More than a year and a half after the West Seattle attack that left then-Officer Jason McKissack with brain damage that has kept him from returning to work – and weeks after the city ended his employment because he cannot return – the State Senate has just passed a bill that will keep catastrophically injured public-safety personnel like him from going without medical coverage. (46 senators including West Seattle’s Sen. Joe McDermott voted for it – no one against it – there were 3 abstention/absences.) If you’ve been following along with us, it was no slam dunk – a version of the bill stalled in the State Senate last year; this year, public-safety advocates lobbied hard for it – Jason McKissack and his wife Kim both testified before committees in Olympia — and lots of public support ensued. Next step (3:32 pm update, thanks to legislative expert Gary Gardner) – we’re told it has to go back to the State House for them to sign off on an amendment that the Senate had made. So one more hurdle to clear. 4:41 PM UPDATE: Advocate Renee Maher says in the comments that this would be retroactive both for the McKissacks and also for a Seattle firefighter who suffered a catastrophic injury on the job 7 years ago. We asked her for formal comment – first, her reaction:

This is a day to celebrate! No longer can we say that officers and firefighters are better off dead for the sake of their families. Today is one of those days that you reflect upon for a long, long time. Every single person who called their legislators or wrote an email on behalf of this bill, you should know that you deserve to celebrate this day as well. A very big thank you goes out to the West Seattle Blog. Please hold your head high and know that your coverage was a huge part of this effort! If ever there was a perfect example of a community coming together to support our heroes, this was it!

She also explains how the bill applies:

The bill creates a new section in the enumerated benefits given to catastrophically disabled officers and firefighters. It will apply to EVERYONE in the Law Enforcement Officer and Firefighter Plan (LEOFF) 2 pension system (which includes all officers/firefighters hired after October 1977 to present) and the Washington State Patrol (WSP is in a different pension system). In other words, anyone who currently qualifies as catastrophically disabled, no matter when the disability occurred, will now start receiving this benefit. That includes Jason McKissack. Mark Jones, a Seattle Firefighter who was catastrophically disabled in Dec 2003, will also be covered by this legislation.

We’ll keep an eye on the House’s concurrence calendar, and we are already on the governor’s press-info list, so we’ll have the information on where and when a signing would happen, once it’s announced. (Signings aren’t always in Olympia – last year we covered the governor’s signing ceremony for the Alaskan Way Viaduct/Tunnel bill, held at the Seattle Aquarium, with a slew of other, unrelated bills signed afterward.) ADDED 5:13 PM: An official news release from the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild – read on:Read More

If you’re tracking something in the State Legislature, we’ve discovered while covering the progress of EHB 1679 – now the “Jason McKissack Act” – its website has a multitude of ways to follow along. One such way: The calendar. And for those following along with this bill’s hard-fought progress, we see it’s on today’s calendar for a full State Senate vote – choose Regular Calendar, scroll way down, and you’ll see it. According to another feature of that page – Senate Display Board (showing what they’re up to now) – they’re currently “at ease.” (Just coming in on this story? There’s background in yesterday’s report.)

The “Jason McKissack Act” is EHB 1679, the bill we’ve been following closely, to keep catastrophically injured public-safety personnel from losing health coverage because they can’t work, renamed in honor of the now-former SPD officer attacked in 2008 while on duty in West Seattle. The bill, which stalled in the Legislature last year, already has won full House approval and, after an outpouring of public support, made it out of Senate Ways and Means earlier this week – now, we just got word from law-enforcement advocate Renee Maher that the Senate Rules Committee has sent it on to the floor. Just last night, Jason’s wife Kim McKissack posted a public “thank you” as a comment on an earlier WSB story – read it here.

