By Mary Margaret Haugen:

2009 Legislature - week nine

Last Thursday was "cutoff" in the Legislature - the last day for the Senate to pass our bills and for the House of Representatives to pass theirs. Bills that have passed each chamber proceed to the opposite chamber for consideration; only those that pass both chambers proceed to the governor for her signature to become law.

Today’s blog will catch you up on various bills moving through the Legislature that I think you’ll agree are very important measures.

Helping those who are losing their homes

A home should be a shelter, not a cause of worry. Our state has been seeing a disturbing increase in foreclosures. Currently, the process of foreclosure is six months long with numerous steps. The Senate this week added a new step to the process that some are lauding as the biggest piece of consumer protection legislation they will see in their lifetime.

Senate Bill 5810 adds a mediation step to the foreclosure process. This step will allow the homeowner and the lender to review potential options that will avoid foreclosure. The measure also adds new protections for renters. If a renter’s home gets foreclosed, a tenant now must receive 60 days notice that they have to vacate their home. This is an extension from the current requirement of only 20 days.

Reverse mortgages

The Senate approved Senate Bill 5400 to place new regulations on reverse mortgages to curb the activities of unscrupulous lenders preying upon vulnerable seniors. The bill, in part, requires approval from the Department of Financial Institutions before lenders can offer proprietary reverse mortgage loans and requires lenders to demonstrate financial stability by maintaining reserves or strong credit.

Green jobs: energy retrofits to homes, businesses and farms

The Senate’s green jobs energy retrofit bill helps people save money by reducing energy use and lowering their home heating bills, helps preserve our environment by reducing the greenhouse gasses emitted by 20,000 more homes and utilities, and provides for long-term job growth by allocating federal funding into future job training. Millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds, which will be directed to the state this year for energy efficiency projects, can be put to use immediately and effectively to create jobs today.

State agency energy conservation

Senate Bill 5560 positions state agencies to lead by example in energy conservation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The bill sets targets to reduce state agency emissions, including increasing the fuel economy of the state motor pool to 36 mpg by 2015.

Energy efficiency in building codes

Senate Bill 5854 would establish new energy codes for homes and buildings that would reduce energy usage by 70 percent between 2013 and 2031.

Basic education reform

The Senate passed a measure that is the result of 18 months of work by the state’s Basic Education Finance Task Force. It’s a fundamental redefinition of the legal definition of “basic education,” important because the state constitution lays this out as the state’s most important duty. Senate Bill 6048 funds schools using a new “prototypical school” model that more closely tailors funding to individual schools’ needs. The bill does not prescribe funding and would not allow new requirements to take effect without funding.

This is a work in progress. Lawmakers continue to meet with key stakeholders to refine the bill. As part a larger effort, Senate Bill 5941 would establish a new education data system that streamlines core information about students, teachers, schools and the like so that we better understand which investments are and aren’t paying off.

Cutting unfunded educational mandates

We must cut red tape for school districts and throw out unfunded mandates. The Senate passed three bills this week that begin to do just that, cutting about 60 unfunded requirements that are currently placed on school districts. We should rely more on locally elected school boards to do what is right for their communities.

Health Care Reform

Senate Bill 5945 has several goals to drive down health care costs and guarantee that every Washington resident has access to quality health care. The phase-in approach includes extending coverage to individuals below 200 percent of the federal poverty level in an Apple Health program for adults; consolidating purchasing of health coverage and streamlining administration; and examining the health reform proposals and selecting one, or a combination, for consideration.

Prescription Drug Costs

Senate Bill 5892 allows the state options to save money on Medicaid prescriptions and direct appropriate drug use – just like the private sector insurance plans have used for years. The state could save as much as $40 million over the next two years.

Health Information Security

Senate Bill 5501 calls for the development of guidelines and standards to improve patient access to, and control of, their own health care information. It also calls for the implementation of methods for the secure exchange of clinical data.

MRSA Infections

Senate Bill 5500 requires hospitals to adopt standard procedures for testing patients admitted to ICU or surgery for MRSA. The legislation also requires that MRSA-related deaths be clearly noted on death certificates.

Community Health Grants

Senate Bill 5360 establishes Community Health Care Collaborative Grant program to further help community-based coalitions increase health care access for employed, low-income persons and children in school who are uninsured and underinsured.

Organ Transplants

Senate Bill 5725 increases the minimum coverage for transplants.  The current insurance practice is to cap coverage at $250,000.  The bill raises the minimum to $350,000. We heard a lot of distressing accounts from real people who had suffered because of this minimum. Today a transplant can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I was pleased to support an increase in the amount of coverage allowed.

Child welfare services reform

The Senate also passed much needed reforms for the Child Welfare Services division of the Department of Social and Human Services (DSHS). Senate Bill 5943 will allow DSHS to move nearly all of its family reconciliation and preservation, adoption, foster care, and many other services into Performance Based Contracts, potentially with private non-profit agencies.

It’s an effort to bring about change in a system that has seen complaints on the rise over the last few years. CWS has also seen fatality rates skyrocket by nearly 70 percent since 2007. The goal of this bill is to increase efficiencies and offer incentives for success while keeping the focus where it should be – the safety and well-being of Washington’s children.

OTHER BILLS CLOSER TO HOME

As in any legislative session, our bills run the gamut from major changes in law to small but important changes that make valuable improvements to existing law. Here are a number of bills I’ve sponsored that survived cutoff and are currently being considered by the House:

• SB 5180 — formalizes the practice that most rural public transit vehicles already do — stopping at unmarked areas to pick up or drop off riders when it’s safe.
• SB 5350 — allows the producers of all poultry to take advantage of an existing law that lets some poultry producers sell chickens directly to the public.
• SB 5354 — enables a community to place a measure to create a Public Hospital Capital Facility Areas before voters when the county receives a petition from at least 10 percent of voters in the district who voted in the last general election and with approval of the county commission.
• SB 5355 — petitions to create a rural county library district may include the maximum initial levy rate and that the initial levy rate may not be higher than the rate set by the vote that established the rural county library district.
• SB 5356 — allows a wider range of commercial fishing operations to obtain the Direct Retail Endorsement needed to clean, dress, and sell seafood directly to consumers.
• SB 5461 — provides an automatic waiver on the reporting requirements for condominium associations consisting of 10 or fewer units
• SB 5797 — eases regulatory restrictions on food byproducts in anaerobic digesters that run primarily on cow manure.
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• SB 5978 — establishes clearer guidelines and requirements for promotional consumer mail-in rebates.

Unfortunately, not every good idea makes it through the legislative process, and this year I’m especially disappointed that SB 5625 to designate Snohomish county the home of our next state university didn’t make it. This bill will remain in the Senate, and I will bring it forward again next year.