Dear Friends and Neighbors,
With the beginning of March, the legislature is now convening on the House floor to vote on bills until March 8th, before resuming committee hearings on Senate legislation and proposed budgets. In this issue, I’ll provide an update on bills that have passed from the House, discuss funding requests that will directly help our community, and invite you to an upcoming town hall. I hope you will find it useful!
Legislative Update
The last few weeks have seen the passage of numerous legislative deadlines. February 17th was the last day for the House to consider legislation without a fiscal impact, followed by February 24th, which was the last day to pass all bills from fiscal committees. Below are some bills that I am proud to share my work on:
Funding Special Education: Every kid benefits when students with disabilities participate in class with their peers. But for this to happen effectively, schools need money. Currently, our districts are going into the red to make up a funding gap that the state should cover. Unconscionably, the State also caps how many students with disabilities if will provide funding for in each district. This is a huge civil rights issue. That is why I have legislation to fully fund special education and end the cap this session with House Bill 1436, which passed the House Committee on Appropriations unanimously.
In addition, students in our district, and all over Washington, are often forced to wait as long as three years to even be evaluated for disabilities. That’s years of learning and progress forever lost for these children. House Bill 1305 will greatly improve the timelines for evaluations for disabilities and provide our districts with funding for school psychologists and other providers who conduct special education evaluations. This bill passed the House Committee on Education, and House Committee on Appropriations. I look forward to seeing it get voted out of the House soon!
For more information on the work being done to fully fund special education, click here or on the image above.
Transparency & Accountability: When it comes to lobbying our government, I believe it is critical to do so in a transparent manner that provides accountability. One bill I introduced, House Bill 1317, addresses the increasingly common, yet untraceable spending by special interests on tv ads, mailings and digital media to influence legislation.
It is important for the public to be able to identify who paid and know that they are being held to the same public disclosure requirements that other lobbyists are. The bill has passed the House Committee on State Government & Tribal Relations.
Funding For Our Community
In Washington, the legislature funds key programs, and services that individuals and families rely on through the Operating Budget, Capital Budget, and Transportation budget. Below are some requests I have worked on with our community partners and state agencies to get services to those who need it the most:
Emergency Contraception Vending Machines ($420,000): Setting up and maintain contraceptive products in vending machines is critical in providing emergency contraception. This budget request would place vending machines at 34 community and technical colleges, and 6 universities.
Community Based Health Assessments ($3.7 Million): I am working with the Department of Health to allow a complete community-based health assessment for federally recognized tribes and overburdened and highly impacted communities. These assessments would provide an in-depth measurement of health disparities, and other environmental factors causing a rise in major health issues. This will help inform our decision making when it comes to supporting these communities with harm-reduction and improved health outcomes.
Seattle Public Schools Skills Centers ($14.9 Million): Working with our partners at Seattle Public Schools, I am sponsoring a budget proposal to construct new skills centers in Seattle. This will provide space and opportunities for students to learn skills critical to accessing work in high demand vocations such as the building trades, and dental and maritime industries.
Addressing Traffic Congestion To & From UW ($700,000): We need safe pedestrian and bike lanes for people traveling to and from the University of Washington on NE 45th, along with improved transit passage. We’re all familiar with the NE 45th Street corridor’s problems. This budget request would direct WSDOT to conduct a feasibility study of a lid over I-5, between NE 45th and 50th Streets to address this congestion and possibly open up.
As proposed budgets are finalized, I look forward to helping the legislature reaffirm its commitment to investing in families, businesses, infrastructure, and economic resiliency to ensure the shared prosperity of all in our community.
Save the Date!
Join your 46th District legislators for a live virtual town hall on Thursday March 16th from 6:30pm-7:30pm. Sen. Javier Valdez, Rep. Darya Farivar, and I will share our legislative priorities and answer your questions on the issues important to you.
To best accommodate you, please let us know in our survey if you’ll need translation services to Spanish or ASL, or any other accommodations. You can also submit questions ahead of time by scanning the QR code or following this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CVXCFBW.
Live questions can also be submitted during the event by commenting on Facebook or YouTube. I look forward to seeing you there!
Page Program
We need pages! The page program gives young Washington residents the chance to learn and participate in the legislative process by attending page school, assisting legislative offices, delivering messages, and working on the House and Senate floors.
This unique opportunity is open to Washington residents who are at least 14 years old but have not reached their 17th birthday. This year only, the House is allowing 17- and 18-year-olds to participate during two specific weeks since the program was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information, please visit the page program’s website by clicking here.
Share Your Thoughts with Me
I’m so excited to welcome constituents back to Olympia! If you come down to Olympia, please schedule a time to meet by emailing our office. My staff and I are also happy to meet remotely if you are not quite comfortable in a public setting or simply don’t have time to make it to Olympia.
It’s an honor to represent the 46th Legislative District. I look forward to hearing your continued advocacy, feedback, and engagement throughout the 2023 Legislative Session.
Thanks again,
Rep. Gerry Pollet