House Bill 1551 would extend the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) cannabis social‑equity program for two years and require a formal evaluation of the program’s implementation and outcomes, sponsor Representative Christine Reeves told the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee.

Committee staff Marlin Yanez summarized background: Washington currently operates two related social‑equity efforts — an LCB licensing program, created with input from the Social Equity in Cannabis Task Force and set to expire on July 1, 2032, and a Department of Commerce technical‑assistance grant program for qualifying applicants. The bill would move the program expiration to July 1, 2034 and require LCB to evaluate the program and report findings to the governor and appropriate legislative committees by Dec. 1, 2025. Yanez said the House passed the bill 57‑39; a fiscal note had been requested but was not yet available.

Representative Christine Reeves, sponsor and a legislator from the 30th District, said the measure is intended to assess whether the state’s initial round of social‑equity licenses delivered meaningful economic opportunity to people harmed by the war on drugs. Reeves told lawmakers that anecdotal feedback highlights persistent barriers: siting, access to capital, and local bans that limit where licensees can operate. She said roughly 40 licenses were issued in the first round and that the second round contemplates many more licenses across retail, processor and producer categories.

"We should probably take that report and then bring that information back to the legislature to work with our agencies, to work with our licensees, to make sure that the licenses that we are issuing are actually valuable commodities," Reeves said, arguing the bill does not pause or delay a second round but adds an evaluation to inform it.

The bill would also remove a grant‑eligibility restriction that limited Commerce’s technical‑assistance grants to licensees licensed only within a narrow April 2023–July 2024 window. Reeves said the extension is designed to improve the chance that the second round of licensing results in commercially viable opportunities for social‑equity applicants.

Committee members asked for clarification about whether legislative changes between rounds had already addressed some rubric issues and portability concerns; Reeves said the second round had already been informed by lessons from the first round but that a formal evaluation would provide quantitative evidence to guide further reforms.

No committee vote on HB 1551 was recorded in the transcript provided; staff said a fiscal note had been requested and would be provided later.