News Releases

Dear friends and neighbors, Since Democrats regained the majority in the Washington State Senate in 2018, addressing systemic racial disparities in our criminal justice system and ending the era of mass incarceration have been high on our priority list. Over the last three years, we have worked to end the practice of locking up minors for non-criminal offenses, created a program ...

Dear friends and neighbors, Happy Pride 2021! There is much to celebrate this Pride Month as we emerge from the pandemic and collectively reflect on progress the LGBTQ community has made in the fight for equality. Next week we will also celebrate Juneteenth (June 19), the day in 1865 on which the last slaves in the U.S. learned that they had been ...

Dear friends and neighbors: When the Legislature convened in January, we were prepared to act swiftly to support the thousands of workers and small businesses suffering due to the pandemic. For many of our neighbors, the last year has been filled with financial anxiety and hardship. In the first month of session, we passed a $2.2 billion relief package to help ...

Dear friends and neighbors, Washington has led the nation with smart policy at the state level on many issues over the years, but tax fairness isn’t one of them. For decades, tax policy experts have reported that our state has the most regressive tax structure in the United States. The state’s lowest-income residents pay six times more in state and local ...

Dear friends and neighbors, The housing and homelessness crisis is among the most urgent challenges our region faces. In the past year, we’ve again learned valuable lessons about how essential affordable housing is, since during the pandemic your home became the only safe place for you to be. When the 2021 legislative session wrapped up a few weeks ago, I was ...

In the final days of this year’s session, the legislature reached agreement on several historic pieces of legislation to decrease carbon emissions in our state and protect the environment.

Combatting climate change

Dear friends and neighbors, The 2021 Legislature has adjourned for the year. While the 105-day session was conducted mostly on Zoom, we managed to complete our work on time for the fourth year in a row and enact historic policies to improve life here in Seattle and across the state. In the coming weeks, I will send more detailed updates on ...

Dear friends and neighbors: We are nearing the halfway mark of the 105-day legislative session in Olympia. Our top priority this session has been to help the people of our state make it through the pandemic. The legislature passed and Gov. Inslee signed a $2.2 billion measure (HB 1368) to expand testing and vaccine distribution, provide support to schools, ...

Dear friends and neighbors, The 2021 legislative session started this week under circumstances unlike any in our state’s history.  Our legislative buildings in Olympia were surrounded by security fencing. Hundreds of personnel from the Washington National Guard and State Patrol stood guard. Like most Americans, I’m deeply disturbed by the hateful violence and intimidation we saw in our nation’s capital and ...