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.