E-Newsletters

Safe Routes to School Three of state government’s most important responsibilities are education, transportation and protecting the health and safety of the state’s residents. It is rare that we have a program that delivers on all three of these priorities, but that is exactly the case with the successful Safe Routes to School program. Safe Routes to School encourages children to “actively commute” to ...

WSU Spokane An outdated state law from 1917 dictates that Washington is only allowed to have one medical school, but in recent months, momentum has been building to change that law and allow WSU to establish a second medical school. Last week, Senator Baumgartner and I testified to support of SB 5487, which allows the creation of a WSU medical school in ...

Beginning Our Work on the Three State Budgets Every two years, the Legislature passes three major biennial budgets: An operating budget, which outlines spending for the majority of our government including education, corrections, health care and human services, a capital budget, which funds building and construction projects such as K-12 schools, higher education facilities and other permanent structures, and finally the ...

This past week made Olympia feel like home as we welcomed more than 100 Spokane area constituents to the Capitol Campus. There were education, business, non-profit and community leaders advocating for our community as part of the Greater Spokane Incorporated joint chamber delegation. Plus, we hosted several other large groups of constituents, including home care workers, teens advocating to protect and ...

Sen. Billig on appears on TVW's Opening Day Special. (Click on the image to see the interview!) Monday, January 12th marked the first day of the 2015 Legislative Session. There were the usual ceremonies to mark the opening of the session as well as the introduction of dozens of bills taking their first step in the journey to perhaps becoming a ...

Happy New Year! Happy New Year! I wish everyone a joyous, healthy, and successful 2015! Deputy Minority Leader I was honored that my colleagues recently elected me Deputy Leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus. As deputy minority leader, I will work to lead the Senate in passing legislation that will provide opportunities and build prosperity for the citizens of our ...

Community Leadership Summit on Transit Earlier this month, I participated in a transit summit with other elected officials, non-profit and business leaders and other transit riders. We completed a challenging transit planning exercise and expressed our priorities for transit in Spokane. Organized by the Spokane Transit Authority, the goal of the planning ...

Oil Train Hearing Spokane was the site of one of two public hearings last week on the Governor's Rail and Marine Oil Transportation Study. I testified at the hearing on the growth of oil transportation by rail through our state and the significant impact that oil trains could have on two important community priorities: safety and prosperity. Our safety could be ...

Commencement Address Last month, I had the honor of delivering the commencement address for the Spokane Falls Community College graduation ceremony. In my speech I focused on the benefit to being open-minded and quoted Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham,” one of my favorite stories to read with my daughter when she was little. The message of the story - to ...

Protecting the Spokane River Safeguarding the Spokane River is a priority for our community and has been one of my legislative priorities over the past four years. In that work, I often end up viewing the river through the lens of parts per million of PCBs or tons of phosphorous, so it was a pleasure last week to experience the river ...