Dear neighbors,
We are five days into the 2022 session of the Legislature with another 55 days to go before finishing our work.
I am happy to say that we went to the floor and passed a number of bipartisan bills on Wednesday, Jan. 12, and will pass more legislation off the floor Friday.
In this legislative update, you’ll find information about my legislative priorities, news on boosters for children 12 years and older, how to make our tax system more fair, and new ways you can participate in your democracy.
I hope you find this information useful!
Session priorities and my legislation
House Democrats have united behind four main issues this session, as you can see below.
I’m supporting those efforts and working specifically on four bills that I wrote and introduced:
House Bill 1202 — Peace Officer Accountability Act will restore balance and justice to how we handle police misconduct and violence. This legislation will hold police accountable and deter misconduct by providing victims with access to justice. The bill had a public hearing in the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee on Jan. 11.
House Bill 1651 — Postpartum contraception will help women who want long-acting reversible contraception and don’t want to undergo multiple trips to the doctor’s office or hospital. The House Health Care & Wellness Committee held a public hearing on this bill on Jan. 13.
House Bill 1300 — Reforms the state law on landlord damage claims and safety deposits. This is a longtime issue for enters, who state they are often hit with inflated and unsubstantiated damage claims. Many tenants only become aware of damage claims when they are contacted by a collections agency, which can lead to serious debt and trouble finding affordable housing. This legislation had a public hearing in the House Housing & Human Services Committee on Jan. 13 and is scheduled for a vote.
House Bill 1670 — Reforms the leadership of the joint administrative rules review committee, a bipartisan body of lawmakers that reviews proposed and existing agency rules. House Bill 1670 would improve the appointment process for the chair and vice chair of this important committee, which can help streamline our state’s rules and regulations.
Help protect your family and community
Doctors and nurses agree: the best way to protect the people we love is to make sure everyone gets vaccines against COVID. This is true today more than ever, with the omicron variant infecting millions of Americans every day.
The state Department of Health expanded eligibility for the COVID-19 booster to everyone 12 and older. This is particularly important as children are one of the main vectors of transmission right now.
For help finding a vaccine appointment, please visit vaccinelocator.doh.wa.gov.
How would you make taxes more fair?
We all know our state’s tax system is upside down. For the last few years, the Tax Structure Work Group has identified options to make the Washington State tax code more fair, adequate, stable, and transparent for both individuals and businesses.
After conducting extensive analyses of Washington’s current tax structure, as well as modeling many possible scenarios for updating the code, the work group wants to hear your thoughts!
Learn more about the Work Group and the work they do in this 2 minute introductory video.
https://vimeo.com/601297987
Provide your feedback on ideas for changing Washington’s taxes by completing the survey before the January 31 deadline. The proposals are just ideas at this point – the Work Group has not developed policies or bills yet.
Depending on how much time you have, I encourage you to fill out either the short version of the survey (takes approximately 5 minutes) or long version of the survey (takes approximately 30 minutes) . There are also multilingual surveys available in Spanish (Español), Vietnamese (tiếng Việt), Korean (한국어), Traditional Chinese (正體字), Simplified Chinese (简化字) and Russian (русский). Thank you in advance for helping to shape the future of taxes in our state.
New ways you can participate this session
Before, you had to drive to Olympia to meet local lawmakers or testify in committee. Today, there are more ways than ever to get informed and involved during the 2022 session of the Legislature.
- Learn—The whole legislative process, from start to finish, is explained at leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Overview.aspx
- Watch—Go to TVW.org for broadcasts of debates, votes, committee meetings, and other events in the House and Senate. There’s also an extensive archive of past events, if you couldn’t watch it live.
- Research—To look up legislation by lawmaker or topic, visit app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/
- Testify—The 2021 Legislative Session proved that remote testimony is a great way for everyone to have a chance to share their voice. The remote committee testimony system will continue to be in use for all testimony for all bills.
A more comprehensive guide is available from the non-partisan legislative website available here.
Keep in touch!
If you have ideas, questions, or comments, please contact my office.
Thank you for taking the time to be informed and involved in your democracy. I look forward to hearing from you!
