Tag Archives: 2023 Legislature

Padden laments Legislature’s lack of progress to address impaired driving

The day after its annual session at the state Capitol ended, 4th Legislative District Sen. Mike Padden is criticizing the Legislature’s inability to pass a meaningful bill that would help combat impaired driving.

“The Legislature missed a golden opportunity to start reversing the disturbing increase in traffic accidents caused by impaired driving,” said Padden, the ranking Republican on the Senate Law and Justice Committee. “In the final days of the session, a bill that represented a significant step toward addressing impaired driving stalled because of inaction by House Democrats and because certain legislators did not like it for one reason or another. As a result, our state likely will continue to see even more traffic accidents and traffic deaths because of impaired driving.”

According to statistics compiled by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, Washington road deaths reached a 20-year high in 2021. There were 670 traffic deaths in 2021, including 272 fatalities involving drug-impaired driving and 155 deaths involving alcohol-impaired driving. In 2020, Washington had 574 traffic fatalities, including 214 involving drug-impaired driving and 135 involving alcohol-impaired driving.

The commission has a current preliminary estimate of 745 traffic fatalities in 2022. No 2022 figures on traffic deaths involving drug- or alcohol-impaired driving are available yet.

“This year offered a great chance to start to turn things around in our state when it comes to impaired driving,” Padden, R-Spokane Valley, added today. “Many legislators wanted to strengthen the law to finally tackle this growing problem. It’s very disappointing to see our effort thwarted at the very end. The people of Washington deserve better.”

Padden pointed to House Bill 1493, which had been unanimously passed by the House in March and the Senate earlier this month. The version passed by the Senate included language from Senate Bill 5032, Padden’s bipartisan measure that would expand the period for reviewing prior convictions of impaired driving to 15 years, from the 10 years now in state law, when determining whether a new offense of impaired driving is charged as a felony. Under SB 5032, any person who has three or more prior DUI offenses within that 15-year lookback period would face a felony, rather than the current penalty of a gross misdemeanor. SB 5032 would give offenders a chance to undergo a highly structured treatment program.

Padden said state Rep. Roger Goodman, the chair of the House Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Committee, agreed to add SB 5032 language to HB 1493 while SB 5032 was in the House.

After the House last Monday voted to refuse to concur (or agree) with the Senate’s amendments, the Senate last Thursday voted to recede from its original amendments to the bill and then added a floor amendment that included language found in SB 5032 before unanimously passing the newly amended HB 1493. In other words, the Senate passed the policy language for SB 5032 three times this session, and the Senate approved HB 1493 twice this year.

However, the House did not bring the latest version of HB 1493 to the floor for a vote before the 2023 session adjourned last night.

It was the third straight year that the language found in SB 5032 had been approved by the Senate, only to not be passed by the House.

“We don’t know why Representative Goodman could not help bring House Bill 1493 to the House floor for a vote during the final days of the session,” said Padden. “It just languished in the House after the Senate made the changes to it that the House wanted. It was on the House concurrence calendar and there was time for the House to vote on it. The inaction by the House to bring it up for a vote is mind-boggling and a huge disappointment.”

Another disappointment for Padden was an 11th-hour decision to pull $400,000 from the 2023-25 state transportation budget – money that would have funded the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to establish a pilot program by March 2024 to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of oral swab tests to detect alcohol/drug combination DUI violations.

“The Traffic Safety Commission would have worked with the State Patrol and law-enforcement associations in selecting at least 10 locations to implement the pilot program as part of field-sobriety evaluations for possible DUI violations,” said Padden. “That funding would have allowed law enforcement to see how effective the oral-swab tests would help in determining if drivers were legally impaired. The funding was part of the Senate transportation budget plan, so it’s very disappointing that it was yanked out at the last minute.”

Padden noted that the new state operating budget passed by the Legislature yesterday does include ongoing funding for drug courts and the operating budget and the new state transportation budget together provide roughly a $6 million increase for toxicology labs, primarily to deal with backlogs and to open a new lab in Federal Way.

“It was good to see money for the drug courts and toxicology lab in these budgets, so there is some positive news this session about combating impaired driving. But so much more should have been done this year. What a wasted effort,” added Padden.

