Conference Panel Meets Out In The Open But Lawmakers Admit Cameras, Lobbyists Made Meeting Awkward

Lawmakers Monday held the first open-door meeting in state history between House and Senate budget negotiators.

“This is, in fact, a great day for the people of the state of Washington,” said House majority leader Rep. Dale Foreman, R-Wenatchee, at the start of the two-hour meeting.

The six-member panels, called conference committees, always have met in private to resolve differences in House and Senate versions of bills.

But House Republican leaders threatened to boycott any private conference committees this year, forcing Senate Democrats to open them.

Rep. Jean Silver, R-Spokane, said she had been shut out of such meetings in the past, and was glad that it wouldn’t happen to anyone this year.

“It’s nice to see the audience out there so they can see exactly how we work,” Silver said.

Afterward, some lawmakers admitted the room full of reporters, TV cameras and lobbyists made the meeting rather awkward.

“It was very different having everyone breathing down your neck,” said Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, who opposed opening the meetings to the public.

“It made us more cautious. You can’t say casual or flippant remarks,” Foreman said.

Although there was some mild sparring between Foreman and Sen. Nita Rinehart, D-Seattle, little real negotiation occurred at Monday’s meeting.

The panel started the meeting with a presentation on the economy by the state’s chief economist, Chang Mook Sohn.

The picture he painted was not altogether rosy.

“Even though we cannot pinpoint the time, it is wise to expect a recession sometime within the next five years in Washington,” Sohn said.

That presentation was followed by a general discussion of the wide gulf between the House and Senate budgets.

House Republican leaders have offered a budget that would spend $600 million less over the next two years than the Senate version. The two versions of the budget differ greatly on nearly every category of state spending.

Given the large differences between the two budgets, some lawmakers doubt whether a compromise can be reached by April 23, the scheduled end of the regular legislative session. That could push the negotiations into one or more month-long special sessions.