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.

Legislative Priorities for 2023

The Northwest Progressive Institute’s 2023 Washington State legislative priorities are:

• Strengthen our democracy by abolishing Tim Eyman’s push polls (“advisory votes”), empowering cities to move their elections to even years, providing public funding for campaigns, increasing transparency of expenditures intended to influence legislation, and updating our public disclosure laws;
• Build a more progressive tax code by levying a wealth tax on billionaire fortunes, expanding the estate tax, improving the Working Families Tax Credit, and enacting a homestead exemption and renter’s credit to help low and middle income-families;
• Increase funding for attainable and affordable housing, prioritize the density of new development near public transit to reduce car usage, and require trees near new housing to reduce air pollution and heat island impacts;
• Improve sustainability by wisely investing Climate Commitment Act revenue, investing in salmon habitat to protect fish and our critically endangered orcas, passing the Washington Recycling and Packaging Act, adopting right to repair, and requiring all counties to include climate resiliency in their Growth Management Act planning;
• Uphold the state’s paramount duty by dedicating additional resources to special education, school nurses, K-12 libraries, and music programs, along with more grant funding to empower districts to retrofit or replace seismically vulnerable structures;
• Protect reproductive rights by empowering the attorney general to block hospital mergers if they jeopardize access to abortion care, indemnify companies based in Washington that help employees in other states get abortions, and advance a constitutional amendment to recognize Washingtonians’ family planning rights;
• Create safer communities by banning military style assault weapons and equipping local governments with the tools needed to send unarmed first responders trained to address behavorial health crises to aid mentally ill individuals disturbing the peace;
• Enhance equity and social justice by addressing the alarming rise of hate crimes, repealing the ban on affirmative action, abolishing the death penalty, and requiring proposed legislation to be reviewed through an equity lens.

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