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Declaración de Presidenta Laurie Jinkins sobre órdenes ejecutivas federales que amenazan a residentes de Washington
La Presidenta de la Cámara de Representantes, Laurie Jinkins (Demócrata de Tacoma), publicó hoy la siguiente declaración en respuesta a las órdenes ejecutivas federales que ponen en riesgo a inmigrantes, refugiados y miembros indocumentados de la comunidad:
“El estado de Washington tiene una sólida historia de protección de nuestros miembros de la comunidad de inmigrantes, refugiados e indocumentados. Estos son nuestros familiares, vecinos, amigos, compañeros de trabajo y feligreses. Son los participantes más recientes en una larga tradición estadounidense de inmigración y oportunidades. Merecen los mismos derechos, protecciones y oportunidades que se ofrecen a otros residentes de Washington, no por cómo contribuyen a nuestras comunidades (aunque lo hacen económica, cultural y de muchas otras maneras), sino porque son seres humanos dignos de dignidad y respeto.
“Me decepciona que nuestro gobierno federal esté dedicando más tiempo a atacar la decencia básica y los derechos humanos que a arreglar nuestro fallido sistema de inmigración. Aplaudo al Fiscal General Nick Brown por desafiar estas acciones devastadoras e inconstitucionales.
“Esta no es la primera vez que estamos aquí. En los últimos 10 años hemos tomado medidas importantes para proteger a los miembros de nuestra comunidad, incluida la Ley Keep Washington Working, asistencia legal civil para trabajadores indocumentados, prohibición de centros de detención privados, protección del acceso a ayuda financiera estatal para estudiantes y más.
“Estas protecciones son ley. Nada en las órdenes ejecutivas más recientes elimina estas protecciones. Si hay brechas que pueden abordarse a nivel estatal, lo haremos. Rápidamente.
“Como Presidenta de la Cámara, estoy orgullosa de apoyar a nuestro Caucus Demócrata Latino en una fuerte oposición a estas órdenes ejecutivas y apoyar la carta que la representante Lillian Ortiz-Self y otros publicaron hoy. Estas acciones amenazan la seguridad de las personas en todo nuestro estado, dañan a nuestros niños, nuestras familias y nuestras comunidades. No permitiremos que esos ataques queden sin respuesta.”
Para quienes tengan curiosidad sobre qué recursos y protecciones están disponibles para la gente en el estado de Washington, la Comisión de Asuntos Hispanos ha creado un centro de respuesta rápida con más información.
Statement from Speaker Laurie Jinkins on Federal Executive Orders Threatening Washington Residents
Para español, ver más abajo
Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma), released the following statement today in response to federal executive orders putting immigrants, refugees, and undocumented community members at risk:
“Washington state has a strong history of protecting our immigrant, refugee, and undocumented community members. These are our family members, neighbors, friends, coworkers, and congregants. They are the newest participants in a long American tradition of immigration and opportunity. They deserve the same rights, protections, and opportunities afforded to other Washington residents, not because of how they contribute to our communities – though they do, economically, culturally, and in many other ways – but because they are humans worthy of dignity and respect.
“I am disappointed that our federal government is spending more time attacking basic decency and human rights than fixing our broken immigration system. I applaud Attorney General Nick Brown as he challenges these devastating and unconstitutional actions.
“This is not the first time we’ve been here. In the last 10 years we have taken significant action to protect our community members, including the Keep Washington Working Act, civil legal aid for undocumented workers, banning private detention facilities, protecting access to state financial aid for students, and more.
“These protections are law. Nothing in the most recent executive orders removes these protections. If there are gaps that can be addressed at the state level, we will do so. Swiftly.
“As Speaker of the House I am proud to stand with our Latino Democratic Caucus in strong opposition to these executive orders and support the letter that Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self and others put out earlier today. These actions threaten the safety of people across our state, they hurt our kids, our families, and our communities. We will not allow those attacks to go unchallenged.”
For those curious about what resources and protections are available for people in Washington state, the Commission on Hispanic Affairs has put together a rapid response hub with more information.
