March 5, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, The end of the 2022 legislative session is less than a week away, and yesterday brought the last of the major deadlines for acting on bills. With the exception of budget-related legislation, the Senate is officially done voting on House bills for the...

OLYMPIA… Sen. Lynda Wilson, Senate Republican budget leader, offered the following statement after the Senate’s majority Democrats adopted a 2021-23 supplemental operating budget that represents a spending increase of more than 21% from the previous two-year budget. Wilson, R-Vancouver, criticized the $63.6 billion budget for failing to turn a record...

OLYMPIA… Despite a budget surplus that climbed to a record $15 billion with the year’s first revenue forecast, the state Senate’s majority Democrats failed to include direct tax relief in the 2021-23 supplemental operating budget they proposed this morning. Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, made the following comment after seeing how...

[[VIEW_THIS]]  Feb.18, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, In the same week that state government’s budget surplus hit the $15 BILLION mark, the state Senate rushed a bill through that would mean triple-digit increases in certain costs for Washington drivers and has our neighboring states accusing ours of trying to tax...

OLYMPIA… Senate Republican Leader John Braun and Sen. Lynda Wilson, prime sponsor of two bipartisan bills to reform Washington’s emergency-powers law, offered this statement today following the passage of Senate Bill 5909. The measure received a 29-20 vote, after amendments offered by Wilson, R-Vancouver, and Braun, R-Centralia, were turned down...

[[VIEW_THIS]]  Feb.11, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, Both chambers of the Legislature are in the middle of an eight-day stretch of floor action. This is when, with few exceptions, we spend the entire day at our desks on the floor of the Senate chamber and take action on bills forwarded...

OLYMPIA… The state Senate today unanimously supported legislation from Sen. Lynda Wilson that would do more to hold the state Health Care Authority accountable for Medicaid-related spending, and its oversight of managed-care organizations. “Senate Bill 5620 sends a clear message: The Health Care Authority has to keep a better handle...

Feb. 4, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, We’re at a point in the 2022 session when bills begin to stall – or “die,” as some put it – because there isn’t enough support to move them forward. This can happen for several reasons. For instance, a bill may need more...

OLYMPIA… Republican senators have introduced a plan to rescue the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave insurance program and put it on stable footing through 2028, without increasing the premiums paid by Washington workers. “It was a shock to learn this enormously popular, pro-family program is in such dire financial...

Jan. 28, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, If you had asked me Monday morning, I would have said the 11 bills I’d filed during the first two weeks of our session – the latest being an updated version of my emergency-powers reform – would be it. But after seeing the...