Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Before I get into the latest on what’s happening down in Olympia, I want to invite you to the 37th Legislative District Town Hall happening on March 22nd at the Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM.
We’re back in person! I’ll be there with the rest of the 37th Legislative District delegation: Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos and Sen. Rebecca Saldaña. We’ll share more about what’s happening down at the Capitol, and we’d love to hear directly from you about what concerns you have. I hope to see you there!
So, here’s what’s happened down in Olympia recently.
The House passes rent stabilization!
So many of you have told me about how difficult it is to find stable, affordable, housing. I’ve made this a priority and I’m proud to use my experience as a landlord to fight against the many false narratives thrown at tenant protections.
Without this basic need, it’s hard to make progress on other aspects of life. We know there’s an ongoing housing crisis in Washington. In recent years, the Legislature has taken steps to increase the state’s housing supply, but that will take years or decades to bring any real relief to today’s renters. We need to stabilize rent to so working families can stay housed while we continue addressing the housing and homelessness crisis.
I’m proud to share we’ve voted HB 1217 off the House floor, taking a major step forward in the legislative process. The bill caps rent increases at 7% a year for tenants in Washington. This modest cap is the least we can do to give tenants some predictability in their housing costs and prevent landlords from gouging tenants on rent. Now, the bill heads to the Senate for consideration.
Necessary heart procedures could become more accessible
Hopefully, you’ve never been told by a doctor that your cardiac artery needs to be cleared to stay alive. Unfortunately, some of our friends and neighbors must wait for a Percutaneous Intervention (PCI) until they are in cardiac crisis. That’s because Harborview is only allowed to perform such a procedure in an emergency.
Conducting a PCI proactively would be less disruptive for the patient’s life and reduce overall healthcare costs. That’s important for any healthcare provider but especially impactful for Harborview. Over 60% of their patients are on subsidized healthcare so preventative treatment would reduce the amount spent by government.
I introduced HB 1755 to allow Harborview to do this operation proactively. We can both save money and prevent patients from risking their lives waiting for a procedure until they are in cardiac emergency. This bill passed off the House floor unanimously and is now with the Senate.
Some policies go back to the drawing board
Unfortunately, this update is bittersweet. Two of my bills did not make it past our cut off deadlines this year: HB 1550 would have established an electric vehicle battery recycling program and HB 1512 would have improved traffic safety by encouraging law enforcement to focus their resources on dangerous driving behaviors.
The legislative process is designed to kill bills and I’m already thinking of ways to move these policies forward in the future. I strongly believe in both initiatives and the positive impact they could have on Washingtonians across the state. It’s been uplifting working with the many stakeholders and advocates who believe in them as well.
Coming up, we’re going back to our committees to review bills sent to us by the Senate. Then we’ll debate those on the House floor as well in the coming weeks. We have less than 40 days left in the session not only to pass bills, but we also have to pass the state’s budgets. Things will move quickly – you can stay informed by tracking bills and by tuning in to TVW to watch the action live.
I’ll also be sending you another update soon and I look forward to seeing you at our town hall.
In Solidarity,
Rep. Chipalo Street
View this slide show for translations of the above town hall graphic in Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Somali, Tagalog, and Vietnamese: