Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week, we reached another milestone in the legislative process: Opposite House Cutoff. This is the cutoff date to pass bills that originated from the other chamber. Anything that didn’t pass, aside from bills related to our budgets, will have to try again next year. Now, we’re moving into the final days of the session. Bills are already being signed into the law by the Governor while lawmakers are negotiating on a few others.

Here are a few fun facts about the legislative process:

• If a House bill gets changed while it’s in the Senate (through amendments in committee or on the floor), the original sponsor can either accept the changes or request a conference committee where members of each house meet to try and reach an agreement. If they concur on the changes, the bill heads to the Governor’s office. If they can’t agree, the bill dies.
• The Governor can choose to sign a bill into law or to veto all or part of the bill, but action must be taken within 5 days if the legislature is in session or within 20 days during interim; otherwise it will become law without the Governor’s signature.
• If the Governor vetoes a bill, the House and Senate can vote to override the veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

 

 

 

Join Our Community Issues Catalog!

This year, the House Democratic Caucus is rolling out our Community Issues Catalog! What does that mean?

If you’re an individual, community organization, non-profit, or for-profit business with experience in a particular issue area, and you want to be involved in developing legislation, we’re asking for you to share your contact information to make it easier to work with you!

I know the people who are affected by the work we do in Olympia don’t always have a seat at the table when decisions are being made. This will hopefully make it easier for my colleagues and me to include everyone affected when we’re working on a bill idea.

There are options to select areas of expertise (that overlap with our legislative committees) and to talk about the mission and goals of your organization (or your own personal advocacy). Please feel free to share this with others who might not get these emails but should be included!

 

A Page in My Office!

It was a pleasure to sponsor Aditi Karthikeyan as a page in the House of Representatives last week! Aditi, a student at Redmond High School, brought curiosity, thoughtfulness, and great energy to her time at the Capitol.

From presenting the flags to delivering messages across the House floor, Aditi jumped right into the fast-paced work of the Legislature. I was especially impressed by her engagement in our civics program—drafting her own bill and participating in mock committee hearings with insight and enthusiasm.

Thank you, Aditi, for your service and for representing Redmond with such poise and professionalism. I have no doubt you have a bright future ahead!

More about the Page program here.

Building Homes Building Hope

Our state is more than 250,000 units short of meeting its housing needs and Washington must build one million homes over the next 20 years to meet the growing demand. We know that we need to reduce unnecessary barriers to help our state construct new units.

And we have been hard at working doing just that. In the past seven years we’ve passed nearly 30 bills aimed and reducing red tape, expanding available housing options, using existing spaces, and incentivizing construction. This year we, have 12 bills still working their way through the process, including tax incentives for housing, encouraging construction around transit hubs, simplifying the process for getting approval for building condominiums, and ensuring that parking requirements aren’t an undue burden for housing construction.

You can see what the Housing Committee has accomplished by clicking the graphic below, or by going to: tinyurl.com/buildbetterwa

 

What’s Next?

We are rapidly closing in on the end of the session. In the coming weeks you can expect a survey of the key bills I sponsored, a wrap-up on the budgets, and how the work of the Legislature is benefitting you in the 45^th District. I’ll also share more about what happens after the session ends and how we will stay connected during the interim.

Keep an eye out for my next legislative update!

All best wishes,

Rep. Roger Goodman