The last three months has been a whirlwind of activity for our “tamale bill.” We went from an idea, to draft legislation, to a proposal that would create a one-year pilot program for 150 entrepreneurs across Washington State. Unfortunately, however, we are going to have to wait another year. On February 11th, our bill (House Bill 2777 / Senate Bill 6434) failed to pass the necessary committees and “died” – meaning that we will have to wait until January 2021 to try again.
To review, here’s a summary of where we have been.
January 15th, 2020 – Senate Bill 6434 and House Bill 2777 are introduced
January 16th – Ventures Advocacy Day recruits 25 co-sponsors
February 4th – Hearing in the House of Representatives Local Government Committee
February 7th – HB 2777 passes Local Government Committee 6-1
February 11th – Deadline for Passing the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee
In the week leading up to February 11th, Representative Noel Frame and our team did everything we could to get HB 2777 onto the agenda of the Appropriations Committee. With so many other priorities, however, we did not cross that crucial threshold in time.
      
We are disappointed, but not discouraged.
We made so much great progress this year. We introduced legislation for the first time, passed our first committee on a 6-1 vote, and created a strong compromise proposal working closely with public health stakeholders and others.
We doubled attendance at our annual Advocacy Day, arranged 23 meetings between business owners and their representatives, and recruited 25 co-sponsors of our legislation. We even showed up to testify in support of the legislation, which had many more supporters than opponents. And this proposal has been getting noticed outside of Olympia, too – we were featured by the Public News Service and the Seattle Times (along with a glowing review of Ventures entrepreneur Logan Niles and her business, Pot Pie Factory), and we are working with more reporters to share our stories in the coming weeks and months.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about this bill, please reach out. If you haven’t done so, join the hundreds of others who have signed our petition. If you already have, please share it with 5 friends. As always, you can also sign up for our advocacy email list to stay in touch.
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