E-Newsletters

Sine Die The Legislature is in the final hours of the legislative session. We have yet to pass a supplemental budget but I am optimistic we will have an agreement soon. It is likely that the Governor will call a special session so we can finish our budget work in the coming days. In this “short” session, we were able to make progress ...

The legislative session is scheduled to come to a close on Thursday. We are working to come to a final budget agreement before then and I will have a full budget update before the end of the week. I concur... In addition to budget negotiations, the next few days will be busy with concurrence votes. For bills that have passed the House ...

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent 3rd Legislative District town hall meeting. We had over 250 in attendance and I appreciated all the input on issues of importance to Spokane. It was a productive and substantive conversation. If you have any further comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Your feedback is essential as we ...

We are fast approaching another important legislative milestone. After 5pm today, any bill that hasn’t been passed out of their chamber of origin (House or Senate) will not continue to move forward this session, unless it is necessary to implement the budget. Here’s an update on some of the bills I have been focused on this session. Full funding of basic education Senate ...

We deserve better  We are halfway through the legislative session. At this point in the process, the action moves from the hearing rooms to the Senate floor as we hit high gear sending bills to the House, and vice versa. Unfortunately, our work on Friday was interrupted in a disturbing way. I often talk about the large degree of bipartisanship in the ...

Education funding update We are now in the third week of this eight-week legislative session and education funding and educational opportunity are the most pressing issues facing the Legislature. I was pleased to serve on the governor’s bipartisan education funding work group over the past few months. Our group formulated legislation that lays out the next steps required to address full funding ...

Opening Day Monday was opening day for the Washington State Legislature. Although this is a 60-day “short session,” there is a lot to be accomplished. Our first priority for this year is to create a plan for fully funding basic education. We will also be working to increase campaign finance transparency, improve access to voting, and strengthen mental health services, as well as ...

2015 Update from your 3rd Legislative District team Please click here to explore our 3rd LD 2015 Legislative Update. 2015 legislative highlights include:

I am pleased to report that the 2015 legislative session(s) have come to an end. The Legislature passed biennial operating and capital budgets as well as a transportation investment package on June 30th to avoid a government shutdown. The final budget-related bills passed the Senate yesterday. The House has to approve these final pieces today and then the Legislature will adjourn ...

Do You Concur? In addition to working on the operating budget, we have now focused our attention on the concurrence process. For bills that have passed both chambers of the Legislature in different forms, the House and Senate must work together doing the "concurrence dance." When a Senate bill comes back from the House with amendments, the Senate votes "to concur" with ...