Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Welcome to the 2022 Legislative Session! I’m proud to continue to serve as your representative for the 11th Legislative District as we head into another remote session. Just as with last session, we’ll be doing most of our work virtually to help keep the public, staff, and lawmakers safe. Thank you for entrusting me to continue leading in our community throughout this difficult time.
This session, I am focused on championing legislation to increase available affordable housing and ensure tenants rights, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, expand transportation options in our district, and continue to support COVID-19 public health efforts and a robust economic recovery.
I’ll also continue serving as Vice Chair of the House Capital Budget Committee, as well as a member of the House Public Safety and Transportation Committees.
Check out my website and follow me on Facebook to stay up-to-date throughout the session!
Thanks for taking the time to read this update,
Join us for a Mini Town Hall this Saturday!
Now that session is in full swing, I’ll be hosting a mini virtual town hall with Rep. Steve Bergquist on Saturday, January 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. We want to hear from you! If you have any thoughts or concerns you’d like to share, I hope you’ll reach out to sign up for a 15-minute time slot.
Please email david.flasterstein@leg.wa.gov or call 206-490-0914 to schedule a call with us on Zoom or over the phone.
How to Stay Connected
The 2022 Legislative Session is a short 60 days, and it will go fast. Below you’ll find multiple options for staying connected with your Legislature and staying updated on the policies that affect your friends, families, and community.
- Learn—The whole legislative process, from start to finish, is explained at leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Overview.aspx
- Watch—Go to TVW.org for broadcasts of debates, votes, committee meetings, and other events in the House and Senate. There’s also an extensive archive of past events, if you couldn’t watch it live. I can’t recommend enough TVW’s “Legislative Review” – a 15-minute overview (30-minute on Fridays) of what happened each day of session. It’s a quick and easy way to learn how the legislature works and you can stream or download it on your mobile device!
- Research—To look up legislation by lawmaker or topic, visit app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/
- Testify—The 2021 session proved that remote testimony is a great way for everyone to have a chance to share their voice. The remote committee testimony system will continue to be in use for all testimony for all bills.
A more comprehensive guide is available on the legislative website.
Tell us how to change Washington state’s tax code!
For the last few years, the Tax Structure Work Group (TSWG) has aimed to identify options to make the Washington State tax code more fair, adequate, stable, and transparent for both individuals and businesses. After conducting extensive analyses of Washington’s current tax structure, as well as modeling many possible scenarios for updating the code, the TSWG wants to hear your thoughts!
Provide your feedback on ideas for changing Washington’s taxes by completing the TSWG survey before the January 31 deadline. These are just ideas at this point – the Work Group has not developed policies or bills yet. Depending on how much time you have, I encourage you to fill out either the short (takes approximately 5 minutes) or long (takes approximately 30 minutes) version of the survey. There are also multilingual surveys available in Spanish (Español), Vietnamese (tiếng Việt), Korean (한국어), Traditional Chinese (正體字), Simplified Chinese (简化字) and Russian (русский). Thank you in advance for helping to shape the future of taxes in our state.