Dear friends and neighbors,
We’re wrapping up week seven of this year’s legislative session, which means we’re in cutoff season (more on that below), and earlier this week we celebrated Children’s Day on the House floor. This job can require you spend a lot of time away from your family and loved ones. Children’s Day is an opportunity for legislators to bring their kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews to campus and show them what we do.
This year I was happy to have Felix and Zachary join me up at the rostrum. They helped me manage a raucous House floor debate on a bill to make the Suciasaurus Rex the Washington State Dinosaur (it passed with wide support).
More on cutoffs – Before they can become law, bills must be heard in committee (and sometimes multiple committees), voted off the House or Senate floor, and then go through the same process in the other chamber.
To organize our time in Olympia, we establish some cutoffs for bills to make it through certain steps in the process. Last Friday was Policy Cutoff, the deadline for bills to make it out of their policy committees. Tomorrow is Fiscal Cutoff, the deadline for bills with a fiscal impact to make it out of budgetary committees.
Next week we’re focused on floor action so that we can pass bills out of the House and send them to the Senate by the House of Origin Cutoff on March 8th.
We’ve already passed a number of bills off the House floor (we’re up to 65, with 53 passed unanimously), including several bills to help address workforce shortages in sectors throughout our state, such as:
- HB 1009 to streamline licensing for military spouses to help keep workers in critical fields and support military families
- HB 1287 to streamline licensing for dental hygienists already licensed in another state or Canada
- HB 1015 to streamline the assessment and emergency certification of paraeducators
We’ve got much more on the way; my next e-newsletter will provide an update of what passed the House during floor action.
Last week I joined a celebration marking the 11th anniversary of marriage equality in Washington state. The Secretary of State’s office is commemorating the event with a new exhibit – Love, Equally – which talks about the path to marriage equality.
It is remarkable to think about the progress we’ve made in my lifetime on this. When I first came out in my early 20s I couldn’t imagine that marriage was a possibility for me; to go from that to marriage equality by my early 40s is pretty incredible. You can watch the whole celebration here (or my remarks here) and learn more about the exhibit.
 Meet the Team!
Each year I like to introduce constituents to the smart, amazing folks who serve our district by supporting me in my legislative work. I could not do this job well without them. I’m supported in the Speaker’s Office this session by: Faith (she/her), who is my Executive Legislative Assistant. Faith graduated with a bachelor’s in Political Science from Eastern Washington University and is pursuing law school in the fall. She lives in Tacoma and enjoys long distance cycling in the summers, artistic endeavors, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Stefanie (she/her), our newest legislative assistant in the Speaker’s Office who is a lifelong Tacoman and a graduate of Arizona State University. Stefanie loves walking her dogs at Point Defiance Park and exploring all the art, culture, food, and nature that the 27th District has to offer. She spent over 10 years working at a coffee shop in Tacoma and has probably already served many of you. Sammi (she/her), who is my Session Aide this year. Sammi grew up in Olympia, attended college in Bellingham, and after a brief stint in Seattle is now back in Olympia. She has a background in both mathematics and fashion merchandising, but decided to dip her toes into the legislative world. Kaiden (they/he), who is my legislative intern and attends the University of Washington with a major in political science and a double minor in environmental studies and urban design & planning. |