Hello Friends and Neighbors, My 10th and final session as a state legislator (the video of my announcement is here) ended on time Thursday – several hours ahead of the midnight deadline, in fact. It was also free of the drama I’ve seen in other years as legislators try desperately...

  Part of the job of Senate Republican budget leader is standing in the Senate chamber to speak about whether to vote for or against the budget being debated. That’s what is happening in this photo from Sunday afternoon, hours before this year’s regular legislative session ended. April 27, 2023...

March 17, 2023 Hello Friends and Neighbors, There aren’t many things the Legislature must do, but in odd-numbered years like this, approving new budgets is one of them. There are three state budgets: operating, capital and transportation. They cover a two-year period that begins July 1 in odd-numbered years. The...

June 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, I hope this report finds you and your loved ones doing OK. I wish I had good news about the affordability issues facing families here and across our state, but none of the 303 laws created by the Legislature this year will provide significant...

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...

[[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...

[[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...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, The final day of our 105-day session is a week from this Sunday. I mentioned in my previous report how there’s no excuse for going past that deadline when one party controls both houses of the Legislature… but sure enough, the chatter about an overtime session...

Efforts to replace the outmoded I-5 bridge spanning the Columbia River took a key step forward last week when the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released a comprehensive inventory of bridge data. WSDOT was directed to conduct an inventory of existing data from previous efforts to replace the bridge as...