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Declaración de Presidenta Laurie Jinkins sobre órdenes ejecutivas federales que amenazan a residentes de Washington
30 de enero de 2025
La Presidenta de la Cámara de Representantes, Laurie Jinkins (Demócrata de Tacoma), publicó hoy la siguiente declaración en respuesta a las órdenes ejecutivas federales que ponen en riesgo a inmigrantes, refugiados y miembros indocumentados de la comunidad:
“El estado de Washington tiene una sólida historia de protección de nuestros miembros de la comunidad de inmigrantes, refugiados e indocumentados. Estos son nuestros familiares, vecinos, amigos, compañeros de trabajo y feligreses. Son los participantes más recientes en una larga tradición estadounidense de inmigración y oportunidades. Merecen los mismos derechos, protecciones y oportunidades que se ofrecen a otros residentes de Washington, no por cómo contribuyen a nuestras comunidades (aunque lo hacen económica, cultural y de muchas otras maneras), sino porque son seres humanos dignos de dignidad y respeto.
“Me decepciona que nuestro gobierno federal esté dedicando más tiempo a atacar la decencia básica y los derechos humanos que a arreglar nuestro fallido sistema de inmigración. Aplaudo al Fiscal General Nick Brown por desafiar estas acciones devastadoras e inconstitucionales.
“Esta no es la primera vez que estamos aquí. En los últimos 10 años hemos tomado medidas importantes para proteger a los miembros de nuestra comunidad, incluida la Ley Keep Washington Working, asistencia legal civil para trabajadores indocumentados, prohibición de centros de detención privados, protección del acceso a ayuda financiera estatal para estudiantes y más.
“Estas protecciones son ley. Nada en las órdenes ejecutivas más recientes elimina estas protecciones. Si hay brechas que pueden abordarse a nivel estatal, lo haremos. Rápidamente.
“Como Presidenta de la Cámara, estoy orgullosa de apoyar a nuestro Caucus Demócrata Latino en una fuerte oposición a estas órdenes ejecutivas y apoyar la carta que la representante Lillian Ortiz-Self y otros publicaron hoy. Estas acciones amenazan la seguridad de las personas en todo nuestro estado, dañan a nuestros niños, nuestras familias y nuestras comunidades. No permitiremos que esos ataques queden sin respuesta.”
Para quienes tengan curiosidad sobre qué recursos y protecciones están disponibles para la gente en el estado de Washington, la Comisión de Asuntos Hispanos ha creado un centro de respuesta rápida con más información.
Legislative Update: Wrapping Up Week Two
Dear friends and neighbors,
Hello from Olympia, where we’re wrapping up the second week of this year’s legislative session! Last week I was formally re-elected by my peers as Speaker of the House. I’m incredibly grateful for the confidence they’ve placed in me and for the opportunity to serve our state in this position.
As Speaker I have the privilege of giving remarks during the opening ceremonies. I talked about some of our recent successes – investing in the Housing Trust Fund, making childcare more affordable for working parents, and the new regional law enforcement training academies that have already helped train more officers. I am proud of this progress, but I know we still have a lot of work to do.
This year we’re focused on strengthening communities, creating more affordable housing, investing in education, and growing good jobs. We’re also intensely focused on our state’s budget. We’ve seen increased demand for state services, a decrease in forecasted revenue, and, like many of you, we are still feeling the impacts of inflation. We’re looking closely at every part of our state’s budget to identify savings, but like I said on opening day, we will protect the investments we’ve made to help working families. You can watch my full remarks here.
I also want to be clear, in light of some of the announcements made by the new federal administration, that we will be vigilant in protecting the people of our state. That protection is not dependent on immigration status, we have passed a number of laws in recent years that protect the undocumented members of our community and ensure their continued access to the state services they help fund. We have also advanced protections around bodily autonomy, including the right to an abortion and the right to gender affirming care. I am focused on our work at the state level, but when we need to take action to protect Washingtonians, we will do so.
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This week we also kicked off our regular Democratic leadership media availabilities, weekly gatherings with the press corps down in Olympia where the leadership of the House and Senate answer questions and talk about our work that week.
I talk with reporters from the press corps relatively often, but these weekly availabilities are also broadcast for anyone to watch. You can check out this week’s here. We talked about how we’re approaching the budget this year, funding for K-12 education, the rent stabilization bill (which has already passed out of the Housing Committee), and more.
