Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Today marks the end of the 1st week of the 60-day 2022 legislative session. Although this is once again a virtual session, I am in Olympia full time for the next 8 weeks and prepared to be your voice in Olympia fighting for your rights and freedoms.
Curbing the governor’s emergency powers
Like many of you, I remain concerned with the unlimited authority granted to our state’s governor during a time of emergency. Once again, legislation has been introduced this session to curb the governor’s emergency powers. Senate Bill 5039 requires all gubernatorial emergency orders to be approved by the legislature after thirty days. The emergency-powers law dates back to 1969, and we think it’s safe to say no one intended for it to be used like this. The people of Washington have been under one-person rule for almost two years, and the legislative branch – an equal branch of government, and the branch which is closest to the people – has been unnecessarily left out of this process.
Restore Public Safety
One of my main priorities for this 60-day legislative session is to fix the rushed anti-policing bills passed last year. Addressing public safety concerns is a high priority for both House and Senate Republicans this year. The need for new and amended laws in the areas of public safety, putting victims and safety first, fixing Department of Corrections, property crimes and State v. Blake (legalization of hard drugs) is tremendous. We have been working on a wide variety of bills in all these areas and I invite you to learn more about them by reading Safe Washington: A Republican plan for increasing public safety, reducing crime, and putting victims first!
We have only continued to see crime increase across our state since the bills hindering our men and women in uniform were enacted last year. We must come together in a bipartisan way to undo and correct much of what was put in place last year in a short sighted effort to improve public safety in our communities.