Microsoft and Amazon published a joint op-ed and full-page ad in The Seattle Times urging Washington lawmakers to address the state’s housing crisis. (GeekWire Illustration)
They’re rivals in the cloud, and competitors for customers and talent. But Microsoft and Amazon are on the same page when it comes to Washington state’s housing crisis — literally, in the case of an op-ed Friday and full-page ad last Sunday in The Seattle Times.
The Seattle region “faces a housing emergency that threatens our state’s quality of life, health and economic competitiveness,” write Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, and David Zapolsky, Amazon’s chief global affairs and legal officer.
It was an unusual joint byline, to say the least, but it reflected the similar big-picture goals of their separate housing initiatives.
Combined, the two companies have committed $1.6 billion to preserve and build more than 26,000 affordable homes in the region. But the executives say even that isn’t enough, framing the problem as a supply issue that requires building “more homes of all kinds.”
They’re backing several bills in the current legislative session, including SB 6026, which would allow residential development on commercial land like strip malls and big-box stores. They also praise Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed $225 million in bonds for the state Housing Trust Fund.
“Going forward, legislators must commit to a simple test: If a policy makes housing more costly or takes longer to build, don’t pass it. Consider an alternative,” they write. “Enact policies that pencil in today’s market, not aspirational measures that might work down the line.”
They warn that other states are moving faster to attract developers. “Capital is fluid,” they write. “Banks, investors and lenders are going where they can make predictable returns.”
Now hanging in uncertainty, a big US cryptocurrency bill meant to set firmer ground for trading platforms, digital tokens and stablecoins lost its urgent status among Congress leaders. Attention shifting elsewhere, several influential senators paused work on it this week. Talks continue behind the scenes, aiming to fix unresolved parts before moving forward.
Lawmakers Focus On Housing
A handful of senators shift attention toward affordable housing plans linked to US President Donald Trump’s priorities. This move shrinks the chance for quick approval of the cryptocurrency legislation. Time runs short as political energy flows elsewhere.
Now the Banking Committee changed its timeline because of that move, so the expected vote on the bill got delayed for now. This puts a pause on efforts to build one clear system.
Big Industry Pushback
Out of nowhere, Coinbase stopped backing the plan. Its executives said the proposal might limit how stablecoins work, affecting services people rely on. That shift made them step away quietly. Right after, the group in charge paused things as well.
That shift laid bare growing tensions. Not every bank welcomed the rise of stablecoins. Rivalry looms when digital coin returns gain wider reach. Some financial players see threat in that growth.
Industry Response And Market Effects
Fear spread through trading floors. When talks got delayed, digital currencies started falling because people began questioning how much longer the arguing could last – alongside what kind of outcome might finally emerge.
Useful, perhaps, if waiting brings sharper rules. Still, dragging too long risks confusing banks more, leaving them unsure when to act.
Separate Tracks Emerge
Ahead of the curve, some lawmakers are eyeing a fresh approach where certain digital tokens fall under commodity rules. This version, quietly shared by the Senate Agriculture team, might follow its own path forward – timing unclear.
While others debate classification, this draft sidesteps the main gridlock and suggests an alternate route through regulatory terrain.
One path might still move forward, even if the Banking Committee’s proposal gets stuck. Still, running two versions at once brings up concerns – how will they merge them should both make it to debate?
Crypto Bill: What Might Happen Next
Few believe it’s dead, though time slips fast. Elections loom; attention wanders. Agreement must come soon, or nothing sticks.
Some members of Congress quietly say pushing into late February could kill chances, yet backers still meet out of view to adjust the proposal and pull in more votes.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Like a repeat visitor, a bill to tax short-term rental bookings is back in front of the Washington State Legislature — and drawing renewed resistance from vacation rental giant Airbnb.
Senate Bill 5576 would allow counties, cities and towns to impose a tax of up to 4% on short-term rentals used by vacation guests on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. The bill failed to advance during the 2025 session.
The aim of the bill — and companion House Bill 1763 — is to address a shortage of funding for housing, especially in cities and towns where short-term rentals have had an impact on the availability of affordable properties for people who live and work in tourist-heavy locales.
