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Legislative Update: Goodbye … For Now
 Dear friends and neighbors,
Long-time readers of these e-newsletters will remember that during election years there are increased restrictions on official legislative communications. This includes e-newsletters, social media accounts like my official Facebook, my legislative website, and other similar communications tools. The rules are designed to help foster fair elections, ensuring that incumbents can’t use public resources for campaign purposes. These increased restrictions are in place starting Monday, May 4th, and continue until the general election results are certified this fall. While I won’t be sending out e-newsletters or posting on social media, you are still welcome to reach out to our office whether it’s to raise concerns about a topic or to get help accessing state resources. I’m still able to respond to your messages and our office can help you get the support you need. And while I can’t post on my individual Facebook account, the official House Democratic Caucus accounts will continue to be able to post on Facebook or Instagram. Before I sign off, I did want to mention a few final things: Keep an eye on your mailbox this week for a session wrap-up that I sent out with Sen. Trudeau and Rep. Fey – you can also read it online here. Over my last few e-newsletters I’ve talked about protecting Washingtonians and our affordability work this session, but I wanted to pass along another resource to learn more about our work: That’s all for now, but keep an eye out for these newsletters to pick back up in December. As always, it’s a privilege to serve you in the Legislature and I’m continuously grateful for the opportunity you all have given me. Thank you. |
Legislative Update: Protecting Washingtonians
Dear friends and neighbors,
In my last e-newsletter I talked about the work we did to help make Washington more affordable. This week I want to talk about one of our other biggest priorities this year: protecting Washingtonians.
Over the last year the federal government has taken an increasingly hostile approach towards many of the people in our state. From violent and inhumane immigration enforcement, to targeting the LGBTQ+ community, people are scared. That’s why this year we focused on what we could do to protect our constituents and our values.
The Immigrant Worker Protection Act strengthens protection for immigrant workers, limiting the voluntary sharing of worker records without proper legal process, requiring employers to notify workers when federal audits are scheduled, and prohibiting retaliation for workers who assert their rights.
My seatmate, Sen. Trudeau, sponsored SB 6002 to put guardrails on the data gathered from automated license plate readers like Flock cameras to ensure they aren’t used for immigration enforcement. We also passed legislation requiring law enforcement officers to be unmasked and clearly identifiable, something our state officers are already doing to help build trust in the community. When federal officers, like ICE agents, cover their face to hide their identity, it erodes trust, enables abuse, and violates basic principles of transparency and accountability.
We also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement impersonation. With federal agents wearing masks to hide their identity, it’s easier than ever for bad actors to take advantage of the system with deadly results, as in the case of the assassination of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman.
Attorney General Nick Brown has done excellent work to protect youth gender-affirming care in our state – and just this week secured a federal court order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to threaten healthcare providers for doing their jobs. We also know that for transgender people in our state, having correct documentation is critical. Until this year, the documents involved in changing a sex identity marker could be released as a public record. This has been used to harass and out transgender people. That’s unacceptable. Thanks to SB 6081, sensitive personal information like that is no longer disclosable, helping to protect the safety and privacy of transgender people in our state.
There is only so much we can do at the state level to protect our communities and our Washington way of life, but I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish.
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I also wanted to pass along some information about an event – the Pierce County Planning and Public Works Department is putting on the 15th Annual Pierce County Bike Swap on Saturday, April 25 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Tacoma Community College, parking lot A.
Our transportation budget this biennium has invested more than ever in multi-modal transit, helping people safely get where they’re going whether it’s by foot, by bike, or by bus. These investments help reduce our emissions and they support people making the transportation choices that are right for them and their families. Included in these investments are the e-bike rebate program that helps makes e-bikes more affordable for people across the state.
As e-bikes become more common we also need to ensure that there are clear definitions in the law to make sure riders, law enforcement, and manufacturers understand how they can operate. That’s why we passed SB 6110 this year to support safer use of e-bikes as a flexible, low-emission way to get around.
