Commenting on WA Legislative Bills

Below is the step-by-step procedure in which to comment on bills that are going through the legislative process. There are currently two ways:

The WA legislative website
Take Action Network (TAN)

The WA Legislative website.

This is the official Washington State legislative website that contains a wealth information on the WA State legislature including info on legislative members, bills and initiatives, committees, recordings of hearings and much more. There are two ways to comment on the website, commenting to committee members and letting your district legislative know where you stand on an a bill. The first order of business is for you to become familiar with the bill.

To read the contents of a bill:

Got to “leg.wa.gov”

Click on “Bill Information” from the left menu.

Type in the four digit bill number and click the “Search” button off to the right.

Scroll down to the “Available Documents” section and click on the last bill document. Reports is the best, if there is one.

This will bring you to the originally or most recently amended bill document.

Make note of who the sponsors are, that is a major key to deciding on whether to support a bill.
Reports will provide a summary that will provide the major points of the bill, the original does not.

This page also has the links to provide comments to YOUR legislators and committee members

“Send a comment on this bill to your legislator” this is provided to you for contracting YOUR legislators (not necessarily committee members) to show support or oppose this bill.

“Sign Up to Testify / Submit Written Testimony” is where you comment to committee members who may or may not be your district’s legislator.

You can also choose to get updates on the status of the bill by clicking on the “Get email notifications” button.

Committee Commenting.

Below is the commenting procedure for commenting on a bill that is receiving a public hearing in a legislative committee. The example below is using HB 2068.

Go to: leg.wa.gov

Click on Agendas, Schedules, & Calendars from the left menu.
Click on “Committee Meeting Agendas, Schedules, and Documents” from under the main page header “Agendas, Schedules, and Calendars.”

Be sure that “2024” is selected in the “Year” box.
Set the “Date Range” to the time period you wish to view “1/11/2024 to 1/17/2024”
Select “House” from the “Chamber” box (or Senate if tracking and commenting on a Senate bill)
Select “Energy and Environment” from the “Committee” box
Click the green “Search” button

Scroll down the list of meetings and find the “1/11/2024 8:00 am.” Click on the “Agenda” link in that meeting line.

A dialog box will appear with the list of bills that will have a public hearing on that date and time.
In the last paragraph is a link to go to submit a comment or testify to committee members.

Click on the bill you want to comment on, in this case, click on “HB 2068.”
This will take you to the bill profile screen.

To the right, click on the “Sign Up to Testify / Submit Written Testimony”
The “House Committee Sign In” page should appear.
You will note that HB 2068 is already selected in the first green box.
In the “Select type of testimony” green box, click on “I would like my position noted for the legislative record”

You should now see the “Committee Sign In – Legislative Record” page
In the “Position” box, select “Pro” from the dropdown menu.
Be sure to fill in your first and last name and email address.
Under organization: leave blank
Include your address, at a minimum fill in your City, State, Zip and Phone number
Be sure to click in the “I am not a robot” box
Then click the green “Submit Registration” button.

Comment to YOUR district’s legislators.

This step is particularly important as legislation is ready to pass out of the Rules Committees and onto the floor for a chamber vote that will advance it to the opposite chamber (House to Senate or Senate to House). It’s important to let your legislator how you want them to vote on this bill when it hits the floor.

Got to “leg.wa.gov”
Click on “Bill Information” from the left menu.
Type in the four digit bill number and click the “Search” button off to the right.
Click on the “Send a comment on this bill to your legislator” this is provided to you for contracting YOUR legislators.
Complete the form with your address, as the form will automatically search for your district’s legislators.
Click on the “Support,” “Oppose,” or “Neutral” button according to the stance you want to communicate to your legislators
In the “Comment” box, let your legislators know the “why” of your stance or position.
Click on “Send Comment.”

Tracking and Commenting Legislation through Take Action Network (TAN)

JUUstice Washington is a member of Indivisible’s Take Action Network (TAN) which can be an easier way for some folks to comment on legislation and follow other activities and events. TAN also allows you to see which of the organizations and entities in TAN are sponsoring or endorsing legislation. This helps folks to make a decision on a particular piece of legislation when they are unable to delve into the details, they can follow the lead of trusted organizations. To use TAN, you must first create an account. There are training videos available.

When you create your account, you will be asked to choose the organizations that you wish to follow, be sure that JUUstice Washington is one of those chosen. You will then get notifications of legislation that JUUstice Washington is supporting, opposing and tracking. These notifications will include links that will walk you through the leg.wa.gov website for commenting, similar to the above process on the WA legislative website. TAN is another way to help you track all the bills and events that you are interested in following.