Substitute House Bill 2306 (69th Legislature, 2026) is a transportation supplemental and policy bill that amends multiple existing statutes and many uncodified sections of 2025 c 416, creates at least one new uncodified section with legislative findings, and makes numerous fiscal appropriations and reappropriations. The act increases preservation and maintenance funding this biennium and directs an additional $500 million for the 2027–2029 biennium, creates a new $2,000,000 state appropriation to the Department of Natural Resources’ Carbon Emissions Reduction Account (Sec. 104), and declares an emergency and immediate effect. It does not appear to create new criminal offenses or change criminal penalties in the material provided. The bill makes many budgetary and procedural changes: it revises line-item appropriations across Washington State Department of Transportation programs (including toll operations, facility maintenance, ferries capital and operations, rail, local programs, and preservation), provides targeted appropriations and program direction for the Washington State Patrol (recruiting, training, technology, DUI toxicology backlog, and reporting), funds licensing and driver-support activities (including support for youth in foster care and REAL ID assistance), authorizes pilot programs (road‑usage charge, tolling technology pilots, federal fund exchange pilots, zero‑emission vehicle voucher and infrastructure programs), and establishes numerous studies, work groups, and reporting deadlines (for ferry asset sufficiency, freight impacts of lower Snake River barge movements, sidewalk funding options, toll strategies, and others). The Joint Transportation Committee and WSDOT are directed to contract for independent reviews, and several entities are authorized to “opt in” to procedural/substantive requirements of the Healthy Environment for All Act within their appropriated funds and must report progress. The bill also expands a county road emergency loan authority to assist local governments damaged by December 2025 rainfall events. The act makes multiple procedural and financial management changes: it amends transfer and appropriation authority (including OFM procedures and limits for transfers among Connecting Washington/Move Ahead WA/Transportation Partnership projects and directs enhanced reporting and LEAP document tracking), imposes numerous reporting deadlines and content requirements for agencies and work groups, and sets conditions on fund use (unallotments, pilot program holdbacks, and reappropriations). Many specific provisions, appropriation line items, and amended RCW texts are cited but not fully included in the extracts provided; several sections end mid-sentence or lack the full statutory amendment language (including the full texts of amendments to RCW 36.78.130, 46.68.396, and 46.68.520 and many uncodified subsections), so the precise operative language and some membership or procedural details are uncertain from the material supplied.

If enacted, the law reallocates and adds hundreds of millions in transportation money to pay for preservation and maintenance now and promises an additional $500 million for 2027–2029, while delaying new bond authorizations and putting more emphasis on keeping ferry service from dropping. Agencies will be required to run a lot of new studies and pilots (on ferries, tolling, freight shifts from river to road/rail, off-hour port gates, zero-emission vehicle vouchers, e-bike rebates, charger reliability, and others), and receive targeted appropriations for electrification, port shore power, rail capacity, emergency ferry and winter operations, bridge and road preservation, and active-transportation grants. The Washington State Patrol gets large new funding for recruiting, training, vehicles, radio and IT upgrades, toxicology lab backlog relief, and pilot programs, and must report semiannually on revenues and many program outcomes; the Department of Licensing and programs for driver support (including foster youth and compact-of-free-association residents) also get dedicated support. The bill expands options for inter-account transfers and creates federal fund exchange pilots and emergency loan authority for counties and cities hit by the December 2025 storms, but many initiatives come with new reporting, OFM oversight, and conditions. The parties most affected will be WSDOT and Washington State Ferries (more money to manage, more reporting, new work groups and vessel-planning responsibilities but no immediate funding for three extra ferries), the Washington State Patrol (new operational costs and revenue-reporting duties, recruitment/training obligations, and technology upgrades), ports and local governments (grant opportunities and requirements such as shore-power policies and match rules), transit agencies and King County Metro (new grants, a federal funds exchange pilot, and constraints that grants cannot be conditioned on pausing local transit taxes), and tribes and communities (consultation and eligibility for certain programs). Implementation will likely increase administrative workload and oversight by OFM and legislative committees, and some critical implementation details and full program rules are not present in the available text, leaving uncertainty about execution, eligibility specifics, and exact timelines for several pilots and funding conditions.