Dear Neighbors, There are now less than 10 days left for legislators to wrap up their work at the Capitol. The time remaining in this session will be devoted to debating and voting in the Senate chamber, while some of us put in extra hours negotiating final versions of the...

Feb. 14, 2026 Dear Neighbors, This year’s 60-day legislative session just passed the halfway mark. The 14 committees in the Senate that consider either policy or budget-related bills are on a break while the 49 members of the Senate debate and vote on legislation that originated in the Senate and...

Jan. 31, 2026 A highlight of each legislative session is the visit by the people who keep the Washington State Penitentiary running — members of Teamsters Local 117. The challenge is finding a good place for a photo! This year we gathered at the front of the Senate chamber, with...

The Elected Officials Reception hosted recently by the Home Builders Association of the Tri-Cities and the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce was a great opportunity to connect with a large number of local business and community leaders. This was at the REACH Museum in Richland — and I count 42...

I’m grateful that my fellow legislators have repeatedly backed our 16th District delegation’s requests for millions of dollars in capital-budget funding to help transform the old Kennewick General Hospital into the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery. This project is one of the good things happening in our area; hopefully it...

It’s normal for the new state budgets to be adopted on the final day of our regular legislative session, and this year was no different. This is how the operating budget looked as it sat on the “bar” at the front of the Senate chamber on Sunday. The stack contains...

Dear Neighbor, This year’s regular legislative session will end no later than midnight this coming Sunday. Our state constitution says so, because the regular sessions in odd-numbered years are limited to 105 days — and Sunday is day 105. If the Legislature still has work to do, it can go...

OLYMPIA… Today Sen. Perry Dozier and his fellow Republican senators opposed the first round of major tax increases brought to the full Senate: a sales-tax increase that will hit lower- and middle-income families harder, a tax increase that will drive capital out of Washington, and a collection of unrelated tax...

Dear Neighbor, Late in a legislative session, the priorities of the majority come into focus. Judging from the two major policy bills that were passed Thursday and Friday by the Senate’s majority Democrats, the priorities can be summed up in a word: control. Let’s go in reverse order. On Friday...