 Dear friends and neighbors,
Earlier this week we kicked off the 2024 Legislative Session! Our legislature works on a biennial/two-year calendar, and we alternate between short sessions (60 days) and long sessions (105 days). This is a short session, and the second year of the biennium. One of the neat things about the second year of a biennial system is that bills we were unable to get to last session are automatically up for consideration again this year. Because of that, we’ve been able to get right to work and pass bills off the floor starting day 1, I’ll highlight some of those bills later in this newsletter. The first day of session also brings with it a host of ceremonial activities and long-time traditions. Monday morning I talked with Mike McClanahan at TVW about our goals for this session, you can watch that interview here. As Speaker of the House, I also have the privilege of doing the opening address on the first day of session, during those remarks I got into more detail about the work we’ll be doing over the next 60 days. You can read those remarks or watch them here. I’m optimistic and determined about this session. The people of Washington state expect us to work together and get things done, and I’m ready to do that. As we’re looking at the issues we need to address this session it’s clear how connected everything is, housing and behavioral health, child care and our workforce, the climate and our economy. Our challenges don’t exist in silos, and we cannot solve them in silos. For the next 60 days we’ll be pushing hard to make positive change for people across our state, and I’ll keep you posted on our work. |
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Short sessions go by quickly, but we’re committed to using every second we can to help make our state a better place. That’s why we had legislation ready for a vote on the floor starting day 1. We know the threat that climate change poses, so we passed legislation to help our local jurisdictions respond to extreme weather events (HB 1012). We know that the housing crisis is deeply impacting people across our state, so we made it easier to build more housing (HB 1245). We know that we have to protect kids from abuse, exploitation, and trafficking, so we passed legislation prohibiting marriage for minors under 18 years old (HB 1455). There’s lots of work to do, and much more to come over the next 55 days.