WA lawmakers pass bills including octopus farming ban, gun restrictions

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington's 60-day legislative session wrapped up Thursday with lawmakers passing nearly 400 bills.  

Those include a bill banning police from hog-tying people in their custody, tighter restrictions on guns, a ban on octopus farming and a ban on child marriage.  

"80% of the bills we passed this year were highly bi-partisan bills," said Laurie Jinkins, (D) Speaker of the House. 

"We know that the progress is going to continue," said Governor Jay Inslee. 

One of the most controversial bills to pass this session was HB 1589, which supports the transition to clean energy. 

>> GOP: Inslee threatened to torpedo legislation if Dems didn't pass controversial gas bill

Under that bill, Puget Sound Energy would start transitioning away from natural gas, impacting hundreds of thousands of customers across six counties.  It passed by a narrow margin of votes in the house and senate.  

It also came with strong resistance from Republicans like Rep. Jim Walsh, Aberdeen, who said it would raise the cost for homeowners.  Others claimed the governor threatened members of his own party to push the bill through in the dead of night.  

FOX 13 asked the governor for his take Thursday.   

"It’s a good bill, because it helps Washington move forward in this transition, in a planning-way, over years, to help people in this transition," said Inslee. "I’m confident it will do that, and the majority of legislators shared my view in this regard.   They worked hard on this bill.  They had a lot of serious discussions about the bill.  The really looked at the intricacies of the bill when they decided to vote for it, so I’m proud of their work.

Inslee also argued that renewable energy will actually lower costs in the long term. 

"We have no choice but to go towards cleaner sources of fuel. The health of our children depends on it," said Inslee. 

The governor also signed legislation called the "Linkage Bill" that will pave the way for merging Washington's carbon market with those in California and Quebec.  

Republican Senator Jeff Wilson, Longview, said looking back, he considered it a positive legislative session for the most part.

"I felt we all came together, and we did the right thing economically," said Senator Wilson.

Wilson considers it a victory that taxes weren't increased and lawmakers conducted themselves with civility.  As for the bills he disagreed with, he said, "We don’t necessarily count the bad right now. The bad, we hold for repair the next go around," said Senator Wilson. 

He also noted that it was a unique year with six initiatives under consideration.  

"I’m glad that we heard three of them, and they passed," said Wilson. "Of course what’s next is the people’s decision in November.  I look forward to seeing and hearing what they would like out of those initiatives."

Wilson says that housing shortages weren't addressed to his liking this session.  He says that Washington will be a million homes short for the next 20 years, and feels building should start now. 

There were also some housing-related bills that didn't make it through the session, including a bill to cap annual rent increases for tenants and legislation that was designed to expand housing near transit stops.

Inslee is not running for reelection in 2024.   He reflected on his time in office, saying there are two things that he is most proud of during his time as governor, including his handling of the pandemic. 

"I’m confident that we saved thousands of lives, I was in a unique role to be able to help in that regard," said Inslee. "If we had the same fatality as Mississippi, we would have lost another 18,000 Washingtonians and I hated the fact we lost one, but we pulled together as a state and I was in a unique role to help in that regard."

He said his work on climate change is another area where he thinks he made a difference in his time as governor. 

"We are creating jobs all across the state of Washington," Inslee said. "Washingtonians are getting cleaner energy. They are getting more insulation. They are reducing their utility bills, and that’s one of the things in the bill this year that I’m happy about, to give utility credit relief to nearly 2 million Washingtonians."