Washington House Democrats Meeting on Hirst

Democrats in the Washington State House have scheduled a work session Tuesday, December 12^th to discuss the Hirst water rights decision from the State Supreme Court.  That was welcome news to Senate Republicans Judy Warnick and Jim Honeyford who led the charge to pass legislation to address the issue but couldn’t get their bill to the House floor.

Moses Lake Republican, Judy Warnick told the Washington Ag Network while an official bill has not been written up, House Democrats say they have a plan.

“I’ve been an optimist through this whole process. There are times where I’ve gotten very frustrated, but hopefully this is going to be it, because from what I understand, the indications are we’re going to hear this have a couple of weeks to discuss it and then address it, as a full legislative body the first week or two of session.”

Honeyford said they had made it clear to House Democrats that Hirst was a priority but, “what also became clear is that House Democrats were more than willing to ignore what they viewed as solely a rural issue.”

The lack of a Hirst fix resulted in the state’s capital budget not being passed, but what the impact of the Democrats gaining control of the both the Senate and House could mean for the Hirst decision is unclear.

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