Category Archives: E-News

The last day of the legislative session is called ‘Sine Die,’ Latin for ‘without day,’ because the Legislature adjourns without setting a day to reconvene. We started the session with the goal of finishing in 60 days and are on pace to accomplish ...

Staying alive We have now passed two cut-off dates, and the majority of bills that were introduced will not progress any further this session. Essentially, the legislative session is like a funnel. We started with nearly 4,000 bills introduced over ...

How a bill becomes law: Step 2 You may remember a few weeks ago, our team dropped SB 6345 in the hopper to start its legislative journey. In this week’s installment, SB 6345, a bill to impose a 10-year moratorium ...

This is a tense week in Olympia as the first of the “cutoff" dates approaches this Friday. Any bills not passed out of a policy committee by Friday, Feb. 2 will be ineligible to be considered for the remainder of ...

Capital budget passed! I am pleased to announce that the capital construction budget, blocked from a vote since last year, finally passed the Legislature. The capital budget was the top priority for our new Senate majority and funds construction projects ...

Today we start the second week of the Legislative session. Early in session, we are mostly holding hearings in committee, refining bills and deciding what will move forward to the next phase of the legislative process. We will also be ...

As we prepare for the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 8, there is a lot of positive change in Olympia. After a special election victory in the 45th Legislative District, Democrats have reclaimed the majority of the state Senate. ...

Mobile Office this Wednesday Please join me, Rep. Riccelli and Rep. Ormsby at our Mobile Office this Wednesday in Spokane. As in the past, we host mobile offices to stay in touch with our constituents who may not have been able ...

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 ...

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. ...