| Believe it or not, we are already one month into the 2013 legislative session. The session follows a cut-off calendar, which determines the deadlines for public hearings and executive action on bills, as well as floor action in both the House and Senate. We are approaching our first cut-off, February 22, the last day a policy bill can be considered in committee in its house of origin. Fiscal bills (bills that may have an impact on the budget) get an extra week beyond that. Do you know where your fish came from?
How can you really know if the fish you bought for your family dinner is, in fact, what you paid for? Our existing labeling and branding requirements for seafood are dated, confusing and hard to enforce. Meanwhile, our fishing industry has to compete against thousands of imported seafood products that often are not labeled correctly or accurately and may be misleading. The solution may be in House Bill 1200, which would update, clarify, correct, and strengthen Washington’s current laws. In the bill’s hearing on January 30, the Agriculture and Natural Resources committee heard testimony from Fish & Wildlife law enforcement, the Department of Agriculture, the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers and the Northwest Food Processors Association. All of them stated their support for this measure, which would make our laws more enforceable and would better protect Washington consumers and our fishing industry. You can read more about the bill here. The legislation passed unanimously out of the Agriculture and Natural Resources committee, and now awaits further consideration in the Rules committee. Getting rid of GET? Not on my list! There’s been a lot of talk about closing the state’s Guaranteed Education Tuition program- more widely known as the “GET program.” GET is an investment program created by the Legislature in 1998 as a way for families to save for college. Parents, grandparents and others can buy GET “units” at a fixed price today that can be applied towards college tuition at a later date. Some lawmakers are pushing to close the GET program. I want to assure you that I am not one of them! Recent reports show a projected unfunded liability of $631 million several years down the road. That’s a concern to be taken seriously, though ending the program completely could be far more devastating. If we end the program, it could cost the state anywhere from $649 million to $1.6 billion. It would also end a program that has helped over 27,000 students achieve the dream of a college education who might not have otherwise been able to afford it. Thankfully, we have options to get the GET reserves back to healthy levels. This report from the State Actuary illustrates how holding the line on tuition increases for the next two years and increasing state support for instructional costs will quickly lead to a healthy GET reserve. Toxic-free kids and families Would you expose your child – or yourself – to a toxic chemical in the name of fire safety? What if it turned out the toxic chemical didn’t provide a fire safety benefit after all? Last week the House Environment committee held a public hearing on House Bill 1294, which would ban two cancer-causing flame retardants from children’s products and residential furniture. The bill also prevents manufacturers from substituting equally toxic chemicals in their place. I am one of the bill’s 29 sponsors, all Democrats. Support continues to build for the measure, especially since an investigative report last year exposed deceptive tactics that the chemical industry has been using to try to defeat bills like this across the country. It turns out, these toxic chemicals don’t provide much, if any, fire safety benefit at all. In fact, they make fires more deadly by producing toxic fumes that our first responders are repeatedly exposed to. What bills are you sponsoring? This is a question often asked of me. Since we are nearing the first cutoff for consideration of bills, I think my list is complete. Here is a list with links to more information on each. I am sponsoring more bills than usual because a number of constituents have come to me with ideas that I believe are worth pursuing. February is American Heart Month Heart disease is still the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. In fact, one out of every four deaths is due to heart disease and about 715,000 Americans will have a heart attack this year alone. The good news is that heart disease is highly preventable. The Center for Disease Control is offering some easy tips for improving your heart’s health.
For more information on heart health, visit the CDC’s page on American Heart Month. I appreciate you taking the time to read my electronic newsletter and welcome your feedback. Sincerely, Sam Hunt Representative Sam Hunt |
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WASHINGTON STATE
HOUSE DEMOCRATS