Dear friends and neighbors,
After nine weeks of work, the 2026 legislative session ended last Thursday evening. Short sessions like these are difficult, and the ongoing budget challenges we face made our work in Olympia this year particularly tough. But we still have much to celebrate, and I’m excited to update you on all the great progress we made this session.
Which bills made the cut?
I’m thrilled that five of my bills passed the Legislature this session. The governor has already signed one of them into law, and he’ll soon sign the other four! Here’s what passed:
- SB 5105 strengthens protections against child sexual exploitation by holding predators accountable for creating, viewing, distributing, or possessing fabricated sexually explicit images of minors, including those produced through generative artificial intelligence (AI).
- SB 5395 prohibits private insurance companies from using AI as the only means to deny, delay, or modify health care services for patients. This bill will ensure only health professionals — not AI systems — have the power to make critical insurance decisions about a patient’s care.
- SB 5957 expands the membership of the Homeless Youth Advisory committee, which leads our state’s efforts to reduce, prevent, and strengthen pathways out of homelessness for youth and young adults. By expanding the committee’s membership, we’re ensuring people with lived experience as homeless youth are helping guide our state’s planning and prevention efforts.
- SB 5938 strengthens and clarifies the Foreclosure Fairness Act, so we can help keep people in their homes whenever possible.
- SB 5520 revises state laws allowing people wrongly convicted of felonies to seek compensation from the state. This is a critical bill for ensuring innocent people can more easily seek justice for their wrongful convictions and imprisonment.
One of the perils of shorter legislative sessions is that we simply don’t have enough time to pass as many bills as we’d like. I’m disappointed that some of my priority legislation didn’t make it this year, but I will continue fighting next session to address the important issues affecting our district. That includes mitigating the health and environmental impacts on people living near SeaTac airport, delivering tax relief for homeowners and property owners who were affected by last December’s floods, protecting our critical infrastructure from copper wire theft, and holding businesses accountable for engaging in human trafficking.
Flood relief and recovery
Sens. Tina Orwall and Claudia Kauffman, leaders of the bicameral, bipartisan Flood Caucus.
As chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Flood Caucus, I’m proud of the work we’ve done this session to help our state recover from last December’s historic flooding. Our final capital and transportation budgets invest significantly in our recovery efforts while our state waits for federal aid.
Our capital budget allocates $41 million specifically for recovery and prevention, including grants to cover the cost of debris and waterway clearance. The budget also directs funding for levee and floodplain investments on the Nooksack, Green, and Samish rivers, as well as a needs and risk assessment in Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Lewis counties to help identify the highest-value flood preparedness projects for funding in future years.
I’m particularly pleased we secured a $2 million investment to design and upgrade the levee system near Signature Point to a 500-year flood protection level, which will directly benefit about 2,200 Kent residents. This investment represents a critical step toward long-term flood resilience in our community.
Our transportation budget also invests heavily in our infrastructure recovery efforts. It includes $45 million for state and local highway recovery, as well as $2 million to help people who live in RVs that were damaged by the floods.
Budget investments to help keep our district moving forward
Speaking of budgets, I wanted to highlight some of the local investments we’ll be seeing in communities throughout our district.
Helping kids with asthma
As an airport community, our residents face higher rates of chronic diseases, especially asthma. The air we breathe has higher levels of ultrafine particles associated with aircraft, which can cause inflammation in the lungs and make it more difficult for people with asthma to breathe, especially children.
Over the last few years, I’ve secured funds to help provide clinical interventions for kids in our community who have poorly controlled asthma, and I’m thrilled our budget includes $592,000 to help continue these free services. This is an incredibly effective program that has reduced kids’ symptoms, improved their sleep, reduced inhaler use, and resulted in fewer days where asthma has interfered with daily life.
Any King County resident who is 5 years or older and has uncontrolled asthma is eligible for the program. I’ve included a flyer — one in English and Spanish — with more information about what the program includes and how to enroll.
Funding for capital construction projects
I’m proud to have worked with my seatmates, Reps. Mia Gregerson and Edwin Obras, to secure more than $4.3 million for several construction projects in our district. This includes:
- Building Kent’s Open Doors Multicultural Village, a support hub for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After working closely with Open Doors for four years, I’m thrilled we have secured the final funding they need to break ground on a 233-unit housing development that will serve those with lower incomes and intellectual and developmental disabilities. The village will also feature an inclusive learning center, a resource center, and retail space.
- Improving the community kitchen at Living Well Kent, an organization that promotes wellness and health in south King County.
