NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monday, February 19th, 2018

Victory! Washington State House sends Breakfast After The Bell to Governor Inslee

One of the bills long stymied by the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans in their grave­yard of progress has final­ly left the Leg­is­la­ture and is now on its way to Gov­er­nor Inslee.

2ESHB 1508, known to many as Break­fast After The Bell, has been giv­en one last stamp of approval by the Wash­ing­ton State House fol­low­ing changes to the bill by the Sen­ate. Now it is on its way to Gov­er­nor Inslee for his signature.

Spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mon­i­ca Jura­do Stonier, 2ESHB 1508 would direct high-needs schools in Wash­ing­ton to pro­vide meals to stu­dents who aren’t get­ting enough to eat at home after the school day has begun.

“Near­ly 300,000 kids in Wash­ing­ton state live in food–insecure homes and almost half of Washington’s 1.1 mil­lion pub­lic school stu­dents qual­i­fy for free and reduced price meals at school,” the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus not­ed in its press release cel­e­brat­ing pas­sage of the leg­is­la­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

“Break­fast After The Bell offers nutri­tious meals to stu­dents with­out inter­rupt­ing instruc­tion­al time,” the release explains.

“Break­fast pro­grams for low-income chil­dren are reim­bursed in part or full by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, and cur­rent­ly have low uti­liza­tion rates. Break­fast After The Bell is expect­ed to increase par­tic­i­pa­tion in those exist­ing pro­grams. By mov­ing break­fast after the bell, instead of before, stu­dents will receive a healthy meal with­out hav­ing to stand in line and miss instruc­tion­al opportunities.”

The roll call on final pas­sage of 2ESHB 1508 was as follows:

Roll Call
2ESHB 1508
Stu­dent meals & nutrition
Final Pas­sage as Amend­ed by the Senate
2/19/2018

Yeas: 87; Nays: 8; Excused: 3

Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Apple­ton, Barkis, Bergquist, Blake, Buys, Caldier, Chan­dler, Chap­man, Clib­born, Cody, Con­dot­ta, DeBolt, Doglio, Dolan, Eslick, Fey, Fitzgib­bon, Frame, Good­man, Graves, Gregerson, Grif­fey, Haler, Hansen, Har­grove, Harmsworth, Har­ris, Hayes, Holy, Hud­gins, Irwin, Jenkin, Jink­ins, John­son, Kagi, Kil­duff, Kir­by, Klip­pert, Klo­ba, Kretz, Kris­tiansen, Lovick, Lyt­ton, MacEwen, Macri, Man­weller, May­cum­ber, McBride, McCabe, Muri, Nealey, Orms­by, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Pel­lic­ciot­ti, Peter­son, Pet­ti­grew, Pol­let, Reeves, Ric­cel­li, Robin­son, Rodne, Ryu, San­tos, Sawyer, Schmick, Sells, Senn, Slat­ter, Smith, Springer, Stam­baugh, Stan­ford, Steele, Stokes­bary, Stonier, Sul­li­van, Tar­leton, Tharinger, Valdez, Van Wer­ven, Volz, Walsh, Wilcox, Wylie, Young, Chopp

Vot­ing Nay: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dent, Dye, Kraft, McCaslin, Orcutt, Shea, Tay­lor, Vick

Excused: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives McDon­ald, Mor­ris, Pike

Sad­ly, eight House Repub­li­cans vot­ed against the bill. Were it not for their oppo­si­tion, the bill could have passed unan­i­mous­ly. But at least most of the House Repub­li­can cau­cus joined all of the Democ­rats in vot­ing yes.

NPI thanks every leg­is­la­tor who vot­ed in favor of pass­ing Break­fast After The Bell. No child should be com­ing to school hun­gry and unready to learn. This bill will improve the well-being of many chil­dren, and its pas­sage deserves to be celebrated.

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