Dear friends and neighbors,
Olympia can be a stuffy place. We vote on bills with titles like “Dredged material disposal,” “Irrigation dist. elections” and “Bridge year pilot program.”
Then you get a bill titled “Prohibiting the feeding of garbage to swine.” It’s not often that a bill title contains two of the more reviled words in our vocabulary. In fact, the ranking Republican on the Agriculture committee that I chair said she thought it was a gag when she heard the title. I can understand that. I struggled not to laugh when I spoke about the bill on the Senate floor last week. And it was my bill!
But it was no gag. Senate Bill 5300 is a no-nonsense piece of legislation that will protect people, livestock and other animals from harmful animal diseases.
Lawmaking is serious business. The votes we take have real impacts and real ramifications. But some days you can’t help smiling. And in these stressful times, that’s important.
Take care,
