Notes From Olympia March 6, Week 8 of the 2026 Legislative Session

Included in this edition: Moving Out of John L. O’Brien Building Trivia, Highlights of the Week, and What’s on Deck for Next Week!

Erica Hallock March 6, 2026

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An angled view of the south-facing entrance to the WA State Legislative Building during the day on the eighth week of the 2026 WA State Legislative Session.

The Olympia Campus Showing Off on a Gorgeous Sunday!

(Photo Courtesy: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

When do House of Representative members and their staff have to move out of the John L. O’Brien Building after session to prepare for building renovations?

It’s the Final Countdown

Countdown timer icon with the number six highlighted in the middle and days to go text listed on the side.

Fiscal AND Floor Committee Cutoffs

Week eight brought not one, but two, cutoffs with Monday, March 2 serving as the opposite chamber fiscal committee cutoff and later today (Friday, March 6) representing the opposite chamber cutoff. As always, legislation deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget” (or “NTIB”) is not subject to these cutoff dates.

This week, both chambers considered a lengthy list of bills in a condensed timeframe before Friday’s 5:00 opposite chamber cutoff, resulting in late night/early morning floor sessions, particularly in the House. It’s fair to say that tensions are high, fueled by lack of sleep and an urgency to get key bills over the finish line.

Adding to the drama and tension was Governor Ferguson’s Monday communication to donors calling into question whether the millionaire’s tax would pass this year. There was ample speculation that this communication was a strategy on the Governor’s part to impact negotiations. Then, on Thursday, the Washington State Standard ran an article focusing on whether the House Democratic caucus has sufficient votes to pass some version of the bill.

Because this bill is “NTIB” and the House has several critical bills to take up before Friday’s deadline, the vehicle for the millionaire’s tax is not expected to be brought up before Friday’s cutoff. I fully expect to see House Republicans offer an exhaustive list of amendments when the bill comes to the Floor, all in an effort to run out the clock.

Key Legislation Related to Early Learning Continues to Evolve

A status update on key early learning-related legislation follows. Again, these bills are “NTIB,” so they are not subject to cutoff deadlines, and because they will reflect budget negotiations, we could see further amendments to include details of the final budget compromise.

SHB 2689 (Gregerson). This bill contains changes to the Working Connections Child Care program. See the updated chart below for an overview of the differences between the Senate and House budget approaches to structuring and funding the Working Connections Child Care program.

An amendment adopted in the House Appropriations Committee on March 2 requires that the Market Rate Survey must achieve a provider response rate of at least 65 percent for each child care subsidy rate region to be considered valid for the purpose of informing future rate increases. More details are included in the table below.

SHB 2689 passed the House on March 4 by a 53-44 vote. The bill still needs to be considered in the Senate and is scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on March 9 and executive session (vote) on March 10.

SB 6353 (Robinson). This bill includes the Senate approach to structuring and funding Working Connections Child Care. The chart below summarizes this bill as well. A major update, however, is the Senate Ways and Means Committee adopted amendments on March 2 that removed references to collective bargaining. SB 6353 remains in the Senate Rules Committee.

SB 6353 (Robinson)

HB 2689 (Gregerson)

Family Income Eligibility

Removes future income eligibility increases from statute; maintains income eligibility at 60% of state median income adjusted for family size.

Provider Reimbursement Rates

Beginning 7/1/27, rebases subsidy rates to the 75th percentile of the market, maintaining bargaining language for family child care providers.

Attendance Policy

If a child attends between 1-15 days, a provider can bill for 15 days.

A provider can also bill per day based on attendance past 15 days.

Example: if a child attends 3 days in a month, the provider would bill for 15 days. If another child attended 18 days, the provider would bill for 18 days.

Effective 10/1/26 for child care centers and 7/1/27 for family child care homes.

If a child attends between 1-10 days, a provider can bill for half a month of payment (11 or 11.5 days, depending on length of month).

If a child attends for 11 or more days, a provider can bill for a full month of payment (22 or 23 days, depending on the length of the month).

