Dear friends and neighbors,

The COVID-19 pandemic hit post-secondary education hard. Higher education, apprenticeships, and other credentials give students a path to a more secure future, and these options should be available and affordable for everyone. With declines in financial aid applications and lower enrollment & retention rates, we must act this session if we want to ensure students can get the credentials they need to succeed.

Growing Opportunity for Washington Students

The Washington College Grant is our state’s largest financial aid program and has received national attention as “the most equity-focused free college program in the country”. We can build on that success this session by:

• Creating “Bridge Grants” of $1,000 a year for students at or below 70 percent of the median family income and increasing the amount of funding most students would receive from the Washington College Grant. (HB 1659)
• Making it easier for students to fill out the FAFSA and WAFSA (Washington Application for State Financial Aid). Our financial aid programs only work if people can access them, HB 1835 would increase outreach and explore ways we can pre-qualify people who use other state-level benefit programs.
• Creating a state student loan program. When students take out a loan the interest rates can range from 3-15 percent depending on whether they’re federal or private. Creating a state program capped at 1 percent interest will help save students money when they need to take out loans. (HB 1736)
• Establishing the Task Force on Improving Equity and Diversity at Community and Technical Colleges. I introduced HB 1840 to expand the Mental Health Counseling and Services Pilot Program to an additional four colleges and extend the expiration date by one additional year. Learn more about this issue in my video update below.

These bills will help to ensure low-income students, older or returning students, first generation students and more are able to get the credentials they need.

Video Update

Last year we had huge participation from constituents around the state and we’re already seeing that again in committee hearings. Watch my first video update of the year for ways to connect with the Legislature and a couple of my 2022 priorities: evaluating the student support measures established over the past few years to see what’s working and what needs improvement (HB 1746); and ensuring that we have equitable services across our education systems, including technical and community colleges (HB 1840).

Protecting our Communities and Environment

Session may have only just begun, but House Democrats are hitting the ground with legislation to protect the lives and livelihoods of all who call this state home from the dangers of climate change and other environmental pollution.

Last week, the House Environment & Energy Committee heard testimony on bills to…

• Expand energy efficiency standards to more household appliances (HB 1619)
• Hold oil companies accountable for the devastation they cause from oil spills (HB 1691)
• Promote the transition from fossil fuel to electric appliances in our homes and buildings (HB 1767)
• Reduce methane emissions, a more potent greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide, from our landfills (HB 1663)
• Restrict the use of PFAS and other toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in many of the products we use every day (HB 1694)

…and much more.

The Legislature made great strides last year to protect our communities, reduce our impact on the environment, and slow the march of climate change — and we’re eager to keep that momentum going!

Virtual Town Hall coming up – SAVE THE DATE!

Tell us how to change Washington state’s tax code!

For the last few years, the Tax Structure Work Group (TSWG) has aimed to identify options to make the Washington State tax code more fair, adequate, stable, and transparent for both individuals and businesses. After conducting extensive analyses of Washington’s current tax structure, as well as modeling many possible scenarios for updating the code, the TSWG wants to hear your thoughts!

Provide your feedback on ideas for changing Washington’s taxes by completing the TSWG survey before the January 31 deadline. These are just ideas at this point – the Work Group has not developed policies or bills yet. Depending on how much time you have, I encourage you to fill out either the short (takes approximately 5 minutes) or long (takes approximately 30 minutes) version of the survey. There are also multilingual surveys available in Spanish (Español), Vietnamese (tiếng Việt), Korean (한국어), Traditional Chinese (正體字), Simplified Chinese (简化字) and Russian (русский). Thank you in advance for helping to shape the future of taxes in our state.

Thank you for reading my newsletter.  If you need more information on any of the issues discussed here, or on any other legislative matter, please don’t hesitate to contact my office.

Sincerely,