Dear friends and neighbors,
As hard as it is to believe, we’re halfway through this year’s legislative session! This week we started full-time action on the House floor. We wanted to take a moment to share a quick update as we get into some of the busiest days of session.
A Note from Emily
Washington has consistently upheld the right for individuals to make their own reproductive health choices and we will not go back. This week, the House passed bills to protect patients and providers here in Washington from hostile actions by other states (HB 1469) and ensure Washington providers cannot be disciplined for providing reproductive & gender-affirming care to their patients, regardless of where their patients reside (HB 1340) The Senate also passed SB 5242 to prohibit co-pays and deductible requirements for anyone seeking an abortion. Reproductive care must be accessible, available, and affordable here in Washington!
I also sponsored two bills this year as part of a broader movement to remove harmful policies from our social welfare, anti-poverty, and public benefit programs. Washington residents deserve to have their basic needs met. That’s the point of our state’s benefits programs. But too often, we’ve seen these programs balance their budgets on the backs of our most vulnerable.
House Bill 1260 will block the state from clawing back Aged, Blind and Disabled (ABD) benefits from those who begin to receive assistance through SSI. The House passed this bill this week! Watch my floor speech by clicking here.
House Bill 1405 will prohibit the state from garnishing federal disability, survivor, veteran’s or other benefits from our children in foster care. Watch my committee testimony by clicking here.
Be sure to follow me on my official Facebook page for more on these bills and other updates!
A Note from Joe
In our last newsletter I talked about some of our caucus priorities for this session, and I’m happy to say that we’re making progress on all fronts. This week kicked off full-time floor action, and we’re working our way through as much priority legislation as we can before the March 8th cutoff.
We’ve already voted over 170 bills off the House floor, 114 of which passed unanimously. Rep. Alvarado mentioned some of the critical bills we’ve passed to protect reproductive and gender-affirming care. We’ve also focused on housing and workforce development, sending the Senate bills to:
- Help make childcare more accessible by ensuring licensed providers can operate in more communities (HB 1199)
- Expand access to low-income housing developed through public-private partnerships (HB 1046)
- Streamline licensing for counselors already certified in other states, growing our counseling workforce (HB 1069)
- Allow municipalities to waive utility connection fees when developing affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, emergency shelter, or transitional housing (HB 1326)
- Streamline assessment and emergency certification for paraeducators (HB 1015)
- Ensure that common interest communities like HOAs can’t stop you from sharing your home (HB 1054)
Join us for a 34th District town hall!
You’re invited to join your 34th District lawmakers for a virtual town hall! We’ll be live streaming on Facebook with Sen. Joe Nguyễn on Tuesday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m. You don’t need an account to watch the stream. Be sure to save the date and submit your questions ahead of time by clicking here.
Sen. Nguyễn: https://www.facebook.com/SenJoeNguyen
Rep. Fitzgibbon: https://www.facebook.com/RepJoeFitzgibbon
Rep. Alvarado: https://www.facebook.com/RepEmilyAlvarado
Thanks for reading!
– Emily and Joe
