2025-26 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
After the Gavel: Washington
Democrats hold 30 of 49 Senate seats and 59 of 98 House seats this session, just short of the two-thirds mark that would make it a supermajority. Short of the line or not, it's enough to pass nearly anything they choose.
After the Gavel analyzed 19 key bills passed during the 2025-26 Washington biennium. Some are grouped by theme, because a single bill rarely tells the whole story and three related bills, read together, usually do.
This is our read of the bill. We encourage every reader to read the legislation for themselves and reach their own conclusions.
Every post links to the enrolled text, the fiscal note, and the roll call it draws from. Every claim here traces to the enrolled bill, the roll call, or a named outside source. Projections are labeled as projections until they're checked against the fiscal note.
A 9.9 percent income tax, a rewritten voter ban, and a referendum the state closed off in advance. Now headed to the ballot anyway.
1 Bill SB5917A prison pharmacy license became a statewide distribution channel. The deleted line is the one that tells you why.
1 Bill HB1321 · HB1531 · SB5414Three ways to switch off the referendum and the initiative, the two checks voters actually have.
3 Bills, One Pattern HB1232 · SB5714 · HB2411A health inspector, a licensing board, and a benefits office, all aimed at the same target in one session.
3 Bills, One Pattern SB5077 · HB1916 · HB1750Registration widens. The standard to challenge one gets buried under a criminal burden of proof.
3 Bills, One Pattern HB1131 · HB1390A clemency board expanded before its funding existed. A supervision program repealed before its replacement plan was written.
2 Bills, One Pattern SB6182 · SB5632 · HB1215Abortion funded off the books, a legal shield widened, and one protective sentence quietly deleted.
3 Bills, One Pattern SB5813 · SB5041A tax threshold and a benefit cap, both sold as boundaries. Washington's own record says otherwise.
2 Bills, One Pattern SB5925What happens when the office investigating you is also the office that decides whether the investigation is allowed? Washington just answered that question for six new categories of law.
1 Bill© 2026 InPublic Systems - All Rights Reserved.
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