Legislative Update: Session Starts Next Week, Legislative Preview Forum, How to Get Involved
Dear friends and neighbors,
The 2025 legislative session starts next week! Washington has a part-time legislature (as do many states), so we’re only down in Olympia for a few months of the year. Our state constitution dictates when session begins and how long it lasts, and it runs on a two-year cycle. This year is a “long” session, so we’ll be down in Olympia for 105 days starting next Monday, January 13.
Apart from length, the other big difference between a long session year and a short session year is the state budget – which is actually a combination of three different budgets (but more on that in a future e-newsletter). During long session years we write the state’s budget for the two-year cycle. It’s one of the largest and most important bills we pass, so you can expect a lot of talk about that this year, too.
Want to get involved? There are a lot of different ways to engage with your legislature. As always, you can reach out to my office by phone (360-786-7930) or email, or follow my Facebook page for regular updates.
You can also watch committee hearings on TVW, comment on a bill, or testify either remotely or in-person. You can read about how a bill becomes a law, or you can watch a video about it instead (in English or Spanish). If you have questions, please reach out!
Opening day ceremonies in the state House can be viewed online, but I also invite 27th District constituents come to Olympia and experience it in person if you are able. The House galleries are open to the public and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Opening ceremonies start at noon on Monday, and include the swearing-in of the Speaker of the House, the Speaker Pro Tempore, and the Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore (tip: to secure a seat in the public gallery, arrive by 11:00 a.m.). More information on visiting the Capitol campus can be found here.
Presuming I’m elected Speaker of the House again, I’ll be giving remarks to the full chamber laying out House Democrats’ priorities for the coming session. These will be posted to my website after the event.
Next Wednesday, January 15th, the 2025 Washington State Governor’s Inaugural Ball will take place on the Capitol campus. This ticketed event is open to all and tickets can be purchased here: https://wastategovball.org/
The last time our state held a Governor’s Inaugural Ball was in 2017. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Inaugural Ball did not take place, so it has been eight years since the last one. This will be my first Inaugural Ball in my role as Speaker, and I hope to see many Washingtonians there enjoying the food, music, dancing, and community. All statewide officials are sworn in earlier that day, and are formally introduced to the crowd at the ball. There are also opportunities to volunteer at the event (details on the event website).
I’m here to represent you, and hearing from you on the issues you care about helps better inform my work in the Legislature. It is an immense privilege to serve you all in this role, and I’m excited to get to work. Thank you,
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Earlier today, I joined the caucus leaders of the House and Senate for the annual Legislative Session Preview. It’s a panel Q&A-style discussion about the issues that will likely be before the legislature. Joining me was Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jamie Pedersen, as well as the Republican minority leaders of the House and Senate. There were additional panels featuring the budget leads from each chamber, and the Transportation budget leads.
This longstanding event is, in many ways, the unofficial start of the session. I’ll post highlights of the event over on my legislative Facebook page in coming days.
Legislative Update: Happy Holidays, Food and Housing Assistance
Dear friends and neighbors, It’s the holiday season once again, and a time when people often gather with loved ones, friends, and community to celebrate. It can also be an especially challenging time of year for those who struggle to put food on the table or keep the utilities on. I wanted to pass along some resources that help assist our neighbors in need. There are a lot of programs that rely on federal, state, and local funds to do this work in our community. Help is available. However, I know that many families who don’t qualify for these programs are still feeling stretched this year, and that is front of mind as I prepare for our work next session. The cost of housing, child care, health care, and transportation is affecting nearly all Washingtonians. House Democrats are going to be looking at how we can help lower costs for working families and make sure our economy works for everyone. This will be my last newsletter of 2024, but as always please reach out to my office if you have questions or concerns, need help accessing state programs, or want to give input about any of the work we’re doing next year. |
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To learn more about temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) click here.
To learn more about food assistance (called Basic Food in Washington, also known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) click here.
To apply for either/both TANF or Basic Food, or other state assistance programs, click here.
To learn more about food banks in Pierce County click here. To find your closest food bank click here. (This includes Nourish Pierce County food banks, you can find more information about their food banks and what to expect here.)
To sign up for home delivery of food assistance click here.
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If you’re in the City of Tacoma, get support paying for your electricity bill here. If you’re a resident of Pierce County you can get support here.
