5.24.17
Suggested lead: The first special session ended Tuesday
morning in Olympia, and within minutes the Speaker of the House gaveled special
session 2.0 to life. Dan Frizzell has that story.
Wrap (:76 total):
For several weeks now, the Republican majority in the state Senate has
boycotted serious budget negotiations, insisting that Democrats OK a
multibillion-dollar tax hike before comprehensive talks can start.
That’s a demand that majority House Democrats have rejected out of hand,
and now that a second special session has begun, the Republicans have come up
with a new twist to avoid working on a compromise, bipartisan budget.
Here’s House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan.
SULLIVAN:
“Republicans have said that they won’t come to the table until we’re done with
the education budget. Well, the
education budget works in concert with the rest of the budget. Ignoring the rest
of the budget while you’re only dealing with McCleary means that we could be
here for quite some time. We need
to pick up the pace. I think again,
if they’re willing to put the same type of work ethic and cooperation on the
rest of the budget that they’re doing with K-12, we could get an agreement here
very soon.” [:25]
Even without budget talks, the full House plans to meet
Thursday to vote on a number of policy bills, including several that were
approved earlier this year but reverted back to the House when the Senate failed
to act. In Olympia, Dan Frizzell.