Dear Friends and Neighbors,  

The Legislative Session is off to a busy start—and it’s been so wonderful operating in-person and interacting with so many of you face-to-face. Thank you to those of you who have already reached out to share your input (and there are a lot of you!) —I really appreciate it.

In 2021, the Legislature successfully passed legislation by Rep. Thai to better support families in Washington. The Working Families Tax Credit is a new program that will provide payments of up to $1,200 to low-to-moderate income individuals and families. The amounts are based on income level and the number of qualifying children (if any). This credit is projected to reach more than 400,000 Washington households and will benefit one in three kids in our state.   

The program is up and running and will help us stimulate local economies, promote racial equity, and provide the financial stability Washington families need right now. To find more information in several available languages, and to see if you qualify, visit WorkingFamililesCredit.wa.gov.  

I am settling into my new role as the Chair of the House Environment and Energy Committee.  Here are a few bills that we are working on in that committee.   

One BIG UPDATE:   

We moved the WRAP Act HB 1131 out of committee yesterday!!!! This sets up a state-of-the-art recycling system in the state of Washington!  I received so many emails, postcards and calls asking that we pass this bill out of committee and we did just that yesterday!  Keep your eye on it here.   

HB 1589 Working with Puget Sound Energy, I am sponsoring this bill which will require them to end new hook ups to natural gas in homes and commercial buildings by June 30, 2023. The bill seeks to give them some new tools to assist with the transition, while also ensuring reliable and affordable energy. 

HB 1554 Did you know that leaded gas is still in use in piston engine aircraft 50 years after we banned it’s use for vehicles, and it is the largest source of lead in our airsheds?  We know that lead exposure has serious consequences for the health of our children and communities and that under-resourced communities disproportionately face the impacts of pollution. Communities underneath and downwind of flight paths and jet landings are overburdened by exposure to ultrafine pollution particles. This bill phases in a restriction on leaded aviation gas in multiple tiers: first to airports already adjacent to contaminated and overburdened communities, then to airports in other urban growth areas, and all airports in Washington by 2030.   

HB 1170 requires the Washington Department of Ecology to update the Integrated Climate Change Response Strategy every four years in coordination with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group. Climate fires continue to worsen, atmospheric rivers create abnormal flooding, and cold snaps blanket our region in ice. We have not done enough to prevent climate change, and now we’re suffering the consequences. By continuously evaluating the latest science and adapting our plans for dealing with climate events, we can minimize the impacts.  

HB 1390 requires owners of state campus district energy systems to develop and submit a decarbonization plan by 2025. These plans would include emission reduction strategies and support electrification efforts.   

HB 1216 The transition to clean energy requires the siting of projects across our great state.  This bill establishes an interagency clean energy siting coordinating council, co-chaired by the Department of Ecology and the Department of Commerce which will work to help streamline permitting while still protecting our environment. 

HB 1047 restricts the manufacture, sale, and distribution of cosmetic products containing toxic chemicals. Last year, the Legislature appropriated $266,000 for the Department of Ecology to study and identify potentially harmful chemicals in cosmetics marketed to or used by people of color. This report found formaldehyde in 26 of 30 body lotions and hair products, toxic amounts of lead in eyeliners and lipsticks, and arsenic in dark-tint makeup powders. All of these chemicals are harmful to human health, and when washed off, pollute our water, environment, and surrounding wildlife. This bill is among the first of its kind in the nation to create widespread protections for consumers, potentially broadly impacting products sold across the country.   

Sunday, January 22nd would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, protecting a woman’s constitutional right to choose. This case affirmed the basic principles of equality, the fundamental right to privacy, and solidified the right people have to their own destinies. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to upend decades of constitutional protections for reproductive care and abortion rights, many state legislatures have banned or restricted access to abortion and gender-affirming care.   

This legislative session, it’s one of our top priorities to expand access to reproductive freedom and ensure that Washington remains a safe haven — for both in- and out-of-state access. We’re keeping abortion available, accessible, and affordable with a package of bills that will stand up against extremists and states looking to take away your rights.

HB 1155 – The My Health, My Data Act would protect the right to reproductive care by blocking websites and apps from collecting and sharing health data. The bill would also prohibit the sale of Washingtonian’s health data, the use of “geofences” to send unsolicited messages to persons at health facilities and would require companies that collect personal health data to create, maintain, and publish a privacy policy for consumer health data.    

HB 1340 – Health care providers are under attack in other states. This bill ensures that Washington’s providers cannot be disciplined in our state because they provide reproductive or gender affirming care in accordance with Washington state law, regardless of where their patients reside.   

HB 1469 – The Shield Law protects patients and providers of reproductive and gender-affirming care in Washington from retribution by other states.   

HB 1286 – Extremists want to punish employers and scare them away from providing support for reproductive health care services. When another state’s laws allow a judgment against an employer for providing support for reproductive care allowed in Washington state, this bill allows the employer to recover damages here in Washington from the people who brought the action or sought to enforce the judgment.   

HB 1263 – The Keep Our Care Act prohibits hospitals from merging if the consolidation diminishes patients’ access to services, including reproductive, end-of-life and gender-affirming care.   

HB 1115 – Patients seeking an abortion may find the cost prohibitive, and no one should be unable to get the reproductive care they need because of an inability to pay. Under this bill, anyone seeking an abortion cannot be required to pay a co-payment or meet their deductible to have their services covered.

Thank you for reading—and thank you so much to those of you who have already shared your feedback. It is an honor to be working for you—please don’t hesitate to send me an email or give me a call at (360) 786-7940.    

Thank you for reading!    

Sincerely,    

Rep. Beth Doglio