HB 2544 Washington House · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Concerning a pilot process for the upper Columbia water rights adjudication.

HB 2544 creates a pilot program to streamline water rights adjudication for the upper Columbia River area by prioritizing federal and tribal water rights claims before addressing other claimants. It modifies standard procedures to reduce costs for water users, requiring the Department of Ecology to first consult courts on resource availability and serve federal/tribal entities via personal or mail service with a 100-130 day return deadline. The pilot must conclude by June 1, 2033, and includes provisions for identifying additional claimants and using electronic filing/videoconferencing for efficiency. This process aims to determine if the streamlined approach would benefit statewide water rights adjudications.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 16, 2026 Last action Feb 19, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Bill → Substitute Bill · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended to include federal Columbia basin project irrigation districts with repayment contracts in the water rights adjudication process. This change expands the scope of the pilot program to ensure these specific districts are included in settlement negotiations and are recognized as necessary parties in the legal proceedings.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to explicitly include affected federal Columbia basin project irrigation districts with repayment contracts, whereas the original version excluded them from certain procedural steps.

SCOPE

Added federal Columbia basin project irrigation districts with repayment contracts to the list of entities eligible for settlement negotiations and required to be served with summons.

ELIGIBILITY

Modified the definition of necessary parties to include affected federal Columbia basin project irrigation districts with repayment contracts, ensuring they must participate in the adjudication.

REQUIREMENT

Updated the trigger for submitting a report on potential claimants to specifically require the settlement to cover all claims filed by federal and federally recognized tribal government claimants.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 4, 2026

Committee

Referred to Rules 2 Review.

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

Minority; do not pass.

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

Minority; without recommendation.

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

Executive action taken in the House Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources at 10:30 AM.

lower

Jan 28, 2026

Lower · Passed

Public hearing in the House Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources at 8:00 AM.

lower

1 primary · 3 co-sponsors