Camden: House GOP refused to vote on home health care bill

These emails generally went something like this:. “My constituent (fill in a first name) wrote to say she/he takes care of (fill in a relative) who struggles with (fill in a debilitating condition) and he/she is concerned about how much this bill would cost them in terms of dues to the SEIU.” It’s true that under the bill, an IP would be employed by a private entity rather than through a state agency, and have the union as its bargaining unit. They would pay dues as members, or not join but pay fees that cover some services the union provides.

The cost of those dues would be described in some personal terms, like a set of tires for the pickup, and the lawmaker would then venture into some discussion of the need for transparency into alleged nefarious activity of the SEIU.

Bang, would go the gavel from Speaker Pro Tem John Lovick. Talk about policy, not motives, he warned.

The lawmaker would then venture into a reference about the need for transparency in the bill’s supporters being bought and paid for by the SEIU …

BANG, would go the gavel again, and the lawmaker would have to sit down.

This continued for more than an hour when Minority Leader Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, rose to object to the fact that his members were not being allowed to adequately debate the issue, because the alleged nefarious activities of the SEIU and its allies were at the issue’s core.

Indignant futility

Republicans decided they’d had enough, called a caucus and walked off the floor. When they came back, they sat quietly in their seats. Lovick called for the vote.

The 50 Democrats pushed their yes buttons. The 48 Republicans didn’t move. While 50 votes is the majority needed to pass a bill, no one seemed sure what to do about the 48 nonvotes. The House tally board has four categories for votes: yes, no, absent, excused. It doesn’t have a “present but not voting.”

For a half hour, folks watching at home on TVW saw a screen that listed the vote count as 50 to 0. At one point, Democratic leaders made a pilgrimage to the Republican side and talked with GOP leaders off the floor, then returned. At the end of 30 minutes, Lovick repeated the standard call for votes: “Has every member voted? Does any member wish to change his or her vote?” Nothing changed.

He banged the gavel and announced the bill had passed.

Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said later he couldn’t remember another time that had happened.

On the Legislature’s website, the official House vote for Senate Bill 6199 is 50 yes, 48 absent. That might make some people assume a virus had swept through the Legislature on March 1. If so, it was a virus of indignant futility.