- Purchasing and repairing a community facility for Para Los Ninos, an organization in Burien that’s dedicated to supporting the education of children from our Latin American community.
- Building the African Diaspora Cultural Anchor Village and Welcoming and Healing Center. These projects will provide essential affordable housing, community, and support for African immigrants and refugees in King County.
These are important investments that will not only create jobs but also improve people’s quality of life and access to opportunities.
Supporting people in crisis
A 988 sign over the Piscataqua River Bridge between Maine and New Hampshire. Photo courtesy of Spectrum News/Sean Murphy.
I’ve been working on suicide prevention measures and increasing access to mental health services every session since joining the Legislature in 2009. Washington continues to make great progress to help people when they need it, especially with our 988 suicide and crisis line, but there’s more we can do to increase awareness about this essential service.
I’m thankful our transportation budget provides funding to install signs displaying the 988 line — like the one in the picture above from a bridge between Maine and New Hampshire — on or near bridges in our state that are at high risk for suicides. This is a lifesaving measure that will connect people to services when they are in crisis.
Other wins for Washington
In addition to my five bills that were passed this session, I wanted to highlight some of the critical legislation Senate Democrats approved to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials accountable, protect our immigrant neighbors, enhance our state’s data and privacy laws, and help fix Washington’s upside-down tax code.
Holding ICE accountable and protecting our immigrant neighbors
The federal government’s aggressive, out-of-control tactics have left many of our immigrant friends and neighbors living in fear of deportation and other harm. This session, we refused to stand by and let masked ICE agents violate people’s civil rights and commit horrible acts of violence. We passed several bills this session that will bring additional transparency, accountability, and protection from the terror ICE is inflicting on our communities.
Senate Democrats successfully fought to prohibit law enforcement officers — including ICE agents — from wearing face-concealing masks while interacting with the public. We also worked to preserve the integrity of Washington’s law enforcement by making it a crime for people who are not law enforcement officers to wear badges or other law enforcement insignia.
And to help better protect immigrant workers, we passed legislation that now requires employers to notify their staff about federal I-9 form audits. ICE has significantly increased the number of notices of inspection issued to employers nationwide in recent months. The legislation would ensure that workers get the same information as their employers when federal officials request an audit of their employment eligibility information.
Enhancing privacy protections
Many cities in Washington, including some in our district, have purchased and installed “Flock” cameras, which continuously photograph and identify vehicles with AI-powered Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology. These cameras pose significant privacy concerns because they store that data in a network that can be searched by law enforcement agencies across the country.
Last week, we passed bipartisan legislation that sets time limits for how long ALPR data can be retained, clarifies who is responsible for the data and prohibits the use of ALPR data for immigration enforcement or tracking protected activities like free speech protests, use of ALPR cameras near schools, places of worship, courthouses or food banks, and sharing of data with other agencies except in judicial proceedings.
Fixing our upside-down tax code
Washington continues to have the second most inequitable — or upside-down — tax code in the nation. This is in part because it over-relies on funding from regressive taxes like the sales tax, which put the biggest squeeze on people with low and middle income.
The passage of the Millionaires Tax this session represents a significant step to make our tax system fairer by asking the ultra-wealthy in our state to pay their fair share for the services we all rely on. In the simplest terms, the Millionaires Tax is a 9.9% tax on households earning over $1 million per year. If a household makes $1,000,500 each year, the tax will only apply to that $500, meaning the tax owed would only be about $50.
The tax will only impact about 20,000 households statewide and only about 133 of the wealthiest households in our district. I’m proud to have helped pass this historic bill because it will provide critical support for education, early learning, child care, health care, higher education, and human services. It will also allow our state to expand eligibility for the Working Families Tax Credit, reduce or eliminate taxes for nearly 140,000 small businesses, and make everyday items like diapers, hygiene products, and over-the-counter medications tax-free!
Thank you to my incredible staff
From left to right: Mary Soderlind, Hailey Morris, Sen. Tina Orwall, Shyla Reed, and Freddie Garza
None of the work I did this session would’ve been possible without my incredible legislative staff. My interns, Shyla Reed and Freddie Garza, session aide, Hailey Morris, and my wonderful, long-standing legislative assistant, Mary Soderlind, have been an awesome team to work with this session. Over the past nine weeks, they’ve done everything from coordinate meetings with community members and key representatives to research and track my bills and respond to constituent questions. Their work is integral to the legislative process, and I’m so grateful for their service!
Keep in touch!
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact my office when you have feedback, questions, or concerns. You can reach me at Tina.Orwall@leg.wa.gov or 360-786-7664. I hope to hear from you.
Sincerely,
