This bill creates a new, temporary state-owned public bank task force to study the feasibility of creating a state-owned public bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota. The state treasurer must appoint the members by September 1, 2025, convene the initial meeting by October 31, 2025, and the task force must meet at least monthly, choose its chair at the initial meeting, and submit a written report of findings to the governor and appropriate legislative committees by December 1, 2026. The task force is established by new sections in the bill, the Office of the State Treasurer provides staff support, and the section expires January 1, 2027; the bill includes an emergency clause and takes effect immediately. Membership is specified by industry and asset or gross income ranges and includes the state treasurer plus representatives from community banks, credit unions, farming, mining, logging, transportation, and commercial building industries; the task force must consult financial institutions, agricultural and natural resource organizations, local governments, the Department of Transportation, and other stakeholders. Elected officials and members serving on behalf of an employer or governmental entity are not entitled to travel expense reimbursement; reimbursement for other nonlegislative members is subject to chapter 43.03 RCW. The text is a feasibility study and procedural creation of a task force (a new statutory section), not creation of the bank itself; it does not appropriate funds in the provided text. Important details missing from the extracted text include the specific funding amount or source to commission and fund the task force, the names of the “appropriate” legislative committees to receive the report, the detailed criteria or procedures the state treasurer must use to select individuals beyond the listed categories, and operational details of how reimbursements under chapter 43.03 RCW will be implemented.

If enacted, the bill creates a temporary, state-led study group that will require the state treasurer’s office to recruit members, convene monthly meetings through late 2026, and provide staff support and administrative time to prepare a report on whether Washington should create a state-owned public bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota. Community banks, credit unions, farming, mining, logging, transportation and commercial building representatives, the Department of Transportation, and local governments will need to commit staff time to participate or be consulted, and some nonlegislative members can claim travel reimbursement under chapter 43.03 RCW while elected officials or representatives acting on behalf of an employer will not be reimbursed. Practically, the treasurer’s office will absorb the administrative burden and likely modest costs of staffing and running the task force, and participating industries must allocate time and possibly incur unreimbursed expenses; the legislature says it intends to fund the work but the bill includes no specific appropriation, leaving the source and amount of funding unclear. The task force must deliver its findings by December 1, 2026, which could expand policy options for the governor and legislature, but the bill does not commit Washington to create a bank and leaves key details—how members are chosen beyond broad categories, which legislative committees will receive the report, and exact funding—unanswered.