Legislative Update: Affordability
Dear friends and neighbors,
Now that session has ended (and spring weather has arrived, at least for now), I wanted to share more about some of the work we were able to get done this session. One of our biggest priorities this year was affordability. I talked about one of the biggest affordability wins in my last e-newsletter, the Millionaires Tax, which will eliminate sales tax on diapers, over-the-counter medications, and hygiene products, meaning nearly every item you purchase at the grocery store will be tax free starting in 2029. It also expands the Working Families Tax Credit to 460,000 additional Washingtonians, provides dedicated funding for childcare for low-income families, and will pay for free school meals for all students in Washington public schools (all starting in 2029 when the revenue starts to come in).
That’s a landmark investment in our working families, but it’s far from the only thing we did. We also expanded access to energy assistance for low-income families across the state to help pay for their energy bills. We expanded our property tax exemptions so that more seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities are paying less in taxes. We helped to preserve access to preventive care like vaccines or routine cancer screenings, ensuring that out-of-pocket costs won’t go up for these services.
We banned non-compete agreements so that workers have control over when they leave their job and what they do next. We strengthened our states wage theft enforcement so that workers are getting paid what they’re owed. We made sure that when a grocery store leaves a location a new grocery store isn’t prohibited from opening in the same place – maintaining competition and access to food for impacted communities across the state.
We’re making it cheaper to build condominiums by changing burdensome insurance requirements. We’re also making it more affordable to build high- and mid-rise apartments by allowing scissor stairs to save space and reduce construction costs. We’re making it easier for religious organizations to build affordable housing on unused land. We’re making it more affordable to upgrade the energy efficiency of your home or rental by allowing the utility to front the cost so that you can pay it back over time.
There’s only so much that we can do at the state level to combat the effects of inflation, of tariffs, and other incredibly reckless policy decisions from the federal government that are hitting Washingtonians. We worked hard this year to help bring down costs at the grocery store, to bring down the cost of housing or heating your home, to bring down costs to access healthcare. I’m proud of what we were able to get done, and I know the work will continue.
Legislative Update: Sine Die and the Millionaires Tax
Dear friends and neighbors,
Last week marked the end of this year’s 60-day legislative session. It went by quickly, but I’m extremely proud of the work we were able to get done. We passed 268 bills this session, and over 60% of those received strong bipartisan support. I’ll be talking more about what we were able to do over the next few weeks, particularly what we did to make Washington more affordable and to protect Washingtonians from federal overreach.
For now – we were able to pass an operating budget that protected investments in our most vulnerable communities. I also wanted to give an update on some of the bills I’ve mentioned over the last 60 days that have passed the legislature and are either waiting to be signed by the governor or have already been signed into law!
- HB 2228, which will make it cheaper to build more housing and expand the amount of housing that can fit on a lot by allowing different stair types
- HB 1155, which will ban non-compete agreements, giving people flexibility to make the decisions that are best for them and their family instead of being governed by a previous employer
- HB 2338, which will make it easier for our state’s weatherization program to serve community-scaled projects. This will bring down costs for the state, helping us serve more people by reducing energy costs for families and ensuring safe, healthy housing for more Washingtonians
- HB 2242 which will help preserve access to vaccines with no out-of-pocket costs
- HB 2294 would ensure that if a grocery store closes a new grocery store isn’t prohibited from opening in the same location, keeping food access for communities and encouraging competition
- HB 2296 would allow balcony solar panels, particularly helpful for renters, to give people more options for energy independence
Now that session is over, I’m glad to be spending my time back in district. More soon on the other work we were able to accomplish!
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One other incredibly big thing we were able to get done this session was passing the Millionaires Tax. I mentioned in my last e-newsletter that this is a tax of 9.9% on household incomes over $1 million, with the proceeds funding K-12 education, healthcare, and higher education. This legislation also drastically expands the Working Families Tax Credit, eliminates the Business and Occupation tax for nearly 60% of small businesses, pays for free school meals for all Washington students, and eliminates sales taxes on grocery items like diapers, hygiene products, and over-the-counter drugs.
Our current tax code asks low-income Washingtonians to pay nearly 4x more in taxes than the wealthiest among us, relative to income. This legislation will help make our tax code more fair and bring our state into the 21st century.
