{"id":3081,"date":"2026-01-30T16:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/bateman\/?p=3081"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:55:06","slug":"the-top-issue-ive-heard-from-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/bateman\/2026\/01\/30\/the-top-issue-ive-heard-from-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The top issue I\u2019ve heard from you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear friends and neighbors,<\/p>\n

We\u2019re now nearly a third of the way through the legislative session. We\u2019ve already passed legislation through the Senate on some of the biggest and most important issues before us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

ICE face masks<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are all horrified by the violence and violations of civil rights we see on the news and in our communities being committed by masked federal agents. While our ability to control the federal immigrations enforcement is limited as state legislators, we are advancing legislation to protect Washingtonians. \u00a0The use of face masks by ICE agents is one of the issues that I\u2019ve heard the most about from you coming into this legislative session. \u00a0I\u2019m proud that we just passed a bill off of the Senate floor – SB 5855<\/a> – banning law enforcement, including ICE agents, from wearing masks. Secret police have no place in our society, and this legislation is necessary now more than ever to protect our communities, uphold transparency, and ensure public safety never comes at the cost of fear and intimidation.<\/p>\n

This is one of several bills we\u2019re advancing to provide state-level protections from immigration enforcement around data privacy and surveillance, notification and security around I-9 forms that employers use to verify immigration status, protecting sensitive places like schools, hospitals, and churches. We aren\u2019t done here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

AI & Data Centers<\/strong><\/p>\n

At our recent online townhall, several commenters asked about AI and data centers.<\/p>\n

I sponsored an AI bill – SB 5904<\/a> – which\u00a0would make it an unlawful practice for any non-human entity, like a large language model chatbot, to be identified to a patient as a\u00a0nurse. Artificial\u00a0intelligence\u00a0certainly has its uses, and this bill doesn\u2019t prevent a patient or a health care provider from asking a chatbot a question or using it to help summarize information as a part of their diagnosis or care. But when your health is on the line, I think people deserve to know who they are talking to, whether that\u2019s a human or a bot.<\/p>\n

But there are many other important AI bills before us this year.<\/p>\n

SB 5984<\/a> will create regulations around\u00a0artificial\u00a0intelligence\u00a0chatbots that include regular reminders that a user is interacting with a chatbot, the prevention of the creation of sexually explicit material, manipulative engagement techniques and a protocol for detecting and addressing suicidal ideation. Many of us have seen tragic stories in the news about people using chatbots as therapists or even people who are suicidal getting awful advice from a chatbot when they are in their lowest moments.<\/p>\n

SB 5956<\/a> sets clear guardrails for\u00a0AI-driven discipline tools and surveillance in K-12 schools to protect student privacy and prevent bias.<\/p>\n

SB 6312<\/a> bans AI-driven price discrimination in our grocery stores. You may have seen digital prices on the shelves of some grocery stores, and that\u2019s convenient for changing the prices, but we don\u2019t want grocery stores doing dynamic \u201csurge\u201d pricing to raise the prices of a product during the busiest shopping hours.<\/p>\n

We also have a bill for state employees, HB 1622<\/a>, sponsored by my seatmate Rep. Lisa Parshley, for which I sponsored the Senate version<\/a>. This bill would allow unions representing public sector\u00a0employees\u00a0to collectively bargain over the implementation of AI in government workplaces. This helps ensure we move forward with new technology responsibly so it both benefits our\u00a0state\u00a0employees\u00a0and all residents.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also concerned about the impacts of data centers on the environment and all of us in the general public who have utility bills to pay. My seatmate, Rep. Beth Doglio is the sponsor of HB 2515<\/a> (I\u2019m a co-sponsor of the Senate version<\/a> as well), a bill that will protect utility consumers from rate increases associated with the development and energy needs of data, raise money for utility assistance for low-income households, and track and forecast the energy and water usage of these data centers. Data centers can present an economic opportunity to rural communities and create jobs, but we want to make sure that customers are protected and that these data centers don\u2019t cause utility bill increases or dangerous lapses in grid reliability.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also enjoyed having a great group of constituents from the Low-Income Housing Alliance join us in the Senate to talk about the importance of housing and homelessness prevention in our community and some of the things the Legislature can do to help. This is obviously something with which I\u2019m deeply concerned. Beyond the work we\u2019re doing to lower construction costs and keep people in their homes with the legislation I\u2019m advancing, we also need to directly build more affordable housing \u2013 like the Habitat for Humanity development that will be built on Boulevard Road by the LBA Woods, which I was glad we were able to help fund in the 2025 capital budget.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re ever here at the Capitol campus, feel free to call my office or email me at Jessica.Bateman@leg.wa.gov<\/a>, I\u2019m always happy to see constituents. Even if I\u2019m at a bill hearing or on the Senate floor, my staff would be glad to take down your thoughts or help answer a question. Thank you for reading, and I\u2019m excited for the next important steps we have coming up to develop the state budget and pass more important bills through the Senate!<\/p>\n

In service,<\/p>\n

– Jess<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear friends and neighbors, We\u2019re now nearly a third of the way through the legislative session. We\u2019ve already passed legislation through the Senate on some of the biggest and most important issues before us. ICE face masks We are all horrified by the violence and violations of civil rights we see on the news and in our communities being committed by masked federal agents. While our ability to control the federal immigrations enforcement is limited as state legislators, we are advancing legislation to protect Washingtonians. \u00a0The use of face masks by ICE agents is one of the issues that I\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":1240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe top issue I\u2019ve heard from you - Sen. 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