Friends and neighbors,
Thank you to everyone who joined Rep. Pollet, Senator Valdez, and I on January 3rd at Nathan Hale High School for our 2024 pre-session town hall. I sincerely appreciated being able to answer your questions regarding education, behavioral health, homelessness, and other issues.
Now, it’s with great enthusiasm that I extend a warm welcome to the 2024 legislative session! Are you ready for photos of all my funny speaking faces? Ready or not, here they come! Beginning on January 8th, your citizen and part-time legislature has 60 days to address existing community challenges, confront new issues, and approve this year’s supplementary budgets. Before we dive into the issues I’ll be working on this year, I’d like to reiterate the collective eagerness in Olympia to address the intersectionality of policies more meaningfully, and the immense progress we can achieve in this short time together.
Thanks For Sharing What Matters to You
Since the end of the 2023 legislative session, it’s been an honor to spend time with community partners and our neighbors to understand the issues more deeply you’re facing. I also sent out legislative priorities survey the last few months to provide another avenue to directly hear from you. I am proud to share that over 320 people shared their thoughts. Thank you!
From housing affordability to consumer safety, your priorities are my roadmap regarding the issues I’ll be championing this year. As session gets underway, I look forward to sharing more notable and meaningful legislation I am supporting to make progress for you and our community! For now, here are some of the bills I’ve already introduced and am supporting this year!
- House Bill 1882: Giving cities and towns the freedom to switch their general elections to even-numbered years.
- House Bill 1994: Concerning judicial dismissal of a misdemeanor following completion of court-ordered conditions.
- House Bill 2054: Reducing gun trafficking and violence caused by bulk firearm purchases/transfers.
- House Bill 2072: Adjusting penalties relating to antitrust actions.
- House Bill 2099: Addressing state identification cards for persons in state custody or care.
- House Bill 2100: Reducing the impacts of mass layoffs.
- House Bill 2192: Celebrating national voter registration day.
- House Bill 2279: Concerning utilization of developmental disabilities waivers.
- House Bill 2287: Creating an advisory board to the office of the corrections ombuds.
Continuing to Stay Engaged
Watch — TVW.org broadcasts all debates and votes that happen in the House or Senate, as well as all committee meetings in both chambers.
Testify — Go here for an overview of the process, here for instructions on how to testify remotely, and here to sign in for hearings in the House or Senate.
Research — Look up any bill by number, lawmaker, or topic here. To learn about the entire legislative process, click here. You can search for the daily agenda for each committee here. Just select the committee you’re interested in, and you can find out which members are assigned to that committee, review upcoming agendas and documents, as well as past reports and hearings.
Stay Informed — Visit my website and sign up for the Hot Sheet, a weekly guide to what the House Democratic Caucus is working on in Olympia. The Hot Sheet compiles many of the legislative priorities scheduled for a hearing or a vote on each day, so it’s a great snapshot of what is happening each week.
Get in Touch — You can always reach my office by email or phone; my contact information is included in the bottom of this email.
In service,
Darya Farivar
WA State Representative
46th Legislative District
Pronouns: she/her/hers