If you live in Pierce County, you can learn more about eviction prevention, mortgage assistance, weatherization, and other housing programs here.
If you live in the City of Tacoma you can look at rental assistance programs here and weatherization assistance here.
A broader list of Tacoma and Pierce County housing resources is available here.
Returning to your Inbox: Legislative Updates, The Page Program, and Open Enrollment for Health Plans
Dear friends and neighbors,
The election results were certified yesterday, and with that I can resume our regular official legislative updates! You might remember from earlier this year (or, for long-time readers, previous election years) that during the election there are restrictions on our official communications — things like this e-newsletter or my official Facebook. These rules help keep elections fair by making sure that incumbents can’t use public resources for their campaign. I’m grateful for the many ways that we protect election security in Washington state, and these rules are just a small part of that.
I also want to say again what an honor it is to serve you all in the legislature. The trust you’ve placed in me is a guiding light as I make decisions down in Olympia. Thank you.
With that, I’m excited to be back in your inbox with a couple of small updates.
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The House Page Program is accepting applications for next session, and I’d love to sponsor students from our district. If you know a student who is at least 14 years of age, but has not reached their 17th birthday, we would love to have them come to Olympia for a week to learn more about how our state government works. Students page for one week at a time, attending a Page School to learn more about the legislative process. They also support the operations of the House during floor action and other daily tasks.
Pages receive a stipend for their time and can earn community service hours. This year is a long session (more on that difference in a later newsletter!), so we’ll be accepting pages from Jan. 12, 2025 – April 25, 2025.
The program is open to all and I welcome applications from students of all backgrounds who live in or attend school in the 27th District. Several years ago, a scholarship program was established to encourage any student, regardless of income level, to apply for and participate in the Page Program. The scholarship offsets the costs of traveling to and staying in Olympia.
You can learn more about the program here, and apply for the program here.
You can also check out this interview I did with Viviane, who paged in the House during the 2023 session.
I’m looking forward to meeting this year’s 27th LD pages!
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The open enrollment period for Washington Healthplanfinder has begun! If you are uninsured you can find a health care and dental plan for you and your family, now through Jan. 15, 2025.
Some households at a lower or middle income level may qualify for plans with premiums as low as $10 a month. Households that receive federal tax credits and participate through the Cascade Care Savings plan pay an average of $70 per month. You can get a more detailed estimate here.
Insurance questions can be complicated, but there are people available to help. Enrollment centers provide help for free, and there are locations available in Tacoma and broader Pierce County. The Washington Healthplanfinder is available to everyone, regardless of immigration status.
If you’ve got questions, check out their FAQ (also available in Spanish here).
I want to mention that included in these options is our public option plan. We established Cascade Care in 2019, and in 2021 we were the first state in the nation to offer a public option plan (Cascade Select). In 2024, this plan had significantly lower premium increases than other non-Cascade plans, and was the most affordable silver plan in most counties it was available. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve led the nation on this.
Strengthening our state’s safety net was one of the priorities you all identified in my survey last year, and that work will continue this session.
Goodbye . . . for now
Dear friends and neighbors,
I’m reaching out with a final update about our work this session. Folks who have received these emails from me for a while 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, press releases, 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 6th, and continue until the 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.
With that, here’s the last update on our work during the 2024 legislative session.
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As a legislator, and as a parent myself, I believe we have an obligation to the young people in our state. This includes funding K-12 education, preventing gun violence, cleaning up our air and water, and a whole lot more. It also includes fixing a system that has frequently excluded many of our youth – LGBTQ+ students, students for whom English is a second language, students of color, and more.
You’ve likely seen national coverage about how a small minority of people (in some cases even just one person in a district) have worked to remove books from school libraries just for mentioning LGBTQ+ people, or for talking about racism and the impact it has. Here in Washington, we think public resources shouldn’t be subject to the whims of one person, but should be managed by the community. That’s why we passed legislation to involve the community in these decisions and prevent school boards from using discrimination to ban or remove books. (HB 2331)
Dual language education is another way we can make our schools more accessible and encourage better outcomes at the same time. Increased dual language education gives English language learners additional support and helps all our students become bilingual, whether English is their first language or not. (HB 1228)
We know our LGBTQ+ students are particularly at-risk (the statistics on this are hard to read) and as leaders we have an obligation to do better. This year we passed legislation that will require school districts to adopt age-appropriate curriculum that includes the contributions, histories, and perspectives of people who have historically been left out of the history books like our LGBTQ+ community. (SB 5462)
Most of the work we do is bipartisan, and I’m very proud of that, unfortunately HB 2331 and SB 5462 both passed on party lines. As I said in an article for OutNW earlier this year, it matters who sets the agenda. It matters for our kids, and it matters for the future of our state.
