Dear friends and neighbors,
The 2024 Legislative Session got underway on Monday, January 8. This is a short session year lasting just 60 days, with our work here wrapping up on March 7. I am proud to continue my work as Chair of the House Transportation Committee, as well as serving as a member on the Environment and Energy Committee.
In addition to topics pertaining to transportation and energy and the environment, I also work on other bills. Before session started, I introduced a bill (House Bill 1900) to implement strategies to achieve higher recycling rates within Washington’s existing solid waste management system. On the first day of session, the Seattle Times came out in support of my bill with this editorial. Public testimony was heard on this bill in the House Environment & Energy Committee on January 11, which you can watch on TVW here. I’ll be certain to keep you updated as this bill moves along.
Top Priorities with the State’s Transportation Budget
The state of our ferries and highways have been in the news quite a bit during the interim, and my fellow lawmakers and I have our work cut out for us once again as we address increasing construction costs for our ferries, roads, and vital transportation projects. Washington is unfortunately experiencing unexpected cost overruns on many transportation projects—including new vessels for our state’s iconic ferry system, new highway projects and maintenance of our roadways, and corrections to barriers that impede fish passage, a federal mandate for the state. In addition to the challenges with our ferries and roads, we are also still working on finding an appropriate vendor to build our new ferries, as well as dealing with worker shortages to build and fix our roadways. The video below explains a lot of the challenges we’ll be facing over the next couple of months.
How To Get Involved
I encourage you to get involved in this year’s session and consider testifying on bills that are important to you. The graphic below depicts just how you can be a part of the lawmaking process.
Stay in Touch!
I’d love to hear from you on issues that are important to you. Please reach out to my office at any time. My executive legislative assistant is Noelle Kappert and it is her friendly voice you first hear when you call my office. She is also normally your first point of contact when you try to reach me by email. You can also stay up to date with my activities during session through my e-newsletter updates and my legislative Facebook page.
Sincerely,
