Senators passed legislation, including a bill sponsored by Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, that would allow hospitals to add more psychiatric beds, during a virtual floor debate Tuesday.

Senate Bill 5236 unanimously passed and will move to the respective House committee. The bill would extend the suspension date of a health facility’s certificate of need requirement to June 30, 2023.

A facility must obtain a certificate of need from the state Department of Health before it can expand its health services, according to the bill’s text. Expansion plans include construction of a new psychiatric hospital or increasing the number of psychiatric beds.

In 2014, the certificate requirement was suspended to “alleviate the need to board psychiatric patients in emergency departments,” according to the bill’s text. The suspension for the certificate requirement ends June 30, 2021.

Warnick said during the virtual floor debate increasing the number of psychiatric beds is “sorely needed.” Prolonging the suspension of the certificate requirement can help.

“The hospitals are asking for it,” she said.

Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, is co-sponsoring SB 5236. Dhingra said during the virtual floor debate the bill would allow hospitals to add up to 30 beds for 90-day or 180-day patients.

“It is something that is needed in our state,” Dhingra said.

Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, voiced support for SB 5236 during the virtual floor debate. Frockt said the legislature should work to improve the certificate of need process overall sometime during a future legislative session.

“There was an effort to do this about 10 years ago when I first came in,” Frockt said. “That didn’t go very far.”

Warnick said in an interview with the Herald the process for acquiring a certificate of need is extensive and complicated for a hospital facility to go through before improving or expanding its services.

“The certificate of need takes a long time to get through,” Warnick said.

Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake has plans to build a new hospital, Warnick said, but it was “held up” by the certificate of need process. Taking the time to reform the certificate process would be ideal, as Frockt mentioned.

Another bill senators approved, House Bill 1121, passed in a 45-2 vote and will head to the governor’s desk.

HB 1121 would allow the state Board of Education to permit schools to provide emergency waivers from graduation requirements during times in which there is a local, state or national emergency, according to the bill’s text.

Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, is HB 1121’s primary sponsor. Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, is co-sponsoring the bill.

Sen. Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, voted in favor of HB 1121. Hawkins said during the virtual floor debate senators in the Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee unanimously approved the bill.

“This bill is reasonable,” Hawkins said. “There could be some folks on our side of the aisle that have a little bit of concern with the potential delegation of authority and think that we should come back in a special session ... to address this.”

Senators also approved HB 1131 (in a 47-0 vote), SB 5080 (47-0), SB 5106 (40-7), SB 5185 (30-17), SB 5017 (47-0), SB 5177 (47-0), SB 5201 (47-0), SB 5312 (44-3), SB 5338 (47-0) and SB 5347 (47-0) during the virtual floor debate.

HB 1131 will move to the governor’s desk. SB 5080, SB 5106, SB 5185, SB 5017, SB 5177, SB 5201, SB 5312, SB 5338 and SB 5347 will move to the respective House committees.