For those of you who followed this session you also saw that we passed an initiative, the parental bill of rights, that might feel in conflict with the values I mentioned above. I want to pass along some thoughts about why we did that, and what you can expect.
Initiative 2081 largely re-states current law and common practice. If you read the language, you might be concerned that it could amend protections we’ve passed for our LGBTQ+ youth or for youth seeking reproductive care or behavioral health treatment. Our best legal analysis is that it does not. We are watching our school districts closely to ensure that none misinterpret the language, and if any do, we will step in immediately to challenge them in court and/or to make necessary changes to the law. We passed this initiative in part because it makes no substantive changes, and because we wanted to avoid the additional hatred aimed at our LGBTQ+ youth that would likely come with a statewide campaign this year.
If you want more information about I-2081 you can read an opinion piece that Sen. Pedersen and I had published in the Seattle Times here (Note: this is the language of the piece as we submitted it to the Times. They made some edits prior to publication that I believe change the message, which is why I’m including the language as we submitted it here).
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We know that building a better future starts with our youth, but it doesn’t end there. We also worked this session to reduce the inequalities that women, people of color, people with disabilities, people with different religious beliefs, and many other Washingtonians face.
We expanded the WA Equal Pay and Opportunities Act to include gender, race, disability, sexual identity, immigration or military status, and more. This act prevents employers from discriminating against employees or prospective employees, and the expansion means people don’t have to decide whether they were being discriminated against for one particular identity over the other when seeking a remedy for the discrimination. (HB 1905)
We established a hotline that makes it easier for individuals who have experienced hate crimes to report those crimes. We’ve seen a dramatic increase in reported hate crimes in Washington state, and this hotline will help centralize those reports, provide support for victims, and direct cases to law enforcement when requested. (SB 5427) We also closed a loophole that prevented hateful vandalism or destruction of property from being charged as a hate crime if the targeted area was public property. Hate crimes by definition target entire communities; hateful vandalism is no less offensive on a library or school, and it should be taken just as seriously. (SB 5917)
While these bills received some bipartisan support, the final votes were largely along party lines.
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 In my opening remarks this year I said that as long as I’m Speaker of the House, we will protect every person’s bodily autonomy. This year we held to that promise, expanding protections for the health care professionals that prescribe medications like misoprostol and mifepristone. (HB 2115) This builds on our significant work last year to protect access to abortion and reproductive care. Since 2016 Republicans in the Legislature have sponsored over 40 anti-choice bills restricting access to abortion and reproductive health care. We have blocked every single one and will continue to do so. When the decisions you make for yourself do not impact the health or safety of others, no one but you should be making them. |
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It’s an honor to serve you in the Legislature and I’m continuously grateful for the opportunity you all have given me. Thank you.
2024 Session Victories: Funding for Local Projects
Dear friends and neighbors,
We talk a lot about the different budgets in our newsletters, but we wanted to update you all on what those investments will mean in our community. Most local projects are funded out of the Transportation budget (which Rep. Fey, as the House Transportation Committee Chair, leads on) and the capital budget, our state’s construction budget. If you’re curious about the differences between the Operating, Transportation, and Capital budgets you can get more information here.
For now, a quick summary is that the Transportation budget funds all things transportation: public transit, roads, sidewalks, bike paths, ferries, and other transportation infrastructure. The capital budget is the state’s construction budget, and goes towards things like construction and renovation, including housing, K-12, early learning, and higher education buildings, and community projects.