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The Washington State Office of Independent Investigations (OII) is holding two community meetings as they are preparing to expand their operations into Pierce County. Come meet OII staff and learn more about how the agency operates and upholds it’s mission to conduct fair, thorough, transparent, and competent investigations into law enforcement use of deadly force incidents.
In-person open house
- When: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Thursday, April 02, 2026
- Where: Tacoma Mall Office Building, 4301 S. Pine St., Suite 200
Virtual community meeting
- When: 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 09, 2026
- Where: Register via Zoom here at Region 2 – Pierce, Community Meeting
- Note – Meeting link will be provided after registration.
Legislative Update: Budgets, the Millionaires Tax, and a Town Hall Update
 Dear friends and neighbors,
I want to start by thanking everyone who came to our 27th district town hall on Saturday! It was great to connect with so many of you and hear from you about your priorities as we head into the last few weeks of this session. There were a number of questions we didn’t get to, but I’m hoping to cover some of those later in this e-newsletter and more in coming weeks. We’ve got 14 days left in this year’s legislative session and lots of important work to get through, including passing our budgets and making progress on our regressive, out-of-date tax code. |
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This week we rolled out our House Supplemental Operating Budget proposal. What does that mean? Last year we wrote our budget for the biennium (two-year cycle), this year we’re making changes to that budget to reflect current revenue and needs for our state. These supplemental budgets are usually small changes to the budget from last year and don’t include significant new investments.
That’s even more true this year – we’re still facing rising costs as a state because of the Trump Administration’s tariffs and inflation, and on top of that we’re going to have to pay more in administrative costs to get less money from the federal government thanks to H.R. 1 passed by Republicans in Congress last year. And we’re doing all of this with a 90-year-old tax code that simply cannot meet the needs of our state. With that in mind we prioritized food, shelter, and health in this year’s budget.
 During the pandemic we were able to expand access to food assistance for families that need it most, and one of the most important things we did in the budget this year is protect that funding. That includes covering the cost for the 30,000 people that H.R. 1 kicked off of federal food assistance who are now covered by the state instead. One of the questions we couldn’t get to at the town hall was about restoring funding for reproductive health (asked by Laura) and we were able to restore that funding, too. Kerri asked about preserving tenant right to counsel funding and I’m proud to say that we maintained that funding at current levels, too.
That said, we did have to make cuts. That’s made harder by the fact that we combed the budget for any possible reductions last year, so the options we had left this year were all painful. We’ve had to cancel planned expansions of the Working Connections Child Care program and establish a new attendance program to right-size funding to childcare providers based on how often a child receives care. While we were able to add 2,000 more ECEAP slots thanks to a grant from the Ballmer Group, these cuts are still incredibly hard to stomach, and I’m hopeful that in better budget years we’ll be able to restore these programs. I mentioned that we’ll have to pay more to get less from the federal government thanks to H.R. 1. That price tag is more than $500 million over four years. This allows us to maintain services in some areas (food assistance), but in others it will only cover a portion of the people previously served by the federal government. We’re doing as much as we can to protect Washingtonians from the devastating impact of H.R. 1, but we simply don’t have the resources to backfill the services abandoned by Republicans in Congress. |
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I mentioned that our 90-year-old tax code simply cannot meet the needs of our state. Our current tax code asks low-income Washingtonians to pay nearly 4x more in taxes than the wealthiest among us, relative to income. We need to do better.
That’s why I’m supporting a millionaires tax – a 9.9% income tax on households making more than a million dollars a year. The tax only applies to anything after one million dollars and doesn’t include assets like houses, investments, or personal property. Only about 209 households in the 27th Legislative district would pay the tax.
This funding would go towards K-12 education, healthcare, and higher education. And the proposal also significantly reshapes our tax code by expanding the Working Families Tax Credit – both increasing the credit and expanding who qualifies, by expanding tax credits for small businesses (by enough that many small businesses would no longer pay the Business and Occupation Tax), and removing the sales tax for grooming and hygiene products (such a soap and shampoo). This proposal is still working its way through the legislature and I expect that we’ll see additional changes to our regressive tax code by the time it passes off the House floor.
