RepWatch | Is budget impasse a ‘new normal’ for Olympia?

June 24--Is the third time really so special?: Gov. Jay Inslee recalled the Legislature for a third special session Wednesday, hoping still to get a state budget out the door before the current two-year budget cycle ends June 30.

"I can't tell if this is becoming the new normal, or if it's more of a trend as a result of divided government," says State Sen. Brad Hawkins (R-12th District), who's riding out his first extended budget session as a senator but his third since arriving for his first term in the House of Representatives in 2013. Inslee also came into office that year, Hawkins notes, as did the current party configuration in the Legislature: A narrow Democratic majority in the House, a narrow Republican majority in the Senate.

Both houses are now in the reconciliation process, as negotiating committees try to hammer out differences between budget bills passed in the House and Senate. Hawkins isn't directly involved in the negotiations, but as an assistant floor leader, he'll help move any bills through the voting process.

"The whole process, once we get an agreement, can take a week, maybe five days," Hawkins says. "So I am getting a little nervous about being able to make the June 30th date. ... That doesn't mean that I'm nervous about a government shutdown."

Shutdown of state services judged non-critical is the nuclear option if June 30 comes and goes with no budget. The Office of Financial Management has compiled a list of the potential effects: Staunched payments to impoverished and disabled citizens, shuttering of child support offices, no payments to health providers for patients enrolled in Apple Health, no State Patrol Crime Lab forensic services, suspension of contracts for veterans' services, and closure of all state parks for the duration. That's just the start.

The other option is a short-term spending plan until a final budget can be enacted, but Hawkins agrees with Inslee that that's not a great idea.

"We essentially turn into Congress at that stage," he says. "If you'll remember, Congress hasn't balanced their budget since the Clinton administration. ... So even though it takes us as a Legislature sometimes longer to balance our budget, at least we balance our budget regularly, in every budget cycle."

Speaking of Congress: Washington's two U.S. senators have taken forefront roles as Democrats seek to crack open Republicans' closed-door drafting of an Obamacare replacement bill. Sen. Maria Cantwell went on CNN Tuesday after a late night of Senate floor presentations -- before GOP senators released a "discussion draft" of their bill Thursday -- predicting the legislation would "cut and devastate Medicaid."

(Sure enough, the draft would "slice billions of dollars from Medicaid, a program that serves one in five Americans, not only the poor but also almost two-thirds of people in nursing homes," the New York Times reported. That's alongside measures allowing states "to drop many of the benefits required by the Affordable Care Act, like maternity care, emergency services and mental health treatment," and a capital gains tax cutfor America's wealthiest.)

Asked if she supports parliamentary maneuvers to block and slow the bill, Cantwell said, "I support every effort that gets our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to tell us why they want to cut Medicaid." Was she concerned that could cause the Democrats to appear obstructionist? "No," Cantwell said. "No, no, no."

In floor debates Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray demanded greater openness from the Republican majority, sparring with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. "We started in January with a process that cut us out of this, under reconciliation," she said. "Thirteen men in a private room wrote this, quote, 'discussion draft' that's not a bill, that we're now supposed to look at and decide if we like it."

Democratic senators aren't the only critics. American state governors, both Republican and Democrat, have come out against the proposal, saying it will subtract insurance from their citizens and blow up their state budgets as they try to fill in the healthcare gap.

The Russians are coming?: While Congress learned from Homeland Security officials Thursday that Russian agents sought to hack 21 state election systems in 2016, Cantwell, Murray and other legislators also pressed President Donald Trump to check the nation's energy infrastructures for weak spots. Cyberattackers could try to affect the electrical grid in the future, and a Thursday letter from 18 Democratic senators plus Bernie Sanders criticized Trump's proposed deep cuts to energy security funding.

"Instead of responsibly performing the requested assessment, your administration has proposed slashing funding to the very offices tasked with protecting our grid from Russian cyber attacks," the letter reads. Cantwell is a ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Reach Jefferson Robbins at 509-664-7123 or robbins@wenatcheeworld.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRobbinsWW. Contact him securely by PGP key.

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