Advocacy

Welcome to NPI’s Advocacy page. Here, you can find our advocacy campaigns, legislative priorities, and Statehouse Bill Tracker, a tool for keeping tabs on what is happening under the dome in the Washington State Capitol. Not familiar with our work? Learn more about NPI and what we do.

2022 Washington State Legislative Priorities

• End the practice of holding state-level elections in odd-numbered years;
• Abolish Tim Eyman’s push polls, erroneously called “advisory votes”;
• Levy a wealth tax on billionaire fortunes and strengthen the estate tax to fund essential public services and reduce inequity in Washington’s tax code;
• Ensure K-12 schools have sufficient resources to address staffing shortages, declining enrollments, and other problems exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic;
• Protect youth, teachers, and school staff from geologic hazards by providing state funding to replace or repair seismically vulnerable buildings;
• Adopt a climate-focused, safety first transportation package that fixes unsafe roads and bridges, improves fish passage, and makes big public transit investments;
• Require future Redistricting Commissions to make proposed legislative and congressional maps publicly available for at least seven days before voting on them;
• Reduce e-waste and combat planned obsolescence by enacting a right to repair law;
• Create a system for assessing proposed legislation with equity impact statements;
• Increase transparency of expenditures intended to influence legislation.

Current Campaigns

• No more “advisory votes”! Let legislators know that you support a ballot free of anti-tax propaganda

Statehouse Bill Tracker

A tool for monitoring the Washington State Legislature

Introduction: The Statehouse Bill Tracker is an NPI project that makes tracking priority legislation simple and easy. The Tracker aggregates feeds for bills “with legs”, providing an up-to-date view of what’s moving in the statehouse at any given time during session. Bills are sorted by activity. The most recently active bills appear at the top and the least active bills appear at the bottom.

When something happens to a bill, we call that an action.

An action could be a bill’s introduction, public hearing in committee, vote on the floor, proposed amendment, or referral to another committee; all these are examples of steps in the legislative process. (See this page for a visual explanation of how a bill becomes a law). Actions affect the placement of bills in the tracker. Here’s a longer explanation:

1. Bills are sorted in reverse chronological order. The most active bills will always appear at the top. Bills with little activity will sink to the bottom like a heavy stone settling at the bottom of a creek bed after being washed downstream by a flood.
2. A green dot next to a bill number update indicates the bill reflects progressive values and enjoys our support. Conversely, red octagon (stop sign) indicates that we oppose the bill because it would implement policies that are contrary to progressive values. Finally, a yellow triangle means we have concerns about a bill, but are not working for its defeat.
3. Assessments of bills are provided by NPI and organizations that we work with, such as the Washington State Labor Council or the Environmental Priorities Coalition. The person/entity that analyzed the bill and provided the wording is always listed to the left of the assessment.
4. It is possible to view a bill’s full history without clicking away, as long as JavaScript is enabled. Simply click on the blue link that says “Click to view” and the bill history will slide out for easy viewing. (It can be hidden again using the same link, which will change to say “Click to hide”). If JavaScript is not enabled, the bill history may still be viewed, either by clicking the bill number to go to the Legislature’s website or by viewing the source of this page.

Now, let’s find out what’s moving in the statehouse!

Browse Active Legislation