{"id":2736,"date":"2022-01-14T12:36:46","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T19:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/?p=2736"},"modified":"2022-01-20T16:49:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T23:49:38","slug":"legislature-is-back-for-2022-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2022\/01\/14\/legislature-is-back-for-2022-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislature is back for 2022 session\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week marked the beginning of the\u00a02022\u00a0legislative\u00a0session,\u00a0and\u00a0with it\u00a0another opportunity to\u00a0improve the lives of people in our state and\u00a0here in the 43<sup>rd<\/sup>\u00a0Legislative\u00a0District.\u00a0This\u00a0is a short, 60-day session, mostly focused on making improvements to the two-year budgets and major policies that we enacted in 2021.\u00a0I am\u00a0honored\u00a0to continue\u00a0representing\u00a0you in that work.<\/p>\n<p>Following public health guidance given the community spread of the\u00a0Omicron variant, the Legislature is again convening remotely for all committee work, while\u00a0a small\u00a0number of\u00a0lawmakers meet in person for masked and distanced floor action.\u00a0Although I wish we were together in person, last year we learned that virtual operations\u00a0increase transparency and accessibility for constituents and citizens testifying remotely.\u00a0I look forward to hearing and meeting many of\u00a0you\u00a0virtually\u00a0this year.\u00a0You can also stay up to date on floor and committee activities\u00a0at <a href=\"https:\/\/leg.wa.gov\/SENATE\/COMMITTEES\/Pages\/default.aspx\">www.leg.wa.gov<\/a>\u00a0as they are\u00a0streamed on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvw.org\/\">TVW.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">New year, new roles<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last month, my colleagues in the Senate Democratic Caucus elected me to serve as our Senate Majority Floor Leader.\u00a0The floor leader\u00a0opens the day\u2019s\u00a0proceedings, assigns bills to committees, and sets the agenda for debates on the Senate floor, ensuring that priority bills are debated and voted on. I continue to serve on the Law &amp; Justice Committee, the Early Learning &amp; K-12 Education Committee, the Ways &amp; Means Committee, and the Rules Committee.\u00a0In addition, I serve on the Legislative Ethics Board, the Office of Public Defense Oversight Committee, and the Statute Law Committee, and as one of Washington\u2019s commissioners on the Uniform Law Commission.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to my new duties this session, I\u2019m sponsoring eight bills this year, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Supporting public transit:<\/strong> The opening of new light rail stations last fall in the University District and Roosevelt has transformed our neighborhoods as we realize the promise of how quickly and efficiently people can get around the city and dream of how much better the system could be if it were fully built out. <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=5528&amp;Year=2021&amp;Initiative=false\">Senate Bill 5528<\/a> would let local communities such as Seattle decide if we want to expand transit further and faster. More than 900 people signed up in support of the bill last Thursday. You can watch the hearing here.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Redistricting reform:<\/strong> Every 10 years new legislative lines are drawn across the country. Unfortunately, here in Washington, our commission failed to meet acceptable transparency standards and missed the deadline to approve new maps, forcing the Supreme Court to intervene. <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=5560&amp;Year=2021&amp;Initiative=false\">Senate Bill 5560<\/a>\u00a0would reform the process to ensure we don\u2019t experience a failure like this again. Among other reforms, it would require the Redistricting Commission to make final map proposals publicly available three days before the deadline.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Collaborating with the courts:<\/strong> I believe that each generation of lawmakers has a responsibility to improve our democracy for the next. This year I\u2019m sponsoring <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=5490&amp;Initiative=false&amp;Year=2021\">Senate Bill 5490<\/a> to improve\u00a0communication and collaboration among the\u00a0judicial,\u00a0legislative, and executive\u00a0branches on court funding and policy issues affecting the court system. I am hopeful that this systemic change can improve how efficiently our government works for\u00a0you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Work on police accountability continues<\/h2>\n<p>Last year,\u00a0I was proud\u00a0to help the Legislature pass historic police reform into law.\u00a0As chair of the Senate Law and Justice Committee,\u00a0I worked hard to increase accountability\u00a0and transparency\u00a0in law\u00a0enforcement\u00a0state\u00a0agencies\u00a0after the horrific killings of George Floyd, Manuel Ellis, and many others in our state and country.\u00a0I am grateful for\u00a0the input and feedback from constituents and\u00a0community leaders\u00a0as we worked together to\u00a0bring justice to\u00a0Black, indigenous, and other communities of color across our state.<\/p>\n<p>As with any major reform, we have learned in the six months since these bills went into effect about some places where the law needs clarification or adjustment. We will be working hard to make those small changes without undermining the historic progress of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>As the session progresses, please\u00a0feel free to\u00a0contact me about issues of concern to you at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:Jamie.Pedersen@leg.wa.gov\">Jamie.Pedersen@leg.wa.gov<\/a>. \u00a0I will continue to send periodic updates throughout the session before the Legislature adjourns for the year on March 10.<\/p>\n<p>Best wishes,<\/p>\n<p>Jamie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week marked the beginning of the\u00a02022\u00a0legislative\u00a0session,\u00a0and\u00a0with it\u00a0another opportunity to\u00a0improve the lives of people in our state and\u00a0here in the 43rd\u00a0Legislative\u00a0District.\u00a0This\u00a0is a short, 60-day session, mostly focused on making improvements to the two-year budgets and major policies that we enacted in 2021.\u00a0I am\u00a0honored\u00a0to continue\u00a0representing\u00a0you in that work. Following public health guidance given the community spread of the\u00a0Omicron variant, the Legislature is again convening remotely for all committee work, while\u00a0a small\u00a0number of\u00a0lawmakers meet in person for masked and distanced floor action.\u00a0Although I wish we were together in person, last year we learned that virtual operations\u00a0increase transparency and accessibility for constituents and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-news","category-news-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Legislature is back for 2022 session\u00a0\u00a0 - Sen. Jamie Pedersen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2022\/01\/14\/legislature-is-back-for-2022-session\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legislature is back for 2022 session\u00a0\u00a0 - Sen. Jamie Pedersen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week marked the beginning of the\u00a02022\u00a0legislative\u00a0session,\u00a0and\u00a0with it\u00a0another opportunity to\u00a0improve the lives of people in our state and\u00a0here in the 43rd\u00a0Legislative\u00a0District.\u00a0This\u00a0is a short, 60-day session, mostly focused on making improvements to the two-year budgets and major policies that we enacted in 2021.\u00a0I am\u00a0honored\u00a0to continue\u00a0representing\u00a0you in that work. Following public health guidance given the community spread of the\u00a0Omicron variant, the Legislature is again convening remotely for all committee work, while\u00a0a small\u00a0number of\u00a0lawmakers meet in person for masked and distanced floor action.\u00a0Although I wish we were together in person, last year we learned that virtual operations\u00a0increase transparency and accessibility for constituents and...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2022\/01\/14\/legislature-is-back-for-2022-session\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sen. 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