It’s the last week of session!

Dear friends and neighbors,

It’s the last week of session! Can you believe it? The last hundred days have been a whirlwind, but I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished so far this year. And so much of it was done with broad bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle. Of all the House & Senate bills we’ve passed, nearly 80 percent of them passed with 80 votes or more (out of 98). We are so much stronger when we’re able to set aside our differences and work together! 

With only a handful of days to go, I’m still working closely with my colleagues on the Capital Budget committee to finalize our state construction budget. We’re committed to investing in the priorities you care about most. Stay tuned for our next newsletter highlighting the final Capital budget as well as the Transportation and Operating budgets, after sine die.

While that work continues, I wanted to give you a brief update on my bills, as well as share some of the work we’ve done this session to address our state’s housing crisis and protect your private health care data.

Many of the bills I sponsored this session have been about one thing: giving every child in our state their best opportunity to thrive. I’m proud to say most of my bills passed—many unanimously—and are now on their way to the governor! 

HB 1580: This crucial bill will allow us to pull together a multiagency response to provide our young people in crisis & their families the individualized support and care they need. No child should be ‘stuck’ living in our hospitals for days, months or years while they await appropriate care. This bill passed both the House & Senate unanimously! You can read more about it in the Seattle Times by clicking here. 

HB 1204: The Family Connections pilot program has been incredibly effective in bringing together both parents & caregivers to ensure our children in dependent care feel safe, experience less trauma, and are supported by all the adults in their lives. After passing the House & Senate unanimously, this program is now one step closer to becoming permanent! 

HB 1701: Every student in WA is entitled to a basic education. That’s not just what I believe, it’s what our state’s constitution demands! This includes our young people involved with juvenile justice—but we’ve been failing them for decades. This bill gives us the opportunity to make things right. It also passed the House & Senate unanimously, bringing us closer to providing ALL students the education they need to thrive in our communities! 

HB 1230: Providing our families with the information they need to keep medications & firearms safely stored is one of the simplest ways to keep our young people safe. Providing overdose trends and overdose response information to families and students is critical, especially with the increasing fentanyl crisis. In just the last few years, we’ve seen an over 83% increase in drug overdoses or poisonings and gun violence has become the #1 cause of death for our children and teens. This bill will make this information easily accessible by parents, students, friends and peers through newsletters and websites.

Washington’s housing crisis is driving up costs for families across the state. We’re between 140,000-250,000 homes short of where we need to be right now, and we’ll need a million more over the next 20 years. This year, we passed a few bills that will help us build up our housing supply and help some of our most vulnerable neighbors keep the homes they have. 

HB 1110: increases the middle housing supply by allowing more diverse housing options in residential neighborhoods, depending on city size. This bill has gone through a lot of changes since it was first introduced and now strikes a good balance between addressing our housing shortage without overburdening communities. 

HB 1337: allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to be built in more communities. These are sometimes called ‘mother-in-law apartments’ and are good options for both first-time homebuyers and allowing seniors to continue living at home. 

HB 1265: establishes a property tax exemption for properties owned by nonprofits that are used as adult family homes for folks with developmental disabilities to increase and stabilize housing supply opportunities. This bill was introduced by our very own Rep. Ramos and you can hear him talk about it by clicking here.

Your private health information belongs to you and no one else. But every time we use an app, visit a health care website, or go to the pharmacy, that information can be collected and sold to those that may want to use it against us. No more.

This session, we passed the My Health, My Data Act (HB 1155) to block websites and apps from collecting and sharing health data. It also prohibits the sale of your health data, the use of “geofences” to send unsolicited messages to persons at health facilities and requires companies that collect personal health data to create, maintain, and publish a privacy policy for consumer health data.