Join us for a Town Hall Tomorrow, February 21st
Dear friends and neighbors,
Please join Sen. Trudeau, Rep. Fey, and I for a town hall tomorrow (Saturday, February 21st) from 10AM-12PM!
We’ll be at the Stadium High School Auditorium (111 N E St. Tacoma, WA 98403). If you’re taking public transit, it’s accessible from the Sound Transit Light Rail and the 11 and 16 bus line.
Come ask questions and get an update on our work this session! You can also submit your questions in advance here, and share the event on Facebook here.
Hope to see you tomorrow,
Legislative Update: Cutoffs, a Town Hall, & SEAHAWKS
Dear friends and neighbors,
Earlier this week we officially crossed the halfway point for this session and we’ve also passed our first two deadlines for this year! Nearly every bill proposed in the legislature goes through a policy committee focused on topic, and if it has a financial impact, it must go through a fiscal committee, too. We set deadlines every year for bills to get through these committees to keep our work moving, last week was policy cutoff and Monday was the financial committee cutoff. That means this week we’ve been on the House floor to pass bills like:
- HB 2228, which will make it cheaper to build more housing and expand the amount of housing that can fit on a lot by allowing different stair types
- HB 1155, which will ban non-compete agreements, giving people flexibility to make the decisions that are best for them and their family instead of being governed by a previous employer
- HB 2338, which will make it easier for our state’s weatherization program to serve community-scaled projects. This will bring down costs for the state, helping us serve more people by reducing energy costs for families and ensuring safe, healthy housing for more Washingtonians
We have until next Tuesday, February 17th to pass bills off the House floor, then we’ll return to committee to hear the bills sent over from the Senate.
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Please join Sen. Trudeau, Rep. Fey, and I for a town hall on Saturday, February 21st from 10AM-12PM! We’ll be at the Stadium High School Auditorium (111 N E St. Tacoma, WA 98403). If you’re taking public transit, it’s accessible from the Sound Transit Light Rail and the 11 and 16 bus line.
Come ask questions and get an update on our work this session! You can also submit your questions in advance here, and share the event on Facebook here.
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I also can’t wrap up this newsletter without a hearty “go Hawks”! The Senate Majority Leader and I made a friendly wager with the Massachusetts Speaker of the House and Senate President- looks like they’ll be sending us some lobster!
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Legislative Update: Affordability and Federal Response
Dear friends and neighbors,
We’re just wrapping up the third week of this year’s legislative session. It’s a short session this year, only 60 days, and it’s going by quickly. I’ll cover some of the work we’re doing to make our state more affordable below, but first I want to talk about what our state is doing to protect our residents in light of what’s happening in Minnesota and across our country.
Earlier this week Governor Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown held a press conference to talk about what they’re doing to protect the residents of our state. Additionally, we’re working on a host of legislation this year to help protect Washingtonians:
- Prohibiting law enforcement officers, including all federal law enforcement, from wearing facial coverings (SB 5972)
- Regulating the use of license plate cameras that share information with immigration enforcement (SB 6002)
- Prohibiting ICE from entering schools, daycares, hospitals, and more without a warrant (SB 5906)
- Protecting workers by requiring notification of federal inspections and prohibiting voluntary information sharing (HB 2105)
There’s more than I can list here, but I’ll continue to talk about our work in coming e-newsletters. I am incredibly disturbed by the deaths of Keith Porter, Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti and the at least 40 other people who have died at the hands of ICE or Border Patrol agents, or in ICE custody over the last year. The House Democratic Caucus in Washington state is committed to doing everything we can to protect the people of our state.
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 Our work on affordability is another of our highest priorities this year. Families are still feeling the pressure from inflation and the Trump Administration’s tariffs are only increasing that pressure. As the most trade-dependent state in the country that is only even more true here in Washington. We’re working on a number of bills this year that I’m hopeful will help. Some highlights include:
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I also want to highlight that my podcast, The Speaker’s Scoop, is back this session. The episodes are short, almost always under 5 minutes, and talk about what’s going on that week in the legislature. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed here.