Specifies absences do not include days a provider is closed for allowable closure days (e.g. holidays).

Effective 10/1/26 for child care centers and 7/1/27 for family child care homes.

Child Care Cost Methodology

References to the child care cost methodology statute Washington State RCW 43.216.829 to align with ESSB 5500 (Alvarado).

Market Rate Study

Not included.

Must achieve a provider response rate of at least 65% for each child care subsidy rate region when conducting market rate survey. (Added via 3/2 amendment in the House Appropriations Committee).

Regional Rate Variation

Beginning 7/1/26, licensed or certified providers may not receive a subsidy rate that is different than the rate for the subsidy region in which the provider is located.

Impacts Benton, Clark, Walla Walla and Whitman counties.

Collective Bargaining

References removed via 3/2 amendment adopted in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Not referenced.

Prospective Payments

Repealed.

Emergency Clause

Impacts provisions of the bill aside from those relating to Family Child Care Homes.

Family Income Eligibility

Provider Reimbursement Rates

Attendance Policy

Child Care Cost Methodology

Market Rate Study

Regional Rate Variation

Collective Bargaining

Prospective Payments

Emergency Clause

SB 6353 (Robinson)

HB 2689 (Gregerson)

Removes future income eligibility increases from statute; maintains income eligibility at 60% of state median income adjusted for family size.

Beginning 7/1/27, rebases subsidy rates to the 75th percentile of the market, maintaining bargaining language for family child care providers.

If a child attends between 1-15 days, a provider can bill for 15 days.

A provider can also bill per day based on attendance past 15 days.

Example: if a child attends 3 days in a month, the provider would bill for 15 days. If another child attended 18 days, the provider would bill for 18 days.

Effective 10/1/26 for child care centers and 7/1/27 for family child care homes.

If a child attends between 1-10 days, a provider can bill for half a month of payment (11 or 11.5 days, depending on length of month).

If a child attends for 11 or more days, a provider can bill for a full month of payment (22 or 23 days, depending on the length of the month).

Specifies absences do not include days a provider is closed for allowable closure days (e.g. holidays).

Effective 10/1/26 for child care centers and 7/1/27 for family child care homes.

References to the child care cost methodology statute Washington State RCW 43.216.829 to align with ESSB 5500 (Alvarado).

Not included.

Must achieve a provider response rate of at least 65% for each child care subsidy rate region when conducting market rate survey. (Added via 3/2 amendment in the House Appropriations Committee).

Beginning 7/1/26, licensed or certified providers may not receive a subsidy rate that is different than the rate for the subsidy region in which the provider is located.

Impacts Benton, Clark, Walla Walla and Whitman counties.

References removed via 3/2 amendment adopted in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Not referenced.

Repealed.

Impacts provisions of the bill aside from those relating to Family Child Care Homes.

ESSB 6260 (Wellman). A bill that includes a number of funding adjustments to the K-12 system, ESSB 6260 also addresses the Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program. Specifically, ESSB 6260:

Directs OSPI to establish a criteria to prioritize school districts with existing TTK programs and those identified as lacking available early learning programs when developing rules related to the allocation of state funds for TTK.
Specifies that rules adopted for TTK must include requirements for authorizing collection of tuition or fees.
Specifies that funding for TTK program is limited to the amount specified in the omnibus appropriations act.

ESSB 6260 narrowly passed the Senate 25-24 on March 3 and was scheduled for a public hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on March 5 at the time this edition was written with an executive session (vote) scheduled for March 9.

Senate and House Pass Respective Budgets – on to Conference Committee!

Over the span of February 27-28, the Senate and House passed their respective Operating, Capital and Transportation budgets. A couple of notes – the hyperlinks provided herein will take you to the Operating budget landing pages and, as of this writing, the House has not passed its Capital Budget which is a technicality. I am not reading anything in to that.

Start Early Washington’s budget comparison document has been updated to include amendments adopted throughout the process. Once the final budget is adopted, we will update this document to reflect the final conference report and send out a Special Edition of Notes From Olympia with our updated analysis.

