Washington State Senate Democrats unveil their 2021 standing committee assignments

The increas­ing­ly diverse Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus has announced its com­mit­tee assign­ments for the 2021–2022 leg­isla­tive bien­ni­um, hav­ing once again secured a sol­id major­i­ty with which to govern.

The cau­cus will remain twen­ty-eight mem­bers strong for the next leg­isla­tive ses­sion, owing to long­time incum­bent Dean Takko’s defeat in the coastal 19th Dis­trict and chal­lenger T’wina Nobles’ vic­to­ry in the sub­ur­ban 28th District.

“I am proud of the work Sen­ate Democ­rats have done in putting peo­ple first in recent years,” said Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig (D‑2nd Dis­trict: Spokane).

“The pan­dem­ic has chal­lenged our state like nev­er before and this upcom­ing ses­sion will be unlike any oth­er,” Bil­lig added, allud­ing to the Sen­ate’s plan to work remote­ly in a most­ly dis­trib­uted fash­ion. “I am con­fi­dent that we have the team to meet these chal­lenges head on and do our part in help­ing all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans bat­tle back stronger than before.”

The East­side of King Coun­ty’s all Demo­c­ra­t­ic del­e­ga­tion will have even more clout in the 2021 ses­sion, as Sen­a­tor Lisa Well­man is join­ing the all-impor­tant Ways & Means Com­mit­tee, which Sen­a­tors Man­ka Dhin­gra (a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber) and Mark Mul­let already serve on.

Well­man will con­tin­ue to chair Ear­ly Learn­ing & K‑12 Edu­ca­tion, while Dhin­gra will con­tin­ue to chair Beha­vo­r­ial Health. Mul­let will con­tin­ue to head the finan­cial ser­vices com­mit­tee, now dubbed Busi­ness, Finan­cial Ser­vices, & Trade.

Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er, mean­while, will remain chair of Hous­ing & Local Gov­ern­ment and retain her posi­tion on the pow­er­ful Rules Committee.

Kud­er­er rep­re­sents the 48th Dis­trict, Well­man rep­re­sents the 41st, Dhin­gra rep­re­sents the 45th, and Mul­let rep­re­sents the 5th (pre­sum­ing a recount that begins tomor­row affirms that he won reelection).

Sen­a­tor-elect T’wina Nobles, the only Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger to win a race in 2020, will serve on four key com­mit­tees: Ear­ly Learn­ing & K‑12 Edu­ca­tion (as one of Well­man’s Vice Chairs), High­er Edu­ca­tion & Work­force Devel­op­ment (as Sen­a­tor Emi­ly Ran­dal­l’s Vice Chair), Behav­io­r­i­al Health, and Transportation.

Sen­ate com­mit­tees will typ­i­cal­ly meet dur­ing four times­lots in 2021:

• 8 to 10 AM
• 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
• 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
• 4 PM to 6 PM

Buffers have been built into the com­mit­tee sched­ule to accom­mo­date a vir­tu­al meet­ing for­mat. Some com­mit­tees will meet twice a week, while oth­ers (includ­ing Trans­porta­tion and Ways & Means) will have three meet­ings per week.

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic com­mit­tee on com­mit­tees pro­pos­al can be read in its entire­ty below. As Democ­rats have a major­i­ty in the Sen­ate, they have the votes to adopt their pro­posed com­mit­tee struc­ture, but the com­mit­tee ros­ters will not be com­plete until Repub­li­cans respond and announce their assignments.

There will also be a few lead­er­ship changes for 2021. Emi­ly Ran­dall is becom­ing the Major­i­ty Whip, while Sen­a­tor Bob Hasegawa will serve as Major­i­ty Cau­cus Chair. Sen­a­tor Mona Das will become the Cau­cus Vice Chair.