With the exception of Monday, we spent all day every day passing bills in the Senate this week. Wednesday, March 14, is the deadline for getting bills that originated in the Senate voted on by the entire body.

We passed bills that address all of our priorities – education, health care, economic development, the environment and public safety. Below is a summary of some of the most significant measures.

Education

We passed four bills to implement the Washington Learns report, which recommended innovative improvements to revolutionize early learning, K-12 education, educator preparation, and math, science and technology education.

• Math and science. Senate Bill 5813 would create math, science and technology programs that will put Washington students on the cutting edge.
• Professional development. SB 5955 would make investments in teacher professional development and create a statewide leadership academy for school administrators.
• Expanding kindergarten. SB 5841 would phase in an all-day kindergarten program.
• Early learning. SB 5828 would improve early learning programs in our state.

How can we expect our children to compete in an increasingly global economy if we don’t give them the proper tools?

Health Care

• Blue Ribbon Commission. As you may recall, I sat on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access. To implement its recommendations – and assure that every Washington resident has access to affordable, high-quality health care within five years – we passed SB 5930.
• Children’s health care. The governor is expected to sign into law this Tuesday, March 13, SB 5093, which would extend health care coverage to an additional 38,000 children. The bill gets us a giant step closer to our goal of insuring all children by 2010.

Economic Development

• Local Infrastructure Financing Tools (LIFT). SB 5115 would raise the limit of the annual state contribution to LIFT to $7.5 million from $5.5 million. I’m hopeful this boost will help fund the Kendall Yards project.

Environment

• Climate change. One of my personal priorities this session is to address the unequivocal problem of climate change. We passed SB 6001, which would:

• Roll back Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020;
• Establish a greenhouse gas performance standard for new natural gas and coal plants, as well as for utilities’ power purchases;
• Reduce imported fuel expenditures by 20 percent by 2020;
• Offer utilities incentives to invest in cost-effective conservation and energy-efficiency technologies;
• Authorize utilities to spend money for emission mitigation;
• Triple the number of jobs in the clean energy market; and
• Create the Office of State Climatologist.

Ignoring the effects of climate change will not only wreak havoc on our environment, but also on our economy. I hope the House will see the benefit of passing this measure.

Public Safety

• Offender re-entry. To help prepare inmates to better function in society upon release, we passed a sweeping set of prison reforms. Among other things, SB 5070, a bipartisan effort, would:

• Require inmates to develop on individual re-entry plan, including an assessment to identify programming, educational and treatment needs, as well as risk factors during incarceration to help prepare an offender for release;
• Provide, as much as possible, needed educational and vocational programs during incarceration (offenders must pay all costs and tuition for any post-secondary degree)
• Restore a convicted felon’s right to vote once he or she is no longer confined or under Department of Corrections supervision, or r he or she stays on track to repay legal financial obligations;
• Tell prison officials to open three more community justice centers and 120 more work-release beds;
• Study the effectiveness of work-release programs; and
•  Impose harsh rules on offenders who break the rules.

Plea to Congress

• Do not federalize National Guard. We also passed a measure (Senate Joint Memorial 8012) I’m sponsoring that asks the federal government to not mobilize as federal troops the state’s National Guard, so these soldiers can be on the ready to help in state or local emergencies.

Stay tuned for next week’s update!

Sincerely,
Lisa

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