Legislative Tracker Skill

Track Washington State K-12 education legislation from leg.wa.gov using committee-based discovery. This approach queries committees directly via SOAP API to get ALL bills - not just keyword matches.

Why Committee-Based Discovery

Problem with keyword searching: Bills with unexpected wording or indirect impacts get missed. A bill about "unfunded mandates" might never mention "school" but still affect districts.

Solution: Query education committees directly. If a bill is in the House Education Committee or Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee, it's education-related by definition.

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Discovery Strategy

Tier 1: Direct Education Bills (Comprehensive)

Query these committees to get ALL education bills:

Committee	Chamber	Query
Education	House	All bills - no filtering
Early Learning & K-12 Education	Senate	All bills - no filtering

Tier 2: Indirect Impact Bills (Candidates)

Query these committees and filter via WebFetch:

Committee	Chamber
Appropriations	House
Capital Budget	House
Labor & Workplace Standards	House
Ways & Means	Senate
Labor & Commerce	Senate
State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections	Senate

Workflow: The SOAP API returns only bill IDs. Geoffrey must:

1. Get all bill IDs from Tier 2 committees (~700 bills)
2. WebFetch each bill's summary page to get the title/description
3. Filter for education keywords in the description
4. Add matching bills to the tracked list

Filter keywords: school, student, teacher, education, k-12, district, ospi, classroom, principal, paraeducator, learning, instruction, curriculum, diploma, graduation, superintendent, levy, bond, capital, school construction

Tier 3: WebSearch Fallback

If SOAP API fails, use WebSearch:

site:leg.wa.gov "referred to Education" 2025-26
site:leg.wa.gov "Early Learning & K-12" 2025-26
site:leg.wa.gov K-12 school district bill 2025

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Workflow Phases

Phase 1: Committee Discovery (SOAP)

Run the orchestrator script:

bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bills.js

Returns two lists:

• confirmed_bills: From Tier 1 education committees (definitely education-related)
• tier2_candidates: From Tier 2 finance committees (need filtering)

Phase 2: WebFetch Confirmed Bills

For each bill in confirmed_bills:

URL: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber={NUM}&Year=2025

Extract full details for analysis.

Phase 3: Filter Tier 2 Candidates

For each bill in tier2_candidates:

1. WebFetch the bill summary page
2. Check if title/description contains education keywords
3. If relevant, add to tracked bills list

Education keywords: school, student, teacher, education, k-12, district, ospi, classroom, principal, paraeducator, learning, instruction, curriculum, diploma, graduation, superintendent, levy, bond, capital

Phase 4: Analysis

Apply analysis framework to all tracked bills:

• Assign priority level (HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW)
• Categorize impact type (FISCAL/OPERATIONAL/WORKFORCE/GOVERNANCE)
• Assess fiscal implications
• Flag district legislator sponsorship

Phase 4: Output

Generate report in requested format and save to Obsidian:

Path: Work/PSD/Legislative/[YYYY-MM-DD].md
Tags: #legislation #psd #work

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Script Usage

Main Orchestrator

# Full discovery (both tiers)
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bills.js

# Education committees only (Tier 1)
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bills.js --tier 1

# Finance committees only (Tier 2)
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bills.js --tier 2

# Briefing format for morning-briefing integration
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bills.js --format briefing

Committee Explorer

# List all active committees
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_committees.js

# House committees only
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_committees.js --chamber house

# Education committees only
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_committees.js --filter education

Single Committee Query

# Get bills in a specific committee
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_committee_bills.js \
  --committee "Education" --agency House

# Include referral history
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_committee_bills.js \
  --committee "Education" --agency House --referrals

Single Bill Lookup

# Get WebFetch URL for a specific bill
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bill_info.js HB 2551 --year 2025
bun skills/legislative-tracker/scripts/get_bill_info.js "SB 6247" --year 2025

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Analysis Framework

Priority Levels

Level	Symbol	Criteria
HIGH	🔴	Direct fiscal impact >$100K, immediate deadline (<7 days), new mandates affecting operations, sponsored by district legislator
MEDIUM	🟡	Moderate impact, compliance changes, deadline within 30 days
LOW	🟢	Minimal direct impact, monitoring only, distant timeline

