Dear Friends and Neighbors,
If you have not had a chance yet, please take a few moments to fill out my legislative survey on the six initiatives by clicking here. These initiatives were signed by over 800,000 Washingtonians and presented to the Legislature.
Despite the clear language from the Washington State Constitution stating that initiatives should take precedence over other policy measures, the Democratic majority has still not held a single public hearing.
I want to hear what you believe the Legislature should do. The results of the survey will be released at my next town hall meeting on Feb. 17.
Feb. 17 town hall meeting
On Saturday, Feb. 17, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., I will be hosting a town hall meeting on the 2024 legislative session at CenterPlace Regional Event Center in Spokane Valley (2426 N Discovery Pl).
I’ve always firmly believed that citizen involvement in government is crucial to the process. Please consider dropping by to join the discussion on how we can help our community and state be a better, more prosperous place to live. I hope to see a great turnout and look forward to answering your questions and concerns.
House of origin cutoff
Tuesday, Feb. 13, is House of origin cutoff. That’s the last day to pass House bills out of the House and Senate bills out of the Senate. With this deadline looming, we’ll be debating bills late into the night and through the weekend.
On TVW’s website, you can watch all the action live, or catch up on replays of floor and committee action.
As always, I will be fighting tooth and nail to defend your constitutional rights and for commonsense in Olympia.
Standing up for law enforcement and public safety against anti-police measure
On Tuesday, I spoke against House Bill 1579, which would establish the Office of Independent Prosecutions (OIP), led by an independent counsel, as a separate division within the Office of the Attorney General to prosecute law enforcement officers.
This bill would further discourage qualified people from becoming law enforcement officers at a time when Washington has the fewest law enforcement officers per capita. We need to improve recruitment and retention, not make the job of enforcing our laws even more challenging at a time when crime is on the rise and we’re seeing more attacks against policy officers.
Opposing a state mandate to move local elections to even-numbered years
On Thursday, I voted against House Bill 1932, which would mandate that local governments hold elections in even-numbered years. I opposed this bill because of the feedback I received from election workers, our county auditor, and the secretary of state, that this change would make elections more expensive and cumbersome and I believe, ultimately, less trustworthy.
This shift could make ballots extremely long; not all local governments are equipped with machines to process these new larger ballots.
We need to fully-fund school transportation for foster kids
As a former foster kid, I understand the challenges of constantly being moved around from school to school. As a result, I never had the opportunity to get to know the teachers at the various schools I attended, which made it difficult to keep up academically. That’s why I strongly urged the House to fully-fund school transportation for foster and special needs children during debate on House Bill 1248.
It’s an honor to serve you
Please contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments. I am here to serve you and everyone in the 4th Legislative District.
It is an honor to serve you.
Sincerely,