Substitute House Bill 1198 is the state’s biennial budget bill for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. It both creates new statutory sections and appropriates large sums across many agencies and accounts, and it amends or reenacts numerous existing RCWs. The act sets detailed appropriations and provisos in Parts I–IX for entities including the legislature, courts, Office of Public Defense, Office of Civil Legal Aid, Governor’s office, Department of Commerce (including extensive housing and homelessness grant programs), Washington Technology Solutions, Department of Social and Health Services, and the Health Care Authority. It also declares an emergency and attaches effective/expiration dates and many conditional “provided solely” and lapse provisions tied to enactment of related bills. The bill is primarily an appropriation and administrative bill that changes law by funding programs, adding new sections, and imposing new reporting, oversight, and procedural requirements. Examples in the extracted text include targeted court and public defense funding (including specified distributions and reporting for juvenile services and a direct refund process and other assistance related to convictions vacated due to State v. Blake), appropriations and conditions for courts and civil legal aid, grants for homelessness and permanent supportive housing with forecasting and reporting requirements, directives for IT governance and monthly/quarterly financial and project reporting (including a statewide IT dashboard and oversight of major IT projects), and multiple program-specific implementation provisos that lapse if referenced bills are not enacted by June 30, 2025. Legally, the changes are principally fiscal and procedural: new appropriations, creation of programmatic funding streams, conditional funding that requires other bills to be enacted, mandated reporting and data-collection obligations, interagency coordination requirements, and expanded administrative authorities (for example, limited transfer and contracting authorities). The act amends many existing statutes and reenacts several RCWs but the extracted materials do not include the specific substantive amendments to those code sections. The bill does not, in the provided extracts, create new criminal offenses or change criminal penalties; it focuses on funding, administrative processes, and program implementation. Important gaps remain in the provided text: many listed RCWs and session-law sections are said to be amended or reenacted but the specific amendment language is not included; several sections and totals are truncated (including portions of appropriations and section 115(3), section 701, and other subsections), so the complete funding amounts, some conditions, and some procedural details could not be confirmed from these extracts.

If enacted, this bill provides large, targeted funding for the 2025–27 biennium that will expand court and legal services, shore up public defense and civil legal aid, fund refunds and legal work tied to State v. Blake, increase housing and homelessness grants, and boost operations and staffing at state psychiatric and developmental disability facilities. Agencies most directly affected — the Administrative Office of the Courts, Office of Public Defense, Office of Civil Legal Aid, Department of Social and Health Services, Department of Commerce (housing), and the Health Care Authority — will receive significant new money to hire staff, run new programs or grant distributions, and cover local costs (for example Blake-related refunds, court-appointed counsel, homelessness services, and expanded hospital bed capacity and competency restoration services). Local governments, courts, nonprofits, and service providers will see more grant opportunities and state-funded support but also new requirements: many appropriations are limited to specific uses, several implementation amounts will lapse if related bills are not enacted by June 30, 2025, and agencies must meet added reporting and oversight duties (including frequent fiscal and program reports to OFM and legislative committees, and technology oversight by Washington Technology Solutions). Some parts of the bill text are incomplete in the provided facts, so exact program details, total appropriation amounts in a few sections, and certain cross-section conditions remain unclear.