Signed by Governor Jay Inslee

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to amend and pass a bill that appropriates funds for a COVID-19 coronavirus response.

Highlights:

• Appropriates $175 million from the budget stabilization account into the disaster response account, from which it may be appropriated to the state government, local governments, and federally recognized tribes for a response to the COVID-19 Coronavirus disease (Sec. 1).

• Establishes the COVID-19 unemployment account and appropriates $25 million from the budget stabilization account into the account (Secs. 3 & 4).

• Authorizes an unemployed individual to be eligible to receive waiting period credits or benefits only if the Commissioner of the Employment Security Department finds that (Sec. 8):

• They have registered for work at, and thereafter has continued to report at, an employment office; 

• They have filed an application for an initial determination and made a claim for waiting period credit or for benefits; 

• They are able to work in any trade, occupation, profession, or business for which they are reasonably fitted; 

• They have been unemployed for a waiting period of one week; and

• They participate in reemployment services if they have been referred so by the Commissioner.

• Authorizes the Department of Social and Health Services to determine nursing facility payments to adequately resource facilities responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak, and specifies that Medicaid payments provided to nursing facilities in response to the state of emergency will be determined by the Department to address the immediate safety needs of citizens (Sec. 7).

Full Bill Text