“We are absolutely going to pursue the policy again this session to create critical new revenue streams for cities and counties struggling with our housing crisis,” Sen. Liz Lovelett (D-Anacortes), the prime sponsor for the bill, told GeekWire. “This remains a smart approach to ensure that more resources are available to build workforce housing across the state, especially in areas where seasonal tourism drives up demand for vacation homes and reduces the availability of long-term rentals.”
This is the eighth year that Lovelett has sponsored a short-term rental tax proposal. Last session she estimated that the state could use hundreds of thousands, if not a million, new housing units over the next 20 years, and that somewhere near 35,000 units are wrapped up as short-term rentals.
Last year’s bill made it out of the Senate but was not called forward for a vote on the House floor prior to the April 16 cutoff.
San Francisco-based Airbnb pushed back on the legislation last year and is back to do the same this session. The company’s political action committee in Washington, called Airbnb Helps Our State Thrive (HOST) PAC, advocates for residents and communities who rely on home sharing and would be negatively impacted by a new tax. A companion website urges Washingtonians to “say no to the vacation tax.”
“SB5576 and HB1763 will make it more expensive for Washington families to travel within the state, while failing to meaningfully address local housing affordability challenges,” Airbnb Public Policy Manager Jordan Mitchell said in a statement to GeekWire. “The proposals target residents who share their homes to earn supplemental income, giving large hotel chains the upper hand.”
Mitchell said Airbnb supports efforts to improve housing affordability in Washington state, but the tax legislation misses the mark and data-backed policies are needed to bolster affordable housing supply. He referenced Senate Bill 6026, which aims to allow and encourage residential development in commercial and mixed-use zones.
Vrbo, owned by Seattle-based travel giant Expedia Group, views the bill as a better alternative than an outright ban on short-term rentals.
“We support SB 5576 and see the measure as a helpful affordable housing tool and an important pressure release valve for communities who might otherwise pursue more punitive and harmful measures such as an outright ban on the activity,” Richard de Sam Lazaro, Expedia Group’s head of government affairs for North America, said in a statement to GeekWire.
Airbnb says its Washington hosts play an important role in strengthening the state’s tourism economy.
In 2024, short-term rentals in Washington helped generate approximately $4.7 billion in economic activity for the state and supported over 35,000 local jobs, according to a study from The Association of Washington Businesses and local economic consultant CAI.
Short-term rentals and visitor spending contributed more than $300 million in state and local fiscal revenues in Washington in 2024, according to the report.
A map from Microsoft’s Closing Washington’s Housing Gap report shows the estimated number of additional homes needed across the state through 2044, highlighting the scale of the shortfall in King, Snohomish, Pierce and other fast-growing counties. (Microsoft Image)
A bill to open up strip malls, big-box stores, and other commercial land for housing development across Washington state gets its first hearing today, with what might seem an unlikely supporter: Microsoft.
The tech giant is urging lawmakers to pass SB 6026, which would flip the default setting on commercial zoning: instead of requiring developers to seek permission for housing on commercial land, cities of more than 30,000 people would have to allow it in qualifying areas.
In other words, no more lengthy battles to turn half-empty strip malls into apartments.
It’s one piece of a broader strategy that Microsoft is laying out after more than five years and $750 million invested in affordable housing across the region, mostly in the form of a revolving loan fund. In a report released this week, the company makes the case that Washington’s housing crisis is solvable, but only if policymakers treat it as a systemic problem rather than a collection of isolated issues.
The report draws on lessons learned from Microsoft’s housing investments, which the company says are on track to create or preserve more than 16,000 affordable homes so far across King County and the broader region.
“We greatly underestimated the size, scope, and complexity of the problem,” acknowledged Jane Broom, senior director of Microsoft Philanthropies, in an interview with GeekWire this week. “We didn’t quite realize the interconnectedness of the housing sector, from shelter space to low-income housing to workforce housing to market-rate housing.”
She explained, “If you underperform in one of those areas, it greatly impacts the whole.”
Jane Broom, senior director of Microsoft Philanthropies, during a 2025 Microsoft Elevate event. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
Why does Microsoft care about housing? Broom said it comes down to economic opportunity and quality of life. Housing affordability has risen to become the top concern among Washington voters, she said, threatening the state’s ability to attract and retain workers.
