Dear neighbors,
News is happening fast here in Olympia during the 2021 legislative session. I’ll send these e-newsletters–which save taxpayer money since we’re not paying for printing and postage–to keep you informed.
There are also more ways than ever to get in touch with me or participate in your democracy, including remotely testifying in House committees.
You can also get news through my House of Representatives page on Facebook.
Thanks for reading this, and I hope to hear from you soon!
$2.2 billion in COVID relief
House Democrats worked with Senate Democrats on a proposed $2.2 billion relief package.
The legislation in our chamber is House Bill 1367 and House Bill 1368. Most of the funds come from federal stimulus approved by Congress.
Highlights include:
- $618 million for vaccine administration, contact tracing, and testing, with an emphasis on helping school districts reopen safely
- $668 million for schools as they resume in-person learning, along with dedicated funding to help students catch up from learning loss during the pandemic
- $365 million for rental assistance to help tenants and landlords
- $240 million for more than 12,000 small business assistance grants
- $70 million to assist undocumented immigrants who have been impacted by the pandemic, but do not qualify for federal or state assistance
- $26 million for food assistance to individuals and households in need.
- $50 million in grants to help childcare businesses stay open and expand capacity.
COVID legislation to help families and small businesses
I’m supporting three bills to give help that we can’t do with budgets alone:
- Giving relief to businesses on their unemployment insurance taxes (House Bill 1098 by Rep. Mike Sells).
- Waiving liquor license fees for distressed businesses due to the pandemic (my legislation, House bill 1359). This bill will receive a hearing on Friday, Jan. 29.
- Exempting federal funds received by the Paycheck Protection Program from being subject to Business & Occupation taxes (House Bill 1002 by Rep. Amy Walen)
Health care in our schools
Sick or hungry kids can’t learn. We’ve been working on making sure no student in our publics schools goes hungry–and a bill I’ve introduced would help safeguard the health of all of our students in public schools
House Bill 1225 would expand on a successful model called a School-Based Health Center (SBHC). These are located inside or next to a school and provide a full range of medical and behavioral health services. The sponsor of such a center could be a community clinic, a hospital, tribal agency, or public health department.
Under this model, the sponsor staffs and manages operations of the center, which typically has a primary care provider, behavioral health provider, and clinic coordinator. They sometimes have dental and other health professionals. There are more than 50 such centers throughout the state, with 30 in Seattle middle schools and high schools.
My legislation would require the state Department of Health to establish an SBHC office, which would:
- award grant funding to the SBHCs for planning, start-up costs, and ongoing operations
costs; - monitor and evaluate the SBHCs that receive grant funding;
- partner with a statewide nonprofit organization to provide training and technical assistance
to the SBHCs; and - coordinate with the statewide nonprofit organization providing training and technical
assistance, educational service districts, the Health Care Authority, hosting school districts,
and the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to provide support to the SBHCs.
It’s a bold idea, and one that I believe we should embrace to take better care of all of our children in public schools.
This bill had a hearing in the House Health Care & Wellness Committee and I will update you on when it gets voted on in committee or on the House floor.
COVID vaccination news
Things are changing rapidly on the federal, state, and local levels.
Federally, there is funding coming to help with the effort to vaccinate as many people as possible. The old goal of 1 million people per day, once seen as too ambitious, has been surpassed. The new goal is 1.5 million people vaccinated every day. There is help on the way in the form of federal funds to bolster our state and local efforts to get shots into arms and beat this virus. There’s also federal funding to expand contact tracing and produce more masks and protective equipment.
On the state level, the Department of Health is constantly making adjustments. Those are necessary due to how many vaccine vials are being delivered to our state and how fast they are being administered. We are also early on in the new two-phase plan, with counties grouped together and moving forward to Phase 2 and fewer restrictions based on hard numbers such as a decreasing percentage of people being infected and how full our hospital ICU’s are right now. Gov. Jay Inslee has also announced partnerships with homegrown businesses giants, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks, to help with the logistical and scientific obstacles to beating COVID-19.
Here in Clark County, our mass vaccination site opened on Jan. 26.
It’s on the local level where this war will be won or lost. Our local public health workers, nurses, doctors, and contact tracers are all working tirelessly. Each of us can help by wearing masks in public and socially distancing. I know it’s been hard. Nobody wants to keep doing this. But the way to get back to normal is to buckle down in the next few months until this virus is crushed.
Hearing from you
Thank you to everyone who has written, emailed, called, or participated in our first Virtual Town Hall of 2021.
Please feel free to contact my office or follow me on Facebook.
Your ideas, questions, and comments are crucial to me–and I hope to hear from you soon!