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Important Transportation Projects in the 27th Legislative District
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Other Climate Commitment Act Projects in the 27th Legislative District
The Climate Commitment Act is a landmark piece of climate legislation. Not only does it use market-based solutions to help lower emissions in our state, it also helps fund projects that clean up our air and water. If you want to learn more about what the CCA is doing statewide, check out this site. In addition to the transportation projects mentioned above, the CCA is also helping fund:
- Replacing the gas boilers on the UW Tacoma ($8.4 million)
- Decarbonizing the Tacoma Fleet Maintenance building, which will help prevent 230 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere annually, or about 9% of the City of Tacoma’s total commercial building emissions. ($750,000)
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Important Capital Projects in the 27th Legislative District
- The Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center is in the final phase of construction. State funding will help them introduce 15 new classrooms, creating a total of 205 childcare slots and 15,075 square feet of childcare space. This location is dedicated to serving families with a lower income, kids with an Individualized Education Program (IEP), or those facing other risk factors. ($515,000)
- The City of Ruston Community Center received funding to help replace the roof and complete ADA improvements. ($360,000)
- Bethlehem Baptist Church is converting units into permanent affordable housing. ($424,000)
- The Tacoma Metro Parks People’s Community Center funding will support the design for replacement of the 45-year-old building – currently the oldest of the four active community centers and facing failing systems. ($400,000)
- The Tacoma Metro Parks South End Community Center received funding for a feasibility study looking at siting, program needs, and design concepts for a new community center in Southeast Tacoma. ($200,000)
- The City of Fife Sheffield Trail will complete the design and right-of-way acquisition for Phase Two of the project. ($100,000)
- Foss Waterway Seaport received funding to complete the esplanade and allow safer and better public access to the waterfront. ($185,000)
- Greater Christ Temple Church received funding for S. Yakima Ave Senior Housing. ($400,000)
- City of Ruston projects including the Winnifred Street improvement project, right-of-way soil testing, land acquisition, public outreach/planning, and site preparation costs for the Ruston Park Remediation Project. ($1,109,000 – funding from the Model Toxics Account)
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Important Operating Projects in the 27th Legislative District
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You can find more information about each of the budgets, including maps, charts, summarized descriptions, and more at fiscal.wa.gov. You can also always reach out to our offices with any questions that you have, we appreciate hearing from you and are happy to help! You can contact Speaker Jinkins here, and Rep. Fey here.
Sincerely,
2024 Session Victories: Let’s talk housing
Dear friends and neighbors,
I’m back with another update on our work this session, this time with a focus on housing. First, though, I wanted to pass along a quick reminder about the 27th Legislative District telephone town hall at 5:30 tonight! I’ll be joining Rep. Fey and Sen. Trudeau to answer your questions. You can join by calling 877-229-8493 (toll-free) and then entering PIN # 116282. You can find more info about the event here.
I look forward to taking your questions and talking more about our work this year,
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 I’ve consistently heard housing is a high priority for our community, from getting people housed to building more housing to making housing more affordable. This is a big deal across the country right now, and our community is no exception. Last year we made significant progress by expanding middle housing options, righting some of the wrongs of the past with the Covenant Homeownership Act, and removing regulatory barriers for people building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
This year we built on that progress. I’ve mentioned the co-living bill we passed which will legalize more kinds of affordable housing, things like apartments with shared kitchen spaces or other similar setups. We also created a loan program that will help speed up the construction of affordable housing, and requested changes to the housing code to make it easier to build triplexes, quads, and other multiplex housing options. My Senate seatmate, Sen. Trudeau, also sponsored (and passed) legislation that will remove hurdles and increase incentives for converting existing commercial structures into housing. We also worked hard this year to pass rent stabilization, which would have given renters the same stability and predictability that people like me have with a mortgage. Unfortunately, the bill died in the Senate. We can’t expect people to budget away the impacts of dramatic rent increases. Last year at one of the coffee hours I hosted, I heard from a constituent whose rent has gone up 70% in the last two years. That’s not sustainable, and we need to do something about it. I know we’ll be continuing to work on this idea over interim, and I’m hopeful we will bring more predictability and stability next session. Beyond individual legislation, we’re also making investments in our operating and capital budgets. In our supplemental operating budget we’re protecting and expanding services at the local level for housing programs and people experiencing homelessness. This includes $3 million for the City of Tacoma to prevent the closure of 307 temporary and emergency shelter beds. Thanks to the Climate Commitment Act, we’re also able to invest $150 million in clean energy credits for households with lower incomes. We also invested in supporting tenants rights and increasing opportunity for people historically excluded from homeownership. In our capital budget we’re adding $127.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund, which helps build more affordable housing across the state. We also invested in projects to build more housing in our community, things like the Bethlehem Baptist Church project converting units into permanent affordable housing. We’re experiencing a housing crisis. It’ll take work on all fronts to help get people into housing and keep people housed. We made a lot of progress this year, but there’s more to do. In the meantime, please continue to reach out to my office when you need help accessing state programs or want to talk about your experiences. The stories I hear from constituents truly help guide my work in Olympia. |
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I’d also like to let you know about another event coming up, a screening of “It’s Basic” – a documentary about universal basic income programs launched in cities across the country, including Tacoma. The screening will be on Friday, April 12th at 4PM, and I’ll be serving on a panel afterwards with Mayor Woodards, Council Chair Mello, United Way of Pierce County President/CEO Dona Ponepinto, and recipients from the GRIT 1.0 guaranteed income program. You can learn more about the event or reserve a spot here.
