Dear friends and neighbors,

We’re wrapping-up the second week of this 8-whirlwind week session in Olympia. There’s much to report in this newsletter, including my excitement that for the first time in Washington state history, the House of Representatives elected a woman, who is also openly lesbian, to serve as our speaker. In her opening day remarks, Speaker Laurie Jinkins said that while her title may be Speaker, she sees her primary job as listening. She also made clear her commitment to equity and inclusion, and to expanding opportunity for all people in our state.

I look forward to working with Speaker Jinkins to pass good policies that put people first and help communities across Washington thrive.

Our democracy is strongest when everyone can learn about the issues and share their comments, questions and ideas. In this short session bills are moving so fast that it can be challenging to navigate the process, so here’s a quick guide on how you can get involved:

• Go to the Member Roster for information on how to contact lawmakers
• Find out How a Bill Becomes a Law
• Learn how to read a bill
• Get detailed information on every bill
• Testify at a committee hearing. View calendars and agendas here
• Watch hearings and floor action online on TVW

Your views and interests, combined with your participation, are crucial to me, so keep your calls and emails coming! I cannot thank you enough for your valuable input because it really makes a difference and helps guide my decisions.

Sincerely,

Watch my first Legislative Video Update of 2020

In this update I discuss two of my priority bills on two very different issues: human genome editing and occupational data.  Click on the image to play the video.

Here’s more information on those bills:

• Human genome editing allows scientists to add, remove or alter genetic material. Think of it as editing a paragraph in a Word document. While this technology will certainly be key in developing ways to treat diseases or disabilities, we don’t know all the consequences that could stem from this practice. It’s important to find out all the ramifications this technology entails, so I’m sponsoring this bill to establish a study committee that will examine scientific, ethical, and societal issues associated with human genome editing. Once the study is completed, the Legislature will receive a report recommending the guiding principles for regulating this practice. I’m excited to report that the Committee on Innovation, Technology & Economic Development passed the bill unanimously this morning.

• Right now we can get information on how much recent graduates earn, whether they completed their degrees and the industries in which they are working. But we don’t know the specific jobs they are doing. If we had that information, we could better track the performance of our education programs, which would tell us if we’re meeting our current workforce needs, and students could make wiser decisions when choosing the fields that will lead them to good careers. This measure, which was passed out of the Labor and Workplace Standards Committee yesterday, would solve the problem by requiring employers to include occupational data or the job titles of their workers in their quarterly tax reports to the Employment Security Department.

Ask Vandana

One of the topics I’ve been hearing about a lot is the importance of making climate change a priority this session. In this video (click on the image below) I respond to an email discussing some of the policies we’re working on to address this issue, including one of my bills.

To protect our health, communities and economy, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address the harmful effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events, droughts, more frequent wildfires, insect infestations and ocean acidification, among others. If we don’t take definitive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, these threats will increase for future generations. This bill sets incremental limits on emissions—based on scientific assessments—between now and 2050. The bill was voted out of the Environment & Energy Committee yesterday. I hope it continues receiving support because we need to take bold steps to ensure Washington remains at the lead in implementing good environmental policy for a cleaner future.

Protecting consumer data privacy

Innovative technologies have made our lives easier and have utilized our personal data in the process. We don’t know what information big corporations are freely collecting about us or what they are doing with it.

Protecting consumer rights to data privacy is a conversation that has been past due, so the Innovation, Technology & Economic Development Committee, in which I serve, will consider legislation that strikes a balance between consumer privacy with innovation and industry. You can be sure that whatever measures we pass this year will focus on empowering consumers in ways that reflect our values.