The state Senate voted Thursday to allow high school students to graduate without passing a required biology exam and to suspend Initiative 1351 for four years.
The decisions clear the way for lawmakers to finish their work this week while also plugging a $2 billion hole in the new state budget.
Senate Republicans, who hold the majority, had tried to pass the bill suspending the initiative in the early morning hours of July 1. They needed 33 votes but only got 27 as Democrats dug in with their demand for action to suspend the test requirement.
On Thursday, the Senate suspended the initiative on a 33-11 vote with five senators absent. And there was a bit of drama as there were only 32 votes until Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, announced his support for the suspension.
Resolving the dispute on the assessments has been the focus of Senate leaders since the July 1 meltdown.
The bill approved on a 39-5 vote Thursday will delay the requirement for students in the class of 2015 and 2016. Supporters said as many as 2,000 students could not graduate this year because they had not passed the exam.
The House is set to convene at 11 a.m. Friday. Representatives must act on the biology test bill and pass two bills related to the $16 billion transportation package. At that point the Legislature will be done with a session that has lasted nearly six months.
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