House Democrats were pleased to welcome nine new members to the Legislature this session, and they didn’t waste any time getting to work.
A story in today’s Columbian highlights freshman Rep. Monica Stonier’s near perfect success record for moving her bills out of the House. Although as she states in the article, near perfect isn’t good enough for her. Rep. Stonier’s goal is to go nine for nine by the end of the session.
From Lucas Wiseman with The Columbian:
OLYMPIA — Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, is aiming for a perfect record of passing bills this session in the Legislature.
The freshman lawmaker spent most of her first term in the Legislature getting eight of her nine bills through the House of Representatives and on to the Senate, the highest success rate out of all freshmen Democrats in the House.
She is not stopping there.
Stonier also hopes she can revive her bill that did not make the Legislature’s cutoff date by amending it to another bill.
The proposed law deals with high school graduation requirement. “I’m hoping to breathe some life back into it,” she said.
Stonier has had 89 percent of her bills pass out of the House and into the Senate.
Compare that to Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, who proposed more legislation than any other lawmaker this year, 59 bills so far, with 26 percent making it to the House.