Each year, PROTEC17 members focus their energy on several policy and funding priorities during the State Legislative sessions in both Washington and Oregon. Guided by these priorities, we support legislation that lifts up the work of PROTEC17 members (transportation, public health, etc.), union rights, and/or broader worker issues that directly impact the lives of PROTEC17 members.

• After getting a hearing before a committee, a bill must be voted out of that committee to move to the next step in the legislative process. However, Chairs of committees can decide not to vote on things, which makes legislators who chair committees really influential in deciding which bills move on or not.
• More often than not, committee chairs will only schedule votes on bills they already know will pass. Bills without enough support will never make it to committee.
• If a bill does make it out of the first committee and has what’s called a “fiscal note” attached to it, it then gets sent to a fiscal committee. “Fiscal notes” are attached to bills that either cost money or bring in money—and the fiscal committee is where legislators consider a bill’s impact on the state budget.
• Bills must go through this process in both the House of Representatives and the Senate with corresponding bills.
• After moving through these steps, the final passage is through the governor’s office.