Gavel To Gavel 87th Legislative Session: January 22, 2021
The highlight of this week was the House and Senate releasing their base budgets for the 2022-2023 biennium. Both chambers proposed General Revenue expenditures of $119.7 billion, staying under the Legislative Budget Board’s 7.06 percent spending limit. Senate Finance Committee Chair Jane Nelson referenced the “many tools available to balance this budget, which will require us to re-establish our priorities, stretch every dollar and find more efficient ways to deliver services.” The budgets are notably similar, prioritizing teacher’s retirement funding and the investments in public education that were made last session, providing funding for Medicaid caseload growth, and increasing funding for mental health initiatives. Budget hearings are predicted to begin in February.
Both chambers will convene on January 26th, and the House will convene again on the 27th, before adjourning until the following Tuesday, February 2nd. Remember also that the race to replace former Rep. Drew Springer in House District 68 will be Saturday, January 23rd. We will send out a report as soon as the results are in.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed new COVID-19 variants found in South Africa and Brazil. Early evidence suggests that the new variants show greater resistance to the body’s immune response than the dominant strain, and could potentially slightly decrease the effectiveness of the vaccine. He underscored the importance of widespread mask-wearing and immunization.
President Biden also released the new administration’s National Strategy for The COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness. The document outlines a strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus through expanded mask-wearing, testing, and public health guidance; utilize the Defense Production Act to increase production of vaccination and testing supplies; advance health equity for racial and ethnic groups disproportionately affected by the virus; and increase protections for workers while reopening schools and businesses. This strategy was accompanied by multiple COVID-19-specific executive orders.
This week, the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) received 333,650 first doses of COVID-19. DSHS requested that those doses be shipped to 260 providers across the state, including 77 large hub providers.