WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Legislative Update: Great to hear from you!

 Greetings from Olympia! Last week we were busy passing bills out of the House before a Wednesday-night cut-off deadline. Now we are back in Committee to consider bills that have passed the Senate.

We took a break on Thursday night for our third annual Telephone Town Hall. Over 4800 constituents participated. Hearing your thoughtful questions and concerns was a refreshing reminder of why we do this work. If you missed the phone call, you can listen to the full audio here.

Don’t have an hour to listen in? Not to worry—here are some of the highlights:

 Based on your questions, it’s clear that improving our education system is one of your top issues. That’s not surprising, it’s one of ours as well. High quality education, from cradle to career, provides opportunity to our young people and is a great investment in our communities. We know that we need to be focusing on lowering class sizes, investing in higher education, expanding early learning opportunities, and supporting our hard-working teachers.

We heard many concerns about working families in our community who are struggling to get by in this difficult economy. It’s encouraging to hear that our constituents are as concerned as we are about cuts to our social safety net. We’ll continue to fight for reinvestments in social programs like the Housing Trust Fund, food assistance programs, and other vital services our families rely on. On top of that, we are committed to building an economy from the middle class out by ensuring that no one who works full-time has to raise a family in poverty.

 Several of you emphasized the importance of Washington’s beautiful environment and plentiful natural resources. We were delighted to hear from Matthew who is starting a composting program at his middle school. It’s refreshing to hear from energetic young people who are taking action to create a safe and healthy planet.

And we’re glad some of you raised concerns about crude oil being transported through our state and recent oil train derailments. The House passed a bill two weeks ago with bipartisan support to give our communities the resources necessary to prepare for a possible derailment. We hope the Senate will take action soon on this legislation.

We also talked about a diverse range of issues related to medical marijuana, mental health, the Alaskan Way viaduct and homelessness.

It’s a delight to represent a district that’s so engaged and eager to discuss the issues facing our community. We hope you’ll continue to follow the action in Olympia. In addition to hearing from us, you can sign up for email updates from committees so you can keep track of the issues most important to you. You can also track specific legislation and send us your comments!