Midway through the legislative session, other important bills are also persisting in the face of the Feb. 16 deadline to be voted out of their house of origin. Those that got a floor vote how have to be considered in the opposite house: House bills move to the Senate, Senate bills move to the House. Among the survivors:
* Banking interests managed to gut House Bill 2623, which would have required lenders to give laid-off homeowners on unemployment a year's forbearance before putting their house up for auction. But the bill, which passed 97-0 last week, still provides $500,000 to pay for more of the federally certified housing counselors who can help people renegotiate their mortgages.
* The Security Lifeline Act, Second Substitute HB 2782, would reform and save General Assistance-Unemployable, a program that serves 18,000 of the state's disabled poor. It was passed in a floor vote, 55-41.
* HB 3141 specifies how the governor's office should revise Workfirst and the child care subsidy program called Working Connections. It passed the House 51-43.
* HB 2497 isn't what Rep. Scott White (D-Seattle) originally proposed, which was to add assaults on the homeless to the state's hate crimes statue. But it does make such assaults an aggravating circumstance at sentencing. The bill passed the House 96-0.
* HB 2912 would designate some of the state's hotel-motel sales taxes for low-income housing after the taxes finish paying off debt on Seattle's Qwest and Safeco stadiums. The bill passed the House 53-48.
--Cydney Gillis and Adam Hyla