2024 Session Victories: Community Safety, Behavioral Health, and Responding to the Opioid/Fentanyl Crisis
Dear friends and neighbors,
In my final e-newsletter of 2024 session, I mentioned that I’d be doing a deeper dive in subsequent newsletters into some of the great work we were able to accomplish this year. For this edition, I want to highlight what we did to increase community safety, grow behavioral health, and respond to the opioid and fentanyl crisis.
I’m kicking off with these in part because they were some of the top issues that you all highlighted in my constituent survey last fall, and that feedback helped inform our work this session.
Over the next month I’ll be highlighting our work in other areas, so stay tuned. As always, please reach out to my office if you have any questions-
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I’ve heard from many of you with concerns about community safety: concerns about gun violence prevention, funding and oversight for law enforcement, and what we can do to reduce crime and help ensure everyone feels safer.
In 2022, we passed legislation to address explosive growth in catalytic converter thefts. Our approach is working. Catalytic converter thefts have gone down by 77% since passage of this legislation. This year we continued to build on our successes. We passed legislation this year that will help further deter this type of theft and keep it on the decline. We also expanded protections for our kids, ensuring that fabricated sexually explicit images that use a child’s likeness are punishable under the same statutes that criminalize child pornography. Additionally, we expanded definitions for crime victims and witnesses to ensure that everyone gets the support and services they need.
We continued our work on gun violence prevention, passing a set of bills that will work together to help keep us safe and keep guns out of the hands of those determined to use them to harm others. This includes HB 1903, which will help ensure that stolen firearms are reported to law enforcement before they can be sold illegally or used in violent crimes; HB 2118, which will help prevent gun theft by requiring gun stores to secure their inventory; and HB 2021, which will allow the Washington State Patrol to destroy seized firearms, a permission already given to all other law enforcement agencies in Washington state and which the agency has specifically asked the legislature to give them.
We continue to invest in expanding basic law enforcement training academy’s across the State. In addition to expanding training classes at the primary training site in Burien, we’ve expanded training sites to Pasco, Vancouver and are working to open a site in northwest Washington. The results have been transformative. We also heard from our cities and counties about challenging budget limitations, which is why we allocated $8 million for the state to take over the full cost of our basic law enforcement academies where new officers are trained.
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We also knew we needed to make significant investments in behavioral health to help address the opioid and fentanyl crisis that is affecting so many people in our community and across our state. This year we invested $215 million in opioid and substance use disorder response and prevention, which includes $156 million for increased medication for opioid use disorder treatment, programs, and supplies, $16 million to support families and children safety, $10 million to support child-welfare and school-based prevention and intervention, and $6 million in outreach and support for our tribal partners.
We passed legislation that will help ensure there is age-appropriate education about the dangers of fentanyl in our K-12 schools, in our post-secondary education systems, and statewide through the Washington State Department of Health. We’ve ensured that life-saving overdose prevention medication will be more accessible for everyone, and substance use disorder treatment will be more accessible and responsive state-wide. We also passed legislation to help support young adults leaving treatment to ensure that they’re set up for success.
This is a crisis, and we’re taking it seriously with landmark investments and bipartisan legislation covering prevention, treatment, support, outreach, crisis response, and more.