Broom pointed to anecdotes about school teachers and essential workers commuting 90 minutes each way because they can’t afford to live closer, and young professionals leaving the region entirely because they can’t find affordable housing.
Microsoft added housing to its portfolio of community investments in 2019, alongside longstanding commitments to education, transportation, and arts and culture. The company’s report this week lays out a four-point plan based on its lessons learned:
Unlock more land for housing, especially underused commercial property like strip malls and big-box stores, by making residential development the default in commercial zones.
Fix the permitting process to make it faster and more predictable, removing unnecessary delays that add costs and drive developers out of the market.
Lower construction costs through innovation in materials and methods, expanded tax incentives, and use of AI to streamline regulatory compliance.
Build long-term public-private partnerships with clear accountability, leveraging private and philanthropic capital alongside public investment.
Another long-term opportunity mentioned in the report is AI. Broom said Microsoft is working with tech companies that serve municipal governments to integrate AI into permitting systems, helping to sort through complex building codes and regulatory requirements more quickly.
Some developers are already experimenting with the technology, she said, uploading building codes and municipal regulations to AI systems that can automatically flag whether a proposed design will comply, or how to optimize plans for housing affordability.
Microsoft isn’t the only local tech giant addressing the housing crisis. Amazon has committed more than $3.6 billion to affordable housing through its Housing Equity Fund, with more than $780 million directed toward the Seattle area since 2021.
The two companies have taken different approaches. Microsoft has focused primarily on the Eastside and middle-income housing, while Amazon has pursued project-by-project investments targeting lower-income households.
However, they are often on the same page on housing policy, Broom said.
“Thematically, we’ve always been aligned and supportive,” she said. “This is really hard and complicated, and this state is making it much more difficult than it really needs to be.”
The Military Family Advisory Network is conducting its biennial survey to better understand the needs of military and veteran families worldwide. The survey — the largest independent research effort focused on the military family population — has helped shape major policy and quality-of-life reforms, including the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Tenant Bill of Rights and the creation of a congressional quality-of-life panel for service members and their families.
Unlike many surveys focused on military families, MFAN manages the research process internally from start to finish, which allows the organization to analyze its findings beyond broad, high-level trends.
“We know that there is not one experience that applies for all military families. There are a lot of variations based on where you’re living, based on your family size, based on your rank, based on your branch. And so what we’re able to do is dig into our findings in a way that gives us really concrete and actionable data, so that we’re not trying to boil the ocean with the solutions that we put in place,” Shannon Razsadin, MFAN’s chief executive officer, told Federal News Network.
“It’s very important, and it is very much counted on by a variety of different stakeholders as they shape policy and programs that military families count on,” she added.
MFAN opened the survey in October but paused its outreach efforts during the government shutdown. “We felt that it was too much to ask people in such a time of immense stress to take the time to complete the survey,” Razsadin said.
It has since ramped up outreach and is monitoring response rates to determine when to close the survey. The organization received over 10,000 responses in the last survey cycle.
Razsadin said MFAN’s research has helped drive several quality-of-life reforms — the Senate Armed Services Committee relied on its study on military housing, which became the “cornerstone” for privatized housing reforms. When the organization’s research first identified food insecurity issues in the military, it launched the One Million Meals Challenge, distributing over a million meals to military families living in places where MFAN’s data showed the highest need.
Further analysis, however, revealed a key driver for food insecurity among military families — a previous study showed that 51% of respondents who had moved in the last two years were food insecure. In response, the organization launched its PCS Restock Program, providing families with household essentials and pantry staples after a permanent change of station move.
“That’s a tangible example of how MFAN has used our data to drive really important programmatic decisions while at the same time advocating from the policy perspective, because policy takes time, and oftentimes military families don’t have that luxury. These things are about moving on parallel tracks, with the ultimate goal of those intersecting from where programs and policies can meet,” Razsadin said.
