Hello and welcome to the fourth week of the legislative session. Things are heating up here with the House passing its first bills with more to come. On top of that, I’ve been hard at work on some priority legislation, one of which you can read about below.
House passes bill to address final goal in fully funding education
The House passed its first bills of the session last week, all primarily dealing with education. In a bipartisan vote, the House passed our bill to tackle the last goal we have in our plan to fully fund education. We need a lot of work done to figure out how we move from a reliance on local levies to pay for our teachers. Our plan sets up the agenda and final mile post on how we get there, including setting a firm deadline for us to implement the plan by next year.
Senate Republicans object to the deadline. But not having a firm deadline means future legislatures can just continue kicking the can down the road. I don’t support that, House Democrats don’t support that, and we want that deadline in the bill. So, there is still some discussion on that issue. But our plan will finally get us where we need to be: fully funding our classrooms, paying teachers fairly, and forcing the state to live up to its paramount duty.
The Toxic-Free Kids and Families Act
As a firefighter, I’m opposed to the toxic flame retardants commonly used in children’s products and in our homes. There are much safer alternatives companies can use, and many businesses are already phasing these out. But, currently our state law prevents the health agency from prohibiting these toxic chemicals while other states, like Oregon, California, and Minnesota, can.
I’ve sponsored legislation (HB 2545) that bans these flame retardants from children’s products and furniture and gives the state health department the authority to ban other cancer-causing and harmful chemicals so that our children aren’t exposed to them in the future. Our children and our families are too important to allow this to continue. I have a lot of support from both Democrats and Republicans and am hopeful we can finally move forward on this issue.
Hear my podcast on Music Licensing
You probably remember from my last email that I’ve been hard at work on my bill to protect small businesses from unfair music licensing practices. I sat down to discuss that bill and explained it on Capitol Ideas: The Washington House Democratic Caucus Podcast. Give it a listen!
Give me a call
It’s important to me to hear from constituents about how they feel the legislature is doing on these issues. Give my office a call, or drop me an email. My contact info is to the right and I’m always happy to hear from you.
Until next time,
Kevin