OLYMPIA -- Most of the Legislature gets a four-day weekend, or at least a travel day at the end of their three-day weekend, because very little is on today's schedule. 

No work in the House, majority Democrats said this morning. No floor action in the Senate.

But with three days left in the special session, the Senate Ways and Means Committee does have hearing on one of the Majority Coalition's pet peeves. A bill introduced last Friday would open up contract negotiations between state employees unions and the governor's office, which are currently closed to them and the public. Yes, it's brought to you by the people who have been conducting budget talks behind closed doors for more than a month, but as they say, a slavish devotion to consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind.

Don't expect a big rush to get this to a floor vote before Thursday, the last day of this special session. Anything that passes only one chamber before Thursday goes back to that chamber when the Legislature pushes the reset button for the second special session. 

Ways and Means has another bill on its agenda that might move quickly through both chambers. It's a request for $18 million for drought relief in the next biennium, an opportunity to get going quickly on the statewide drought emergency Gov. Jay Inslee declared earlier this month.

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