Legislative Update: Kicking off the 2026 Legislative Session
 Dear friends and neighbors,
This Monday marked the beginning of the 2026 Legislative Session! Representatives and Senators from across the state have gathered in Olympia and for the next 56 days we’ll be hard at work passing laws and writing the budget. Because it’s a short session, we’re off to a fast start. As Speaker of the House, on Monday I had the privilege of giving remarks during our opening ceremonies. I talked about goals for this session, how we need to be laser-focused on the job the people sent us here to do – protect the good things we have accomplished together, continue to make progress where we can, and reject bad things whether they come from this Washington or the other Washington. I talked about the impact that HR 1, the Trump Republican bill passed by Congress last July, has had on our state; how nearly 300,000 Washingtonians are seeing an immediate spike in their health insurance premiums, how around 180,000 Washingtonians will lose their Medicaid coverage over the next several months through 2027. I talked about the work we have done at the state level to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyone, and how that work is put at risk by these cuts. I talked about how food assistance is currently threatened for 900,000 Washingtonians. I talked about the risk that immigrants, refugees, and communities of color are facing. I talked about Renee Nicole Good and former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. I talked about how masked ICE agents or people impersonating law enforcement are rapidly eroding public trust, and legislation that will prohibit law enforcement officers — including federal immigration agents operating in Washington — from wearing face-concealing masks while interacting with the public. Protecting Washingtonians also means protecting your personal data. Surveillance tools like FLOCK cameras, which are already in use by some cities and counties in our state, should be regulated so that people can be confident the data is not shared with federal agencies that want to use it to target and harass communities. While our work is made harder this year by a federal government that is asking states to pay more in administration costs to get less federal funding, we’re still doing everything we can to help Washingtonians. We can protect access to preventive health care services without out-of-pocket expense for patients. We can make it easier to build more housing and make housing more affordable. We can and should rebalance our tax code so that it doesn’t rest on those who can least afford it. We’ve got 56 more days; I’ll be hard at work every single one of them. |
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For those who couldn’t attend in-person, I wanted to share the video from the 2026 Legislative Preview hosted by the University of Puget Sound last week!
If you’re looking for more session preview options I was also able to join a panel last week to talk about our work this session, and on Monday I sat down with TVW to talk about our goals for this year.
Photo credit: Alex Crook / University of Puget Sound
Legislative Update: Flood Assistance
 Dear friends and neighbors,
I’m reaching out with some resources as our state faces devastating and historic levels of flooding. The Governor updated his emergency proclamation earlier this week to help ensure resources are available to our communities as we address this ongoing crisis. That said, we will need far more to recover from this natural disaster. I am working with colleagues across the aisle to request adequate funding from FEMA, and I know that disaster recovery will be a focus for our budget team this session. In the meantime, I wanted to share some important resources for Pierce County residents. First, you can sign up for emergency updates here (PCAlert allows you to identify multiple locations, like your home, school, or place of work so you can keep updated on everything with one sign-up). Pierce County-specific flood resources are available here, and you can learn more about disaster recovery for individuals and businesses here. Please stay safe, follow road closure signs, and listen to the advice of emergency personnel. We’re unfortunately not through this stretch of weather yet, but our individual actions can help ensure that emergency efforts are focused where they’re needed the most. Finally, I do want to mention that this will be my last e-newsletter of the year, and when I’m back next year we’ll be gearing up for the 2026 Legislative Session. Wishing you all a safe, healthy holiday season. |
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This is a reminder the 2026 Washington State Legislative Preview at the University of Puget Sound will be held on January 6th at 6:30PM. I’ll be joining other legislative leaders to talk about our priorities for the year, it’s a free event but you need to sign up for a ticket here.
Photo Credit: Alex Crook from the 2025 Legislative Preview
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This is also a final call to please complete my survey for the 2026 Legislative Session, these responses are front of mind for me as we get closer to the new year. Thank you so much to everyone who has already filled it out.