News Releases

House and Senate Democratic budget leaders released an updated legislative package to raise new progressive revenue and fund K-12 education and essential state services this week. It would raise nearly $12 billion over four years. “We’ve updated our proposal to reflect the feedback we received from our colleagues and the public,” said Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), vice chair for finance of ...

OLYMPIA — Ahead of next week’s full operating budget proposal, Senate Democratic budget leaders released their new revenue proposal for the 2025-27 operating budget. “We’ve spent months discussing our budget, learned about how damaging an all-cuts budget might be, and have done the hard work to scrub the budget for savings and efficiencies,” said Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), vice chair of ...

OLYMPIA — Senate Democratic budget leaders plan to release their new revenue proposal for the 2025-27 operating budget on Thursday, March 20. A press release with information on the proposal’s key elements will be sent at approximately 9 a.m., and a media availability for budget leaders to answer questions from members of the press will be held at 12 p.m. Who: Sen. Jamie ...

Legislation to protect children’s mental and behavioral health from addictive social media algorithms and harmful online content passed the Senate on a 36-12 vote Wednesday. In 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report that stated spending 3 hours online a day doubled the risk of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. That same report found that teenagers spend ...

Legislation to make clergy members mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect passed the Washington State Senate Friday on a 28-20 vote. Currently, Washington is one of just five states in the country that does not list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. Senate Bill 5375, sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), would require clergy to report information about child abuse to ...

Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle) introduced SB 5375, legislation to make clergy members mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. Currently, Washington is one of just five states in the country that does not list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. In 2023, Frame introduced similar legislation, SB 5280, which failed to pass because of disagreement whether to include an exemption for clergy who learned about ...

Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle) today introduced an updated proposal to make members of the clergy mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse, SB 6298.  Currently, Washington is one of just seven of states in the country that do not list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. In 2023, Frame introduced SB 5280 on the same issue, which ...

Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), Rep. Liz Berry (D-Seattle), and Rep. Julia Reed (D-Seattle), all voted today to pass an amended version of SB 5536, legislation to address substance use disorder by increasing the availability of treatment. Berry and Reed both voted against the conference committee version of SB 5536 that was considered by the House on the final day of the ...

Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation into law today to support rural economic development. SB 5229, sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), expands the range of economic development projects that can be funded by the state’s Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB), and ensures that CERB reports to the Legislature on the share of projects that use businesses owned by people of ...