Video update to 4th District Slavic-speaking population

Legislature passes Padden bill raising penalty for custodial sexual misconduct

A bipartisan bill that aims to impose longer sentences on sexually abusive jail and prison guards is headed to the governor after being unanimously passed today by the House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 5033 would reclassify the crime of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct (in which the corrections officer has sexual intercourse with the victim) from a Class C felony to a Class B felony, allowing a prison term of 10 years instead of the current five-year maximum. The bill also would reclassify second-degree custodial sexual misconduct (in which the corrections officer has sexual contact with the victim) from a gross misdemeanor to a Class C felony, which would bring a maximum sentence of five years.

The proposal is prime-sponsored by 4^th District Sen. Mike Padden, the ranking Republican on the Law and Justice Committee.

“I’m very pleased that both the Senate and House unanimously passed this bill and sent it to the governor,” said Padden, R-Spokane Valley. “Officers who work in jails and state correctional facilities are part of the law-enforcement community just as much as the officers who patrol our communities and investigate crimes. Like all the other people we entrust to administer justice, corrections officers must be held to a high standard, especially considering the unique level of authority they have over people in custody.”

Padden’s bill was inspired by a KING-TV investigation about a Clallam County jail guard, John Gray, who served just over a year in prison after sexually assaulting four women.

When the bill was being considered by the Senate Law and Justice Committee early this session, it was named “Kimberly Bender’s law,” in honor of the 23-year-old Quileute woman who died by suicide in her Forks jail cell in 2019 after reporting to city officials that Gray sexually harassed her. Bender’s mother, Dawn Reid, asked Padden to name the bill after her daughter.

Gray was convicted in 2021 of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of custodial sexual misconduct and served 13 months of his 20-month sentence.

SB 5033 was passed by the Senate 48-0 on Feb. 27. It now goes to Gov. Jay Inslee for final consideration.

Senate’s proposed capital budget funds several 4th District projects, says Padden

Sen. Mike Padden appreciates that the Senate’s proposed two-year state capital budget, released Monday, includes several projects in the 4^th Legislative District and allows district residents to see their tax dollars help their local communities.

“Just about everything I requested is included in the Senate’s capital budget proposal, so I’m pleased with it,” said Padden, R-Spokane Valley. “The budget helps fund several local athletic and recreational projects in our district, as well as performing arts projects and other local projects. It’s a good capital budget for the 4^th District and for the state, and it’s good to see taxpayers’ money spent on local projects.”

The Senate’s proposed capital budget also funds these 4^th District projects:

$1.176 million for Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center construction, with another $1.849 million provided for the Spokane Valley Summer Theatre, which will be part of the performing arts center.
$1.03 million for the HUB sports fields in Liberty Lake.
$750,000 for Spokane Scale House Market in Spokane Valley.
$500,000 in Washington Wildlife Recreation Program funding for phase 2 work at Greenacres Park in Spokane Valley.
$350,000 for a synthetic turf field in Liberty Lake.
$207,000 for Veterans Memorial Balfour Park in Spokane Valley, with this funding having been repurposed from the 2022 state capital budget.
$130,000 for natural areas facilities preservation and access.
$100,000 for Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park in Mead.
$100,000 for Township Hall North and West in Spokane.
$100,000 from the Building Communities Fund Grant Program for expansion of the public food business incubator.
$40,000 to fund appraisals of two pieces of property, one in Liberty Lake that is being considered as the possible new location for the Army National Guard unit, and the other at Geiger Field, where the unit currently is located.

In addition, Senate capital budget writers provided funding for several baseball stadium projects across Washington, including $543,000 in local and community project funding for Spokane County Avista Stadium renovations in Spokane Valley.

The state capital budget funds the construction and maintenance of state buildings, public-school matching grants, higher-education facilities, public lands, parks, and other assets.

The Senate capital budget received a public hearing Monday in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The panel is expected to vote on the spending plan today, with the full Senate voting on it Friday.

The House of Representatives is expected to release its proposed capital budget next week.

The 2023 legislative session is scheduled to end April 23.

Sen. Padden to hold 4th District telephone town hall Monday, March 20

Note: The following e-newsletter was sent to Sen. Padden’s subscribers March 17, 2023. To subscribe to Sen. Padden’s newsletter, click here.

I invite you and other 4^th Legislative District residents to take part in a district telephone town hall on Monday, March 20, from 6 to 7 p.m.

Invitations to participate will go out just ahead of time via automated phone calls throughout the 4th District, which includes Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and other communities in northeast Spokane County. Constituents who don’t receive a phone call during this event may call (509) 224-9140 to join in.

The telephone town hall will be similar to a call-in radio program. During this event, I will provide an update on the 2023 legislative session before taking questions from participants.

