Members of the Majority Coalition Caucus have announced that Spokane Valley Sen. Mike Padden will continue to serve as chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, which deals with civil and criminal law and will assume responsibility for corrections issues. “In the last two years, the Senate Law and Justice...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, This interim (the time between legislative sessions) has been very busy. We have made major strides in bringing attention to issues ranging from impaired driving and the need to increase public safety to human trafficking, the separation of powers and open government. Please keep reading for...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, People who want to provide testimony to legislative committees must either send something in writing, or make the long trip to Olympia and speak in person. Tomorrow morning our Senate Law and Justice Committee will conduct the first real demonstration of what I hope will become...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, It was almost exactly a year ago that I first invited people from our legislative district to join me, over coffee, and talk about issues of concern to them. Those meetings in mid-November 2013 were in Greenacres and Liberty Lake; the response was so positive that...

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley and chairman of the Senate Law and Justice Committee, offered this statement following today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that certain corporations may claim religious-freedom protections. “For the second week in a row the court has found that the Obama administration overreached its authority. Today’s ruling...

Sen. Mike Padden, Chair of the Senate Law and Justice Committee, announced today that the interim committee work session scheduled for June 16 will now include a discussion of the independence of hearings officers at state agencies. The topic was added in response to a recent whistleblower complaint filed by...

Washington State’s 4th District Senator Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, talks about Senate Bill 5156 – which has been approved by the Senate Committee on Health Care – that would require parents of underage girls be notified if the girls request abortions.

Sen. Mike Padden was among a majority of Senate Law and Justice Committee members who today endorsed legislation to require that an underage girl’s parent or guardian is notified before she can have an abortion. Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said the vote on Senate Bill 5156 completes the work he and...

As published here Jan. 24, 2014 in the Tacoma News Tribune Court dictates school funding? What’s next? By MIKE PADDEN, MATT MANWELLER AND TERRY NEALEY There is a clear principle outlined in the Washington Constitution, based on our federal model, called the separation of powers. This is the system of checks...