This time yesterday, we were still gathering reaction to news that the State Senate’s Ways and Means Committee took an action some advocates had feared they wouldn’t – voting EHB 1679, now known as the “Jason McKissack Act” after the former West Seattle police officer, out of their committee. (This is the bill to keep catastrophically injured public-safety personnel like McKissack, who suffered brain damage from being attacked while on duty, from losing health coverage because they can’t work.) The W/M Committee’s recommendation was that Rules Committee members, who have it now, “do pass” the bill – and they have to, this week, in order for it to get to the floor for a full Senate vote. West Seattle’s Sen. Joe McDermott says he’ll work to get it out of Rules. For some more legislative context, we heard from Arbor Heights resident Gary Gardner of GRG Government Relations. He explains that while the Ways and Means Committee had to approve the bill because of its potential costs, the Rules Committee is a filter of whether to let the bill get to the floor. (More explanation here.) Gardner says the best way to express interest in getting a bill moved out of Rules is to let the leader of the appropriate house – in this case, the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Lisa Brown – know that you want to see this bill come up for a vote. Here’s her contact information (she also is on the Rules Committee, whose membership is listed here). He says this Friday is the deadline for this bill to clear its next hurdle, as the cutoff for advancing bills that originated in the other house (as did this one). ADDED 11:45 PM: Jason McKissack’s wife Kim, who testified twice in Olympia as the bill has progressed, left this message in comments on Monday’s story:

I am injured officer, Jason McKissack’s wife. I just want to thank the West Seattle Blog for staying on top of this for the past (almost) 2 years. I wish I could thank everyone in person, but I don’t think I’d make it thru all my tears of gratitude. I did give a big thank you to WSB last night on Q13, but they edited it out :( But did, thankfully, kept in my thanks to Ms. Margarita Prentice. This sure has been a ride I didn’t expect to take – but thankfully, I’ve met many wonderful people and did learn a lesson about how important our voices are. We were in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. Renee Maher, could not have done it without you and will always be grateful. So far so good. Hope to have the best news EVER really soon! Thank you all! The McKissack Family

ORIGINAL 1:26 PM REPORT, WHEN WE GOT WORD THE BILL *WOULD* BE VOTED ON TODAY: Just got that word from Sen. Joe McDermott and law-enforcement advocate Renee Maher – it’s now on the list for the Ways/Means Committee meeting that’s about to start. 2:53 PM UPDATE: The meeting is live on TVW – we’re watching online here. Looks like they are still in public hearings; the votes, described on the agenda (see it here) as “executive session,” generally come up afterward (the public hearing on this bill was held last Monday – we went to Olympia to cover it; here’s our story). As of a moment ago, they took a break to go into “caucuses” prior to those votes, but the live broadcast should resume soon. 4:18 PM: The live broadcast just resumed. 1679 is the next bill. 4:24 PM: Senate Ways and Means voted for it unanimously. It goes to the Rules Committee with a “do pass” recommendation. We’re checking on what exactly that means – and what happens next, as well as whether further expressions of support are still needed – look for an update. 4:48 PM: Sen. McDermott tells WSB he will keep working to move the bill ahead – getting out of Rules is apparently not a slam dunk; the bill’s history says that’s where it stalled last year.

ORIGINAL 1:55 PM REPORT: We have been following the progress in the Legislature of EHB 1679, the bill that is meant to fix the situation that has left catastrophically injured public-safety personnel and their families without health coverage if they cannot return to work. First, it was heard in the state House Ways and Means Committee (WSB coverage here), and passed the House unanimously; then last Monday, it was heard in the Senate Ways and Means Committee (WSB coverage here). But that committee has to bring it up for a vote to get it to the floor – and Renee Maher, law-enforcement advocate/lobbyist and an officer’s widow, e-mailed us today to say EHB 1679 is in danger of NOT coming up for a vote in Senate Ways and Means. The Senate is also where a version of this bill died last year – before the well-publicized case of Jason McKissack, who was on duty as a West Seattle-based Seattle Police officer, trying to break up a fight a year and a half ago, when he was kicked in the face repeatedly and suffered brain damage. He is unable to return to work and received a letter from the city last month saying his employment was ended; he and his wife testified in the House hearing, but he was not well enough to attend last Monday’s Senate hearing. From Renee Maher:

Somehow EHB 1679 – the Jason McKissack Act – has slipped through the cracks in the Senate Ways and Means committee. We need to get the word out to people to ask them to contact Senate Ways and Means Chair Margarita Prentice, 360-786-7616, and ask her to vote EHB 1679 out of the committee. The deadline is Monday!

The full list of Ways and Means members – with each name linking to the senator’s site and contact info – is here. Among them, West Seattle’s 34th District State Senator Joe McDermott, who had said he’d do everything he could to move this bill this year; we have messages out to him – the committee is in session again today, though this bill is not on its published agenda.

ADDED 4:14 PM: The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild has sent a news release with an open plea to the public to help rescue this bill.

The Seattle Police Officers Guild and the Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs need the public’s assistance. Engrossed House Bill 1679, also known as the “Jason McKissack Act”, which would provide health insurance to Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters who are catastrophically injured in the line of duty faces the possibility of not passing. This bill passed the House of Representatives unanimously on February 3, 2010. On February 22, 2006, testimony regarding the bill was heard in front of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Officer McKissack’s wife Kim testified along with the President of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, the President of COMPAS and the Executive Director of COMPAS, stating the importance of this bill, and how the state needs to take care of their law enforcement officers and firefighters, should they ever become catastrophically injured in the line of duty.

If this bill is not voted out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee by THIS Monday, March 1, 2010, the bill will die. Currently the bill IS NOT SET to be voted on, on Monday.

The news release continues after the jump:Read More

(Photo added 5:20 pm – those here for previous bills have left, public safety folks now seated for 1679)
3:47 PM, ORIGINAL NOTE: We are in Olympia for the State Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing that will include EHB 1679, to remedy the situation that has left former SPD Officer Jason McKissack and his family losing health coverage because a 2008 attack in West Seattle left him unable to work. Public testimony is expected. The state House already passed the bill, but the Senate is where it stalled last year.

4:43 PM: 1679 hasn’t come up yet – 6851, the Clean Water bill, was up first … 39 witnesses. (Added 5:25 pm – among them, speaking in the photo above, West Seattle resident Martha Kongsgaard, on behalf of the Puget Sound Partnership, one of the supporters.) It was preceded by testimony on a few others including one that Sen. Joe McDermott (who is on this committee and here at the hearing) tells us can affect financing for the Fauntleroy Community Services Agency and Fauntleroy Schoolhouse’s future.

5:27 PM: 1679 is up. Looks like they are running out of time and may not have any public testimony – Sen. McDermott tells us a Senate floor session is coming up at 5:45 to take up amendments to the bill that suspends I-960, a hot topic at the Town Hall in West Seattle last Saturday. The legislative staffer who is speaking about 1679 now says it would cost the state about $800,000.

5:48 PM: The committee meeting is adjourned. They did wind up hearing very quickly from six people – including Jason McKissack’s wife Kim McKissack, and two Seattle Police Guild leaders, Sgts. Rich O’Neill and Ty Elster. Sgt. Elster read a statement from Jason, who did not feel well enough to be here. Next up – this committee will decide whether to advance the bill to the full Senate.

9:31 PM: Adding video — first, Kim McKissack and Renee Maher, the law-enforcement advocate who is also the widow of Federal Way Officer Patrick Maher, killed in the line of duty in 2003:

And the Seattle Police Guild leaders who spoke before them – Sgt. O’Neill is first, with the “help the officer” message he also gave the House Ways and Means Committee; Sgt. Elster, second.

No one signed up to testify against 1679. If you want to contact Ways and Means members about the bill, their names and contact info can be found here.

More than two weeks have passed since the State House of Representatives approved SHB 1679, known as the Jason McKissack Bill, after the now-former Seattle Police officer who has been unable to work since a vicious attack while on the job in West Seattle a year and a half ago, and is losing insurance coverage as a result. We just got word from law-enforcement advocate Renee Maher that they’re hoping for another show of support – like the one that turned out for the bill’s first major hearing on January 25 (photo right) – when the bill gets a public hearing next Monday in the State Senate Ways and Means Committee. She says the hearing’s set for 3:30 pm Monday, Room 4 in the Cherberg Building, and: “We’d love to have everyone down there supporting Jason and his family!” (The Senate is where last year’s version of this bill stalled, so support there could be even more important than the support showed while it was going through the House. It’s one of the topics likely to come up when 34th District legislators – State Sen. Joe McDermott and State Reps. Eileen Cody and Sharon Nelson – hold a Town Hall at High Point Community Center tomorrow, Saturday 2/20, 11 am.)