Impact Categories

Category	Keywords	Description
FISCAL	levy, bond, funding, appropriation	Funding formulas, levies, bonds, appropriations
OPERATIONAL	procurement, transportation, facilities	Day-to-day operations, contracts, services
WORKFORCE	staff, salary, certification, benefits	Staffing, compensation, certification requirements
GOVERNANCE	reporting, accountability, board	Compliance, reporting, board authority

Fiscal Impact Indicators

Indicator	Symbol	Meaning
COST INCREASE	⬆️	Adds expense to district budget
COST DECREASE	⬇️	Reduces costs or adds revenue
RISK	⚠️	Financial uncertainty or liability exposure
NEUTRAL	➡️	No direct fiscal impact to district

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Output Formats

Briefing JSON (for morning-briefing)

{
  "summary": {
    "total_bills": 12,
    "new_this_period": 3,
    "urgent": 2,
    "by_priority": { "high": 2, "medium": 5, "low": 5 }
  },
  "priority_items": [
    {
      "bill": "HB 1234",
      "title": "Concerning school construction funding",
      "priority": "high",
      "impact": "fiscal",
      "fiscal_indicator": "cost_increase",
      "next_action": "House vote 2026-01-30",
      "summary": "Increases capital project funding requirements by 15%"
    }
  ],
  "upcoming_deadlines": [],
  "generated_at": "2026-01-27T08:00:00Z"
}

Full Report Markdown

# WA School Legislation Radar
Report Date: 2026-01-27
Session: 2025-26 Regular
Discovery: Committee-based (Tier 1 + Tier 2)

## 🚨 Priority Action Items

### 🔴 HIGH Priority

#### HB 1234 - School Construction Funding
- **Status:** Passed House, in Senate Education Committee
- **Sponsors:** Rep. Smith (26th), Rep. Jones
- **Impact:** FISCAL ⬆️
- **Summary:** Increases capital project funding requirements
- **Next Action:** Senate hearing Feb 1

## 📊 Legislative Dashboard

### Discovery Summary
| Source | Bills Found |
|--------|-------------|
| House Education | 15 |
| Senate EL/K-12 | 12 |
| Tier 2 (filtered) | 8 |
| **Total Unique** | **28** |

### By Priority
| Priority | Count | Bills |
|----------|-------|-------|
| 🔴 HIGH | 2 | HB 1234, SB 5678 |
| 🟡 MEDIUM | 5 | ... |
| 🟢 LOW | 5 | ... |

## 📋 All Tracked Bills

[Per-bill details grouped by priority level]

---
*Generated by Geoffrey Legislative Tracker*
*Discovery: Committee-based SOAP API*

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Data Sources

SOAP API (Primary)

Endpoint: https://wslwebservices.leg.wa.gov/

Service	Method	Purpose
CommitteeService	GetActiveHouseCommittees	List House committee names
CommitteeService	GetActiveSenateCommittees	List Senate committee names
CommitteeActionService	GetInCommittee	Bills currently in committee
CommitteeActionService	GetCommitteeReferralsByCommittee	All bills ever referred

Parameters:

• biennium: "2025-26"
• agency: "House" or "Senate"
• committeeName: Exact name from GetActive*Committees

WebFetch (Bill Details)

URL Pattern: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber={NUM}&Year=2025

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District Configuration

From config/topics.yaml:

district:
  name: "Peninsula School District"
  legislators:
    - name: "Sen. Emily Randall"
      district: 26
      chamber: senate
    - name: "Rep. Spencer Hutchins"
      district: 26
      chamber: house
    - name: "Rep. Adison Richards"
      district: 26
      chamber: house

Bills sponsored by district legislators get elevated priority consideration.

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Error Handling

Scenario	Response
SOAP timeout/error	Fall back to WebSearch (Tier 3)
Committee not found	Check exact name via get_committees.js
No bills in committee	Normal - committee may not have active bills
Bill page unavailable	Skip bill, note in report

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Session Scope

• Current biennium: 2025-26
• Session types: Regular, Special (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
• Year parameter for URLs: 2025 (uses session start year)

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Related Skills

• morning-briefing: Receives legislative JSON for audio summary
• obsidian-manager: Stores full reports to vault
• omnifocus-manager: (Optional) Could create tasks for urgent deadlines