In 2007, historic legislation was approved in Washington to grant workers up to five weeks of partial wage replacement of up to $250 per week upon the birth or adoption of a child, beginning in October 2009. But lawmakers postponed the tough decision of where the revenue would come from to pay for it.

Well, 2009 was not a good year for finding revenue. As it happened, state lawmakers chose to pass an all-cuts budget, dramatically slashing funding for education, health care, public safety and other critical government services. So finding money for paid family leave was not likely to happen.

Instead, the Legislature approved SB 5168, delaying implementation of the program until October 2012. It passed the Senate 29-14 and the House 61-34—with most Republicans voting "no" because they preferred to kill, not postpone, the program—and Gov. Chris Gregoire signed it into law.

Sponsored by Rep. Bruce Chandler (R-Granger) and a bipartisan medley of advocates for the Washington Farm Bureau, HB 1896 would have created a program for "essential workers," defined as "an alien who is issued a nonimmigrant visa and admitted to the United States to perform seasonal, peak need, or project-related labor for one or more employers." The idea was to have the state recruit, train and find jobs for foreign workers to come to Washington to work not just in agriculture, but also in construction, retail, restaurant and hospitality industries.

Any other year, we would have filed this one under "What Are They Thinking?" But with the recession and high unemployment, we file it under "What Are They Smoking?"

HB 1896 died in committee.

Though they didn’t get their "essential workers," the agriculture lobbyists did score a few victories in 2009.

HB 1814, sponsored by Rep. Phyllis Kenney (D-Seattle), would have modified the Farm Labor Contractor Act to protect farm workers from unscrupulous labor contractors who deny them their legal rights and/or violate state laws.

Opposed by the Washington Farm Bureau as unnecessary, HB 1814 died without a vote. That makes three straight years that House leadership has said "no" to farmworker protections.