by Laurel Demkovich, Washington State Standard
December 31, 2024
In about two weeks, 147 state representatives and senators will descend on the Capitol for 105 days of lawmaking.
Hundreds of others — lobbyists, support staff, press and members of the public — will also filter beneath the dome over the next four months.
Legislators will have to solve a $10 billion to $12 billion dollar budget problem and will likely pass hundreds of bills.
Here’s a look at some key numbers to know as you follow along:
98 representatives and 49 Senators
The state Legislature has two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The House is the larger of the two with 98 members — two for each district in the state. The Senate is smaller with only one representative per district.
Democrats control both chambers and grew their majorities in this year’s elections. In 2025, there will be 30 Democrats and 19 Republicans in the Senate and 59 Democrats and 39 Republicans in the House.
31 new people — and counting
The Legislature saw high turnover this year following retirements and lawmakers moving to different elected positions.
There will be 31 people in new seats. That includes eight former representatives heading to the Senate. There’s also a handful of lawmakers returning after time off. And some are representing new districts following court-ordered changes to district boundaries.
The rest are newcomers.
Three more replacements are still on the way.
Sen. Patty Kuderer will leave her post in January to become the next state insurance commissioner. Her vacancy will mean at least one new member in the Senate — likely a current House member. The resulting House vacancy would mean another new member in that chamber.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tana Senn will also leave next month to lead the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Her vacancy will need to be filled too.
35 committees
Between the House and the Senate, there are about 35 standing committees where bills start their long journey to becoming law.
They cover topics like economic development, higher education, housing, long-term care and tribal affairs.
Standing committees meet regularly throughout the session to hold public hearings on proposed legislation, amend bills and vote to move them on through the process. It’s where much of the bill-writing process happens.
Most committees have less than a dozen members, but the finance committees are much larger. The House Appropriations Committee, for example, had 31 members last session, and the Senate Ways and Means Committee had 21 members.
There are also joint committees that include members from both chambers and meet periodically throughout the year to discuss specific topics, like veterans’ and military affairs, water supply during droughts, and energy supply.
7 important cutoff dates
To keep things moving during the session, lawmakers set deadlines for when they must pass legislation.
The first cutoff comes on Feb. 21 when bills must pass through a policy committee in their house of origin or they are likely dead for the year. The next one comes a week later when the fiscal committee cutoff arrives. All leading up to “house of origin” cutoff on March 12.
Then the process repeats with three more deadlines before “sine die” on April 27 – the final scheduled cutoff for anything to pass this session.
274 pre-filed bills and counting
In the month or so before a legislative session starts, lawmakers can pre-file bills. Doing so doesn’t automatically mean the legislation will get a hearing, and it doesn’t make it any more likely to become a law. But it does give committee chairs ideas for what they might want to bring forward once the Legislature convenes.
When lawmakers gavel in, hundreds more bills are likely to be introduced. Some could pass quickly, others could take all session to move along, and many may never be considered. As of Dec. 30, at least 274 bills had been pre-filed.
747 reams of paper
During the 2021 legislative session, when lawmakers worked from home during the COVID pandemic, they used significantly less paper than they normally do.
Christine Rolfes, lead Democratic budget writer at the time, told lawmakers on the final day of that session that not having to print the 1,100-page budget saved 747 reams of paper – or about 37 trees.
Although the pandemic brought some permanent changes to the Legislature, like remote testimony, it didn’t change lawmakers’ reliance on printed products.
Assuming the Legislature prints their budget like they do most years, it’ll require hundreds of reams of paper. And that doesn’t include all of the sheets used for agendas, bills, notetaking and more.
2,520 hours
That’s how many hours are in the 105 days that lawmakers will have to debate bills in 2025 — assuming that a special session doesn’t add more time.
Hopefully, they won’t work too many nights or weekends, but they are known for pulling long and late hours, especially as the session nears its end.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected].