by Bill Lucia, Washington State Standard
February 18, 2026
The end of the day Tuesday did not go as planned for Democrats in the Washington state Senate.
They’d lined up bills for final floor votes ahead of a 5 p.m. procedural deadline to pass legislation out of the chamber.
But when one of the final pieces of legislation came up, Republican Floor Leader Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy, demanded it be read in full by the Senate secretary.
That proposal — Senate Bill 5466 — is designed to support the buildout of electrical transmission line infrastructure in the state. It’s 39 pages and not exactly light reading. The legislation is a priority for clean energy advocates who want to see wind and solar facilities hooked up to the grid.
After some consultation with staff, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, a Democrat, who presides over the Senate, determined Short’s request was allowed under the chamber’s rules. As the clock ticked toward the 5 p.m. cutoff, the secretary began to read.
After about 13 minutes, Heck dropped the gavel on the exercise.
The Senate moved on to a bill Democrats intended to close the day with, Senate Bill 5360, dealing with environmental crimes that involve violations of state laws around water and air pollution and hazardous waste. That bill was approved after about an hour of debate.
Lawmakers then returned to the electricity transmission bill. Short at that point withdrew her demand for the bill to be read in full. Democrats then decided to go into a caucus meeting. Republicans did the same. And that was it for the day’s floor action, the transmission legislation died at the deadline.
So what happened?
Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, explained that getting enough votes for the electricity transmission bill hinged on an arrangement to also pass a bill focused on protecting Native American cultural resources from being damaged or destroyed by construction projects.
So the two bills were to move in tandem Tuesday afternoon.
The cultural resources legislation, Senate Bill 5609, had support from tribes. But it was opposed by business groups and others who argued, among other things, that it would bog down housing construction with extra permitting and make projects more expensive.
“We wanted to make sure that we were not compromising the work that we’ve done over the last several years on housing and endangering our ability to do the middle housing work,” Pedersen said Wednesday when asked about what transpired.
“There were real policy questions that we were wrestling with up until literally 4:35 yesterday afternoon, and that’s the moment at which the votes came together for a path on the cultural resources bill,” he said.
With the support lined up for the cultural resources bill, Pedersen said Democrats hoped to pass all three bills — on electrical transmission, cultural resources and environmental crimes.
But with such limited time ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline, Short’s demand blew up that plan.
Attempts to reach Short for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful. A communications staffer for the Senate Republicans said late in the afternoon that Short was preparing a statement on the episode, but that it wouldn’t be immediately available.
Pedersen said that, under Senate rules, Democrats had no power to override Short’s demand. He suggested the reason Republicans don’t use this maneuver more often to waylay proceedings is that GOP lawmakers have a decent working relationship with Democrats.
“It caught us a little off guard that Senator Short did that, but she was completely within her right to do it,” Pedersen said. “They were frustrated. I think, it turned out afterwards, as we talked, that they thought something else was going on that was not going on.”
He didn’t elaborate on what he meant.
Pedersen indicated lawmakers would continue to work on the transmission and cultural resources bills next year.
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].