Washington State 2026 Legislative Wrap-Up

Washington's 60-day short session leaves no room for slow burns, and 2026 turned the heat up further. A $2.3 billion budget shortfall put a fiscal lens on every bill in the building, and Washington's first income tax in 93 years consumed a record 24-hour floor debate that left little oxygen for anything else. But the pressure expanded beyond Olympia. 

Across the state, Washington’s working lands are in trouble. Eastern Washington farmers endured three consecutive years of drought. December's atmospheric river flooding destroyed fields and farm infrastructure throughout Western Washington's agricultural valleys. Tariffs reshaped export markets. Immigration enforcement shrank the farm labor supply. The people growing Washington's food were walking into 2026 with fewer resources, thinner margins, and less certainty than they'd had in years. 

In that context, what moves in a 60-day session — and what nearly moves — tells you everything about where the legislative energy actually lives. AFT tracked 42 bills this session across nine issue areas: seven on land use and urbanization, eight on land ownership and current-use taxation, three on regulatory reform, seven on agricultural viability, six on wildfire and working lands, six on energy infrastructure siting, three on farmworkers, and one related to soil health. Of those, 31 never received a committee hearing, a common fate in a session where floor time and committee bandwidth were in short supply.  

Still, eleven bills advanced in some meaningful way from a committee hearing to a governor's signature, highlighting three clear themes: food system resilience, wildfire recovery, and a new pressure point in Washington farmland protection — keeping agricultural land out of the path of data centers and solar development.

The 2026 session closed with real wins for Washington's working lands and a clear map of what comes next. Three bills were signed into law this session. HB 2238, creating a Statewide Food Security Strategy, and HB 2089, which will allocate $30 million per biennium to directly support the Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Account, will have significant impacts in supporting and protecting productive lands. Additionally, HB 2269, which allows up to four housing units in urban growth areas and Limited Areas of More Intensive Rural Development, passed with a rare 96-0 and 48-0 votes, illustrating the potential to both increase housing and protect farmland by keeping density inside existing boundaries. 

Significant time was spent playing defense this session to ensure new development doesn’t spur further farmland conversion. AFT provided comment on HB 2129, which focused on agritourism, calling out concerns that a broad definition of agritourism could enable rural commercial development with minimal agricultural activity on site. The testimony urged the Legislature to amend the bill to require agritourism to be accessory to active on-site farming, demonstrably support farm viability, and preserve local authority to align agritourism with farmland conservation objectives. 

Solar and data center siting were also hot topics this session, and AFT made sure to be a voice in the room advocating for farmland. We advised on bill language and submitted a comment letter in support of HB 2388, which would have created a pathway for distributed energy generation, including pivot corner solar installations, on agricultural lands. This bill reflected AFT's long-standing Smart Solar principles: solar development can and should be designed to coexist with, not displace, farm production. While the bill did not move forward, we’re proud of the collaboration that took place.  

The importance of partnerships continues to rise. AFT joined with various community partners to raise our voice in the defense of agriculture. We participated in the Washington Association of Land Trusts’ (WALT) annual lobby day, signed onto letters with partners like the Tilth Alliance, remained an active member of the Washington State Food Policy Forum, and continued to invest in our alignment with groups like The Nature Conservancy and Futurewise.  

The 2027 session will be a long session with a new biennium budget. There’s more runway, more opportunity, and more reason to show up prepared. AFT is excited for what the next session brings. We're grateful to our partners, our champions in the Legislature, and everyone working to ensure that Washington's working lands remain protected.