Good afternoon to you all and I hope you had a good week. It has been busy in Olympia the last few weeks because of a looming deadline: Policy cutoff. Today is the day when bills must pass through their first assigned committees or else they will no longer be considered and have to wait until next year for another chance at passage. After policy cutoff comes Fiscal cutoff, then House of Origin cutoff. Getting through the process often means a lot of negotiating, some compromises, and amendments to get a bill into the shape it needs to be for final passage out of the House. Most of my bills have survived this first step and I will continue working on getting them passed.
Celebrating Children’s Day and President’s Day
President’s Day is a special holiday in the Legislature. Because we have only 105 days to complete our work, we do not take the holiday off. However, while we are still doing the people’s work in the House, we do manage to take some time and invite our families onto the floor with us. It is a wonderful tradition and a welcome moment with our families during the hectic legislative session.
Because it is President’s Day, we also adopted a resolution honoring past presidents and their contributions to our country. I find it is always valuable to take a moment and think about the past, good and bad, as we make decisions that affect the future. You can read the resolution the House adopted by clicking here.
Black History Month
February is Black History Month and to celebrate, the House adopted a resolution to honor the history and contribution of black Americans. The resolution was prepared by my colleague Rep. Melanie Morgan and you can read it online here.
Earlier this year, I joined with the other four black members of the Legislature to create the first Black Caucus. Our goal is to help talk about issues of equity, race, and inclusion. We sat down to have a discussion about what it is like to be in the Legislature. Take a look at the video below:
Bill status update
As I mentioned earlier, many of my bills made it through the crucial policy cutoff process. That does not mean they will become law, but they are still moving through the process, which is important. Below I have listed which bills are still moving.
- Supporting community and technical college students (HB 1893): This bill provides grants to community and technical college students to help alleviate hardships and keep students in class when dealing with financial stress due to an unexpected burden. This bill passed out of the College & Workforce Development Committee on February 20.
- Removing barriers to attending college (HB 1715): Students sometimes leave high school with fees owed and, while their schools can pursue collection of those fees like any other organization, they can also withhold transcripts, keeping the graduating senior from going on to further their education. While everyone should pay their debts, we should not stop our children from getting a degree because of late fines. This bill eases those restrictions and offers a better path and was approved by the Education Committee on February 19.
- Granting high school diplomas to students who earn an associate degree (HB 1714): Sometimes a student takes a slightly different path to earn their degree. I know that is true, because I was a non-traditional student. Some non-traditional students face barriers in life, such as unstable housing, but they persevere and earn their associate degree through a Running Start program. If they are under 21 when they do that, they do not get a high school diploma. This bill corrects that issue and allows these incredible students to receive both their associate degree and high school diploma once they have earned it, even if they are between the ages of 16 and 20.
I still have two bills in the Finance Committee, the Working Families Tax Credit and a bill to help manufacturing and warehousing jobs in our area (HB 1948). Those have more time to move forward and I’m continuing to work on those. I will let you know more about their fate next time.
Thank you for taking the time to catch up on this legislation. I hope you find it valuable and if you have questions or thought, please contact my office.
Debra