Dear friends and neighbors,  

We are now more than halfway through the 2024 legislative session. We spent last week passing bills off the Senate floor ahead of another important deadline. The chamber of origin cutoff on Tuesday means Senate bills will need to pass through the Senate, otherwise they’re done for the session. The exception is for bills that are necessary to implement the budget.  

Keep Our Care Act passes the Senate! 

We’ve seen firsthand what unchecked health care system consolidations can do to communities like ours.  

Consolidations across Washington have resulted in more expensive care and restricted access to critical health services. They’ve resulted in medically unnecessary hurdles, harmful delays and increased travel times that disproportionately hurt low-income and rural communities, people of color, women, LGBTQ+ individuals and terminally ill patients. 

The Keep Our Care Act would ensure hospital mergers and acquisitions don’t restrict patients’ access to critical health care, such as end-of-life, reproductive and gender-affirming care. The bill would require the Attorney General’s Office to determine through a public process if a hospital merger would detrimentally affect access to health care. 

I’m pleased to share that the Keep Our Care Act passed the Senate and now heads to the House for consideration. 

Working Families Tax Credit 

In early 2023, we launched the Working Families Tax Credit. Since then, it has provided over $116 million in refunds to 163,000 Washington households, with an average refund of $714 per household.  249,000 kids have been helped by the program.  

🚨Applications for the 2024 cycle opened Feb. 1 and are available through the end of the calendar year. To check if you’re eligible for the rebate of up to $1,255, click here. 

If you haven’t claimed your rebate from last year, there’s still time to do that.  

How you can get involved this session    

  • Learn how the legislative process works here.     
  • Find legislation here.   
  • Watch committee hearings, floor debates and more on TVW.     
  • Testify in committee hearings in person or remotely by signing up here. See what’s going on each day by checking out the Legislature’s calendar.   
  • Reach out to my office anytime at 360-786-7650 or Emily.Randall@leg.wa.gov. You can also follow along for more legislative updates on my official Facebook and Instagram pages.