While there is still much work to be done, several bills did make it through the legislative process and are now being signed into law. Last week Senate Bill 5101, my legislation to allow courts to order a mental evaluation of an offender, even if the Department of Corrections does...

Today the Senate passed a resolution commending businesses that have made veteran employment a priority. Our state is honored to host several major military bases and significant installations from all branches of the military, including Spokane County’s own Fairchild Air Force Base. With our military having been engaged in two...

There are just nine days left in the legislative session. This week we hit the deadline for the Senate and House to take action on bills from the opposite chamber, except those necessary to implement the budget and bills in dispute between the chambers. While I am hopeful that I...

The scheduled end of the 2015 legislative session is only 12 days away. That’s a very short amount of time to complete all the work yet to be done – especially on the budget. This week the House and the Senate began formal negotiations over their budget proposals. The two...

Early Friday morning, the Senate unanimously passed our bill to make a fourth DUI conviction in 10 years a felony. The policy is also funded in the Senate’s state budget proposal. This is great news. We’ve been working for a number of years to get this change through the Legislature,...

There are just four weeks left in the 2015 regular legislative session. Today – day 75 of the 105-day session – the majority party in the House of Representatives finally released its proposed operating budget. I’ll have more information on its proposal in my next update, but the initial news...

While our work on bills continues, I was reminded this week of why our efforts to pass legislation dealing with human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children are so important. As the Spokesman-Review reports, Spokane County inmates orchestrated sex crimes from their jail cells by arranging prostitution of underage girls....

Legislative Update: Key bills gain bipartisan support Yesterday’s ‘house of origin” voting deadline means that several bills have died for the session, but this is a good thing. The deadlines we put in place help to prioritize bills that have statewide significance and broad appeal. They also help identify bills...

Wednesday, March 11 is the deadline for both the Senate and House to pass their own bills – or they are off the table for the session. Budget-related bills may be considered until the end of the session. At this point in the session, several of the measures I introduced...