This week, the respective chambers appointed conference committee members to resolve the differences between the Senate and House budget approaches. This step was procedural as budget negotiations were already underway.

What Can we Expect for the Final Week of Session? Beyond the Unexpected!

You might be asking what happens in the final six days if non-NTIB bills have already passed out of the opposite chamber or are considered “dead.” And, most importantly, all of the food days have concluded!

Aside from expecting the unexpected, we can anticipate the final six days to include:

Finalization of Budgets. Akin to white smoke at the Vatican announcing the decision for a new Pope, any day now email inboxes throughout the Capitol Campus will fill with the long awaited notice that a Conference Committee meeting has been scheduled for a report on ESSB 5998, the 2025-27 Supplemental Budget vehicle. At that point, we will know a budget deal has been struck. From there, advocates will anxiously hit refresh, refresh, refresh to learn if they were successful in securing or preserving funding for their program.
Watch How Quickly NTIB Bills Can Move! As previously mentioned, NTIB bills are not subject to cutoff deadlines. Because NTIB bills incorporate budget deals, it is important to relieve these bills of the budget deadlines. We can expect the scheduling of committee meetings “on the fly” over the remainder of the legislative session to catch these NTIB bills. The descriptions above regarding SHB 2689 and ESSB 6260 are prime examples of NTIB bills zipping through the process to ensure statutory changes to implement budget decisions.
“Concurrence Process.” Bills that were amended in the opposite chamber must return to their chamber of origin for that body to “concur” with amendments. Concurrence bills are considered by an up or down vote. If the originating body disagrees with the amendments made in the opposite chamber, they can ask the opposite chamber to “recede” in their amendments. If the opposite chamber refuses to recede, a conference committee is appointed to resolve the differences. If the conference committee reaches resolution, that conference report is presented to both chambers for an up or down vote. If they cannot come to resolution, the bill dies. The Legislature only has so much capacity for bills to go to conference committee, so they must weigh which bills receive that level of attention.

In addition to these anticipated actions, there will no doubt be unanticipated drama that will cause tempers to flare and blood pressure to rise. In short, the typical end of session theatrics.

As a reminder, each Thursday, Start Early Washington updates its bill tracker with the latest information on bills we are following. If we have missed any bills of interest, please reach out and flag them for us!

Trivia Answer!

House of Representative members and their staff must begin moving out of the John L. O’Brien building the day after Sine Die on March 13! The reality of movers coming serves as a strong incentive to wrap budget negotiations and legislative action on time so House members can pack up and move out as scheduled.

The front side of the John L. O'Brien Building in Olympia, WA.

(Photo Courtesy: WikiMedia Commons)

As part of the Legislative Campus Modernization (LCM) Project, the third and fourth floors of the John L. O’Brien (JLOB) Building are being remodeled with work expected to be finished before the beginning of the 2027 legislative session.

The Department of Enterprise Services (DES), the agency leading the LCM Project, cites that the interior design and locations of legislative assistant workstations led to overcrowding when constituents visit their representatives during session, which compromises access, security and privacy.

DES also cites there is demand for additional hearing space, caucus rooms, space for interns and additional session staff, and storage space to support legislative functions of state government.

The exterior of the Washington State Public Health Building in 1988. Two people are working on the facade of the building.

Two workers can be seen working on the facade of the then Public Health Building, in 1988 just before it was renamed the John L. O’Brien Building

(Photo Courtesy: Washington State Archives)

JLOB was first constructed in 1940 and last renovated in 2014. The building has had various renovation and revitalization work over the decades since its initial construction. You can watch a fun montage of the 2009 renovation work on YouTube.

We will hopefully have exciting new spaces to explore next session as both the JLOB renovations and the Pritchard Rehabilitation and Expansion Project are expected to be completed prior to 2027 legislative session. My fingers are crossed that we might finally have some more places to sit, charge our devices, and maybe even space to meet with one another if we’re lucky!

To keep up on the LCM Project, you can sign up for weekly updates from DES here.