Advocacy - Northwest Progressive Institute

Welcome to NPI’s Advocacy page. Here, you can find our positions on pending ballot measures, our current legislative priorities, and our 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.

Washington State Legislative Priorities for 2020

Our policy priorities for the session are as follows:

End the practice of holding state-level elections in odd-numbered years
Abolish Tim Eyman’s push polls, erroneously called “advisory votes”
Advance the cause of abolition by repealing Washington’s death penalty statute
Require medically accurate, comprehensive sexual health education in our schools
Adopt a clean fuels standard to reduce pollution in our air and water
Ban single use plastic bags in grocery stores and retail establishments

Statehouse Bill Tracker

A tool for monitoring the Washington State Legislature

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:

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.
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.
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.
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!