zones,” said Warnick. “We don't see that so much in our area but requirements for people who farm or live near streams, the requirements about leaving a large buffer between the farming activity and the streams.”

Warnick said a lot of farmers and landowners in those areas already do their best to keep streams and rivers clean but don’t want the government to dictate how to do it. The idea to allow farmers and property owners to do that on their own terms was through the establishment of a fully voluntary, regionally focused riparian grant program designed to improve the ecological functions of critical riparian management zones. That idea came in the form of House Bill 1720.

HB 1720, however, did not get out of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources despite the bill’s sponsors being eight out of the 11 members of the committee.

“We did get some language in the capital budget to help with what's called voluntary stewardship program,” Warnick said. “So that was, I think, very, very gratifying to me to see that happen in the budget if we didn't have the bill go through but we got the language in the budget.”

She applauded the work that went into it, especially the work that was done across the aisle and across agencies to try to come to an agreement.

“And that was bipartisan, that was not one party telling the other party what to do. And they did it in a way that wasn't heavy-handed…So whenever you can come together with all the stakeholders, with both political sides and the tribes, if you can get an agreement together there that's a big win,” Warnick said.

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Still in the wings…

While Warnick had successes, there were some bills that just didn’t make it through the legislature and to the governor’s desk for signature. Here are some of the items that didn’t make it through and may be brought up again in future sessions.

SB 5013 - Providing a tax exemption for the first 20,000 gallons of wine sold by a winery in Washington.

SB 5438 - Facilitating supportive relationships with family and significant individuals within the behavioral health system.

SB 5449 - Concerning the requirements for school buses used for purposes other than the transportation of students.

SB 5450 - Addressing parenting plans.

SB 5517 - Enacting recommendations from the joint legislative task force on water resource mitigation.

SB 5663 - Concerning abandoned vehicles sold at auctions conducted by registered tow truck operators.

SB 5691 - Concerning resource and assessment centers.

SB 5698 - Creating a State Cactus.