A telephone town hall is a great and easy way to connect with 4^th District constituents from the comfort of their home. It provides me a convenient way to communicate what lawmakers are doing in Olympia and to learn what issues are important to you and others back home.

Most of the legislative session has been completed, but there are several major issues for the Legislature to address during the homestretch, so I look forward to sharing information with you and others and answering questions during the telephone town hall.

I hope you can join me Monday night.

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

Contact us!

If you have a question or concern about state government, please do not hesitate to contact our office. During the session we are conducting business from our Senate office in Olympia. We are here to serve you!

Phone: (360) 786-7606

Olympia Office: 215 Legislative Modular Building, Olympia, WA 98504-0404

Email address: Mike.Padden@leg.wa.gov

PLEASE NOTE: Any email or documents you provide to this office may be subject to disclosure under RCW 42.56. If you would prefer to communicate by phone, please contact Sen. Padden’s Olympia office at (360) 786-7606.

To request public records from Sen. Padden, please contact Randi Stratton, the designated public records officer for the Secretary of the Senate and Senate members.

Padden to hold 4th District telephone town hall Monday, March 20

State Sen. Mike Padden is inviting 4^th Legislative District residents to take part in a telephone town hall on Monday, March 20, from 6 to 7 p.m.

Invitations to participate will go out just ahead of time via automated phone calls throughout the district, which includes Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and other communities in northeast Spokane County. Constituents who don’t receive a phone call during the event may call (509) 224-9140 to join in.

The telephone town hall will be similar to a call-in radio program, with Padden providing an update on the 2023 legislative session before taking questions from participants.

“A telephone town hall is a great and easy way to connect with 4^th District constituents from the comfort of their home. It provides me a convenient way to communicate what lawmakers are doing in Olympia and to learn what issues are important to people back home,” said Padden, R-Spokane Valley.

“Most of the legislative session has been completed, but there are several major issues for the Legislature to address during the homestretch, so I look forward to sharing information with people and answering their questions during the telephone town hall.”

The 2023 legislative session is scheduled to end April 23.

Bills passed by Senate don’t go far enough to combat drugs, allow police to pursue suspects

Note: The following e-newsletter was sent to Sen. Padden’s subscribers March 10, 2023. To subscribe to Sen. Padden’s newsletter, click here.

The Senate just passed a milestone for the 2023 legislative session. Wednesday was the “floor cutoff,” the last day for the Senate to vote on Senate bills, except measures that are considered necessary for the upcoming state operating, capital and transportation budgets.

With the “floor cutoff” behind us, the Senate has returned its focus to committee meetings, this time to hold public hearings on bills passed by the House. Meanwhile, House committees are holding public hearings on legislation approved by the Senate. The 105-day legislative session is scheduled to end April 23.

During the final days before the floor cutoff, the Senate passed two bills that try to address significant public safety issues. However, both measures failed to significantly improve public safety.

The first of these two measures is Senate Bill 5536. This proposal is the latest attempt to address a problem created by a controversial ruling by our state Supreme Court two years ago.

On February 25, 2021, the Supreme Court in State v. Blake ruled Washington’s felony drug-possession statute was unconstitutional because it criminalized possession even when a person did not knowingly have drugs.

The Blake ruling basically decriminalized drug possession or drug use. As you can guess, this decision by the Supreme Court caught the Legislature’s attention two years ago. Two months after the Blake ruling, the Democrat majorities in the 2021 Legislature passed Senate Bill 5476. Every Senate Republican opposed the bill on final passage, along with a couple of Democrats. This law reduced the criminal penalty for possessing an illegal drug like fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine from a felony to a misdemeanor. The language in the legislation prevented even the misdemeanor from being prosecuted.

The action taken by the Legislature two years ago in response to Blake did not work. Plus, the law created by SB 5476 expires this year, so the Legislature needs to take new action on drug possession this session or hard drugs will be legal rather than just effectively legal.

Last Friday night, the Senate voted 28-21 to pass Senate Bill 5536, which aims to provide a solution to the state’s drug laws after the Blake ruling. The bill declares that possession of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine would be charged as a gross misdemeanor after three diversions.

I was among the 21 senators (some were Republicans, others were Democrats) who voted against the proposal. This bill does not go far enough to provide the leverage needed to help people get off dangerous drugs. It’s disappointing that the Senate did not restore making possession of fentanyl and other hard drugs a felony, as it was before the Supreme Court upended our state’s drug laws in the Blake decision two years ago. The threat of a longer sentence is a needed motivation for drug offenders to undergo treatment. We need a balance between accountability and treatment that this legislation doesn’t achieve.

