The 2025 Legislative Session begins January 13th and ends April 27th. During the 105-day session, our 98 state representatives and 49 state senators will tackle important legislation and write the state budget, which will guide spending for the next two years.

2025 Policy Agenda

Each session, Washington State Women's Commission staff and Commissioners track bills that will particularly impact the safety, health, and economic opportunity & security of women in the state. Below are our priorities for 2025. 

Ensuring Safety for All Women

• Addressing gender-based violence, including domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking.
• Establishing safe community initiatives, including safe use of technology & preventing gun violence.
• Addressing the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Securing Critical Access to Women's Healthcare

• Addressing maternal health outcomes.
• Protecting access to reproductive autonomy and care.
• Establishing equitable behavioral and mental health services.

Promoting Economic Security & Economic Opportunity for All Women

• Strengthening preventative policies and practices for gender-based workplace harassment and discrimination.
• Building supportive and accessible systems for family care and education.
• Ensuring equitable employment opportunity, career advancement, and compensation.

Session Spotlights:

Stay informed! Each week of the 2025 Legislative Session the Washington State Women’s Commission will spotlight 3-5 bills up for action during that week. WSWC selects bills to highlight based on the level of potential impact to women and girls in the state. The inclusion of bills in the Spotlight is for educational purposes and does not signify WSWC's support or opposition. 

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Week 4 Feb 3-7

SB 5362 – Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Funding 

• SB 5362 seeks to provide a stable funding infrastructure for programs that support victims and survivors of crimes due to large declines in federal funding. This infrastructure would allow the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy to administer funds to more programs that provide support and assistance to individuals in need.  

HB 1554 – College Bound Scholarship 

• HB 1554 intends to expand eligibility of the College Bound Scholarship to students who have received a high school equivalency certificate. The College Bound Scholarship covers average tuition, fees, and a book allowance at over 65 colleges, universities, and technical schools in Washington. 

SB 5254 – Health Care Information 

• SB 5254 aims to make it easier for patients to access their personal health records by capping provider or facility fees at $50 for copies of their medical records. 

HB 1583 – Traditional Health and Medicaid  

• This legislation intends to allow for traditional health care practices to be covered for Medicaid beneficiaries. Traditional health care practices would be covered when received through Indian health service facilities or facilities operated by tribes or tribal organizations. 

SB 5490 – Jail Searches and Gender 

• This legislation aims to provide parameters for conducting searches of transgender and intersex individuals confined in local jails. Some parameters include allowing the individual an option of choosing who performs the search from a list of authorized individuals.  

SB 5557 – Pregnancy & Emergency Treatment 

• SB 5557 seeks to make a requirement to provide the appropriate emergency care to patients coming into hospitals, including providing termination of pregnancy for a pregnant person whose health is in serious jeopardy if a procedure is not performed. The bill states that the hospital must consider the health of the pregnant person as a priority. 

Week 3 Jan 27-31

SB 5358 – Career & Technical Education in 6th Grade

• This legislation seeks to offer exploratory career and technical education courses for students beginning in the 6th grade. Currently, these courses begin in 7th grade.

SB 5355 – Higher Education Safety for Student Survivors

• This legislation intends to improve and enhance protections that higher education institutions offer to student survivors of sex-based violence and harassment. Proposed protections include having employees trained in trauma-informed care, timely investigations, mental health or counseling services, and more.

HB 1291 – Maternity Services Cost Sharing

• This legislation intends to make labor and delivery services more affordable by ensuring services can be offered before a deductible is met, and applying any payments made (like co-pays or co-insurance) towards the insured person’s deductible.

SB 5321 – Concerning access to abortion medication at postsecondary educational institutions

• This legislation intends to ensure student health centers offer access to abortion medication through public programs. If a public institution does not have a health center, the legislation requires they provide information and referral services to qualified providers who can lawfully administer abortion medication to students seeking those services.

Week 2 Jan 20-24

HB 1077 – IUD Pain Control Options 

• This legislation intends to raise awareness of pain control options for intrauterine device placement (IUD) and removal ahead of appointments.  

SB 5217 – Pregnancy Accommodations 

• This legislation intends to ensure employers pay employees their regular wages for the breaks and travel time they take for the purposes of breastfeeding. Additionally, requests for a delay or excusal from jury duty would be allowable for purposes of breastfeeding.  

SB 5104 – Workplace coercion protections  

• This bill intends to protect employees by penalizing employers who violate pay or working conditions based on an employee’s or their family member’s immigration status. It also requires the Department of Labor and Industries to investigate complaints of this nature.  

Week 1 Jan 13-17

HB 1090 - Contraceptive Coverage

• This legislation intends to require health plans to reimburse for a 12-month supply to all prescriptions of contraceptive drugs, not only refills.

SB 5105 - Criminal offenses involving fabricated depictions of minors

• This legislation aims to eliminate the requirement that the state must establish the identity of alleged victims for prosecutions related to fabricated depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A "fabricated depiction" is any visual or printed matter that is obscene, and created or altered digitally to depict a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

HB 1136 - Student Navigational Support

• This legislation intends to establish guidelines to provide student navigational support services in schools with the goal of increasing postsecondary enrollment.