“This research effort is for a whole-of-ecosystem approach, because there is no one organization out there, even the government, who can do all things for all people. And so it’s really making sure that we have the data, we are sharing it proactively. We are maintaining the highest levels of institutional review board standards so you can trust this data, that it has gone through the most rigorous review process possible. That has been very helpful for us in making sure this research effort stands up on the Hill, within the Pentagon, to make sure that it can really drive the change possible,” she added.
Issues covered in the survey
The survey examines a wide range of military family wellbeing issues, including finances, housing, childcare and PCS moves, but respondents are only asked questions relevant to their life. Respondents without children, for instance, won’t be asked about education and childcare.
While the survey includes perennial questions asked in every cycle, the organization introduces new topic areas based on feedback from the community. This year, MFAN added questions examining online gambling.
“We’ve heard a lot, and just even outside the military population, online gambling has hit a new level. It is very accessible, and it’s something that we want to understand what’s happening there. But also, what are the intersection points between things like online gambling and financial security? What are some of the intersection points between that and loneliness or social isolation? We’re really interested to see if this is something that is a broad issue or is something that is being consumed at very high levels within the military population, but what also are some of the implications related to that, and what could be some of those drivers that we’ll need to dig deeper into as an organization,” Razsadin said.
For the first time, MFAN has incorporated methodology designed to produce findings representative of the broader military community. Razsadin said it will allow the organization to speak more confidently about trends across the military population rather than just the experiences of survey respondents.
“It was an intensive effort from a research design perspective, and we’re really looking forward to releasing those findings, and we think that it will give the data even more legs than it had before,” Razsadin said.
MFAN also uses validated measurement scales throughout the survey, which allows the organization to create “apples-to-apples comparisons” between the military population and the civilian population.
“This allows us to really have data that we can then bring to the Hill and other stakeholders and say, ‘This is how the military population is stacking up as compared to the civilian population,’ which has been really helpful for us in the advocacy work that we do as an organization,” Razsadin said.
Recently, the organization has been focusing its advocacy efforts on increasing military pay and examining the basic allowance for housing, particularly how the system could be made more responsive — and possibly more predictive — to changing housing market conditions. The survey data will shape MFAN’s policy priorities for the next several years.
“It’s so important that we hear from people through this research effort, because it really does shape the future as far as what is discussed within the Pentagon, what is discussed on the Hill, and making sure that the well-being of military families always stays at the forefront as not just a nice-to-have, but as a must-have, and that’s more important now than ever,” Razsadin said.
Some service members stationed within the continental United States will see their take-home pay decrease starting January after the Defense Department updated its cost-of-living allowance rates (COLAs).
All 21 non-metropolitan counties in California and New York will lose COLA allowance eligibility under the Defense Department’s 2026 rates released Monday.
Nine military housing areas will lose the allowance entirely, including Boston, Massachusetts and San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino, Humboldt County, Riverside and Bridgeport in California.
Military housing areas with the largest decrease include New York City, falling from 8% to 4%.
Meanwhile, eight military housing areas will see an increase in COLA allowance. Seattle had the largest increase — from no COLA eligibility in 2025 to a 5% rate in 2026. Several other West Coast locations, including Oakland and San Francisco, Santa Clara County also saw notable increases. Staten Island, New York is also among the military housing areas with the highest Continental COLA rates.
The Defense Department said CONUS COLA will cost about $99 million, benefiting roughly 127,000 service members nationwide in 2026 — significantly more than in 2025, when about 61,000 service members received a total of about $51 million in CONUS COLA payments. In 2024, only about 17,000 service members received the payment.
CONUS COLA is a taxable supplemental allowance, unlike most military benefits such as the basic allowance for housing and the basic allowance for subsistence, which are tax-exempt. The allowance is intended to help offset the cost of goods and services for service members stationed in high-cost areas. Just like basic allowance for housing, it is a monthly stipend, and it is different from cost-of-living adjustments for retirement pay and veterans’ benefits. It is also different from Outside Continental United States (OCONUS) COLA, which is non-taxable and changes every month to adjust for fluctuations in exchange between foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar. CONUS COLA only changes annually.
To qualify for CONUS COLA, a location’s non-housing living costs must be at least 7% higher than the national average.
CONUS COLA payments vary based on a service member’s duty location, rank, years of service and dependent status.
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