Week six of the nine-week 2026 Washington short legislative session ends today.
The House held sessions until late in the night throughout the end of last week, over the weekend, and on Monday voting bills out before the Feb. 17th chamber of origin cutoff. Unfortunately, three bills did not make it past the Feb 17th cutoff, and will need to be reintroduced next year in order to continue:
HB 1904 - banning cat declawing
HB 1608 - farmed octopus sales ban
HB 1735 - prohibiting force-feeding of birds and sale of force-fed foie gras
The next calendar cutoff deadline is this Wednesday, February 25th-any bills that have not been passed out of their policy committee will drop dead on Wednesday.
Week 6 Highlights:
HB 1078 - restricting pet insurance cancellations and nonrenewals.
- Week 6 recap: This bill had its public hearing in the Senate Business, Trade & Economic Development committee on Feb. 18th and is now waiting to be scheduled for consideration and a vote by the committee.
HB 2247 - expanding vet telehealth access:
- Week 6 recap: This bill had its public hearing in the Senate Health & Long-Term Care committee on Feb. 19th and is now waiting to be scheduled for consideration and a vote by the committee.
As always, the best way to keep up to date during the week is with our 2026 Bill Tracker, which is updated several times a day and contains links directly to our active Action Alerts. You can also check our Action Alerts webpage to see which bills currently need support - it is update throughout the week.
If you are interested in taking action on wildlife bills, please visit Washington Wildlife First's campaign page and consider signing up for their action alerts.
