E-Newsletters

I am pleased to report that we have passed a K-12 education plan that funds our schools and delivers for Washington’s 1.1 million schoolchildren. It does so by supporting important programs aimed at closing the opportunity gap, increasing salaries and salary equity for educators so we can attract and retain the best possible teachers, and maintains local control. I was ...

Sunday was the final day of the 2017 regular legislative session and we have good news and disappointing news to report. First, the good news. In the final days of session, we unanimously passed a significant and responsible transportation budget. This transportation budget continued funding for important Spokane investments like the North Spokane Corridor and the U-District Gateway Bridge. New funding ...

Working Collaboratively We are starting the final week of the 2017 legislative session. In the past two weeks, we have passed meaningful and bipartisan legislation, including:

Last week, the Senate released our bipartisan 2017 capital budget. This budget is a big win for Spokane. I am proud we were able to secure funding for the following projects and improvements in the 3rd Legislative District and greater Spokane area:

Thank you to everyone who attended our town hall meeting in Spokane. It was exciting to see democracy in action with nearly 400 people in attendance sharing their legislative and community priorities. If you were not able to attend the town hall, please don’t hesitate to call or email me anytime about the issues that matter most to you. Now, I am ...

It’s hard to believe, but we are now halfway through this 105-day legislative session. Tomorrow represents a big deadline with the “House of Origin” cut-off. All Senate bills not passed out of the Senate by 5 pm tomorrow are dead for this year unless they are directly related to the budget. Spokane Town Hall I hope you can join my seatmates and ...

Last Friday marked what is known around here as policy cutoff day. It is one of the first hurdles in the lifecycle of a bill becoming a law. At this point, any policy bill (non-budget related) that hasn’t been voted out of its policy committee will not continue through the legislative process this session. This week we will work on ...

Tele-Town Hall Last week, my seatmates and I hosted a tele-town hall. I hope you were able to participate and found the event to be informative. If you were not able to tune in, you can listen to the event in its entirety by clicking here. Stopping Foreign Money in elections Our bill, SB 5570, to prevent foreign-owned companies from contributing ...

We are now in the third week of this 105-day legislative session. In the Senate alone, there have already been over 300 new bills introduced since the beginning of session and many more are expected to be filed in the coming weeks. Here’s an update on some of the bills I have prime-sponsored.

Today marks the beginning of the 2017 legislative session and I am excited to get back to work. Throughout session, I will be sending newsletters like this one to keep you up to date on the issues we are tackling that directly affect you and Spokane. If you know someone who would like to receive their own copy of my weekly ...