The Senate Ways & Means Committee and the House Appropriations Committee amended their chairs’ operating budget proposals yesterday. The amendments are very minor in terms of their fiscal impact—they are rounding errors in the overall outlook.

Amendments adopted by Ways & Means would increase 2025–27 appropriations from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) by $983,000 compared to the chair’s proposal. The changes would result in a spending reduction of $960,000 in 2027–29. Notably, one amendment would shift $7.5 million that was included in the original proposal for charter school enrichment to the Transition to Kindergarten program.

There is not yet an official tabulation of the fiscal impact of the amendments adopted by Appropriations. It looks to me like they would increase 2025–27 NGFO appropriations by just $8,000 and have no impact in 2027–29.

Meanwhile, the underlying budget proposal from the Appropriations Chair includes some interesting provisos:

• The Office of the Governor would be required to convene a work group “to address the rise in the number of child welfare critical incidents” (Sec. 116(9)).
• The Health Care Authority would be required to address an Oct. 2024 performance audit on concurrent Medicaid enrollments, recover premiums when a managed care enrollee has left Washington, and identify the number of people who are enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states (Sec. 211(69)).
• The Health Care Authority would be required to report on the provision and costs of crisis facility services (Sec. 214(88)).
• The Employment Security Department would be required to evaluate the solvency of the paid family and medical leave program and potential changes to the program (Sec. 232(27)). (The Senate proposal also includes this proviso.)
• The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges would be required to examine the current community and technical colleges system and “make a recommendation for the reduction of at least one institution” (Sec. 602(44)).
• The Washington State Institute for Public Policy would be required to review current universal communication service programs and “identify potential funding models for a sustainable affordable connectivity program” (Sec. 607(3)(f)).

For more on the 2026 supplemental operating budget proposals, see here.