Back to work
Election season is finally over (thank goodness!) and I’m ready to get back to work as your state representative. It truly is an honor being your voice in Olympia.
While the education funding challenge may be over as a legal matter, there’s still plenty more to do to make sure all kids have opportunities to learn in our public schools. This session I’ll be working to provide more flexibility with the 24-credit graduation requirement, which will provide more pathways for students to be successful after high school. I’ll also be working to end high-stakes testing as a graduation requirement and fighting for simple majority school bonds.
Outside of education policy I will be looking at strengthening protections for temporary workers, working with the bipartisan delegation of legislators from Clark County to work toward replacing the I-5 bridge, and bringing common sense campaign finance rules to port commissioner races. This session, I am fully committed to increasing access for children to dental, mental health, and preventative care services. Our county is an outlier in that we have a high number of kids with coverage who are not getting the care they need; I am working on ways to improve this by removing some of the barriers that get in the way.
There are dozens of other issues that I’ll be working on this session on your behalf. I’ll be sharing more on those in future e-newsletters. But I’d also like to hear from you on what’s important in your community. You can take this survey below (only three questions) to tell me about the issues that matter to you the most.
Save The Date: Town Hall next Saturday!
Sen. Cleveland, Rep. Wylie, and I will be hosting another town hall on January 12 (details below). We’ll also host at least one telephone town hall during session to keep you up to speed on what lawmakers are working on. Click here to register for the telephone town hall and we’ll add you to the call list.
We hope you can join us on January 12 for a great town hall discussion!
49th Legislative District Town Hall
Saturday, January 12, 10 a.m. – noon
Follow the signs once inside ESD 112 to find our room.
Education Services District 112
2500 NE 65th Ave, Vancouver, WA 98661 Google map link
New Leadership Role
This year I was elected by my peers to serve as the majority floor leader for the House of Representatives. The majority floor leader is primarily responsible for coordinating the floor debate and the passage of bills during the legislative session.
This role also requires a lot of coordination and communication with House Republican leaders. Despite popular belief, the vast majority of bills pass the House with large bipartisan majorities. This strong track record of success can only happen when both parties have good working relationships, and I’m looking forward to serving the people of Washington in this new leadership role.