In recent years, our state has endured a startling increase in drug-overdose deaths, and two-thirds of these deaths involve fentanyl. Law enforcement in our state has pointed out the importance of tougher penalties for drug possession in order to incentivize drug users to get the treatment they need to hopefully become clean. I’m concerned that we are missing the chance to create a true ‘carrot-and-stick’ approach to combat drug use in Washington.

While Senate Bill 5536 is an improvement over the inadequate drug-possession law passed in 2021, it does not go far enough to make meaningful and needed changes to our state’s drug laws.

SB 5536 now goes to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

The second public safety measure passed by the Senate that I opposed is Senate Bill 5352, a proposal that deals with vehicle pursuits of suspects by law-enforcement officers. The Senate passed SB 5352 on a 26-23 vote. There were 16 Democrats and 10 Republicans who voted for it, while 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted against it.

SB 5352 fails to sufficiently fix the problem created two years ago. It is, however, a vehicle for the Legislature to address the inability of law enforcement to pursue criminals.

The Democratic majorities in the Legislature changed state law in 2021 to limit the ability of officers to pursue suspects. Before the change, officers needed “reasonable suspicion” to initiate a vehicle pursuit of suspects. The new law only allows such vehicle pursuits based on “probable cause.” As a result, officers have been forced to watch criminals drive off. It also has emboldened criminals to commit other crimes and victimize others and resulted in a loss of lives.

According to the Washington State Patrol, between 2014 and 2020 an average of 1,200 suspects per year fled from police. In 2022, after the pursuit standard was changed to probable cause, 3,100 suspects fled — an increase of more than 150%. Before the change in this law, the statewide record for stolen cars in a single year was 30,000. That climbed to nearly 47,000 stolen vehicles in 2022.

Under SB 5352 as approved by the Senate Wednesday, a vehicle pursuit can occur if there is reasonable suspicion, but only for suspicion of violent offenses, sex offenses, vehicular assault offenses, assault in the first-to-fourth degree involving domestic violence, an escape or a driving-under-the-influence offense.

During floor debate on the measure, I offered a floor amendment that would have permitted an officer to engage in a vehicle pursuit if the officer has reasonable suspicion a person inside the vehicle has committed or is committing theft of a motor vehicle. We are fourth in the U.S. for auto thefts per capita. The amendment was defeated along party lines 29-20.

This newsletter covers other issues and events happening in Olympia in this past week.

If you have questions about how to participate in state government this year or thoughts to share on anything in this e-newsletter, please give me a call or send me an email.

Thank you, as always, for the honor of serving as your state senator!

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

Senate passes ‘DUI lookback’ bill for third straight year

For third year in a row, the Senate has passed legislation of mine that aims to decrease impaired driving.

Senate Bill 5032 , which was approved 48-1 on Wednesday, would expand the period for reviewing prior convictions of impaired driving to 15 years, from the 10 years now in state law, when determining whether a new offense of impaired driving is charged as a felony. The proposal would increase the penalty from a gross misdemeanor to a felony offense for any person who has three or more prior DUI offenses within that “lookback” period.

Our state has seen an alarming increase in traffic deaths over the past few years, and drunk driving and drug-impaired driving are two leading causes.

The Washington Traffic Safety Commission reported that road deaths in our state reached a 20-year high in 2021. There were 670 traffic deaths in 2021, including 272 fatalities involving drug-impaired driving and 155 deaths involving alcohol-impaired driving. In 2020, Washington had 574 traffic fatalities, including 214 involving drug-impaired driving and 135 involving alcohol-impaired driving.

The commission has a current preliminary estimate of 745 traffic fatalities in 2022. No 2022 figures on traffic deaths involving drug- or alcohol-impaired driving are available yet.

This bill would help get the most dangerous drivers off the road and into treatment. Our state has seen too many accidents and fatalities caused by drunk and drug-impaired drivers, especially repeat offenders. This bill could help reverse this tragic trend.

Many traffic fatalities in the state involve drivers who have had as many as eight DUI offenses, but the current 10-year lookback period is not long enough to allow the state to impose stronger punishment against such offenders.

Repeat impaired-driving offenders commit most of the vehicular homicides and vehicular assaults in Washington. This is a bill to try to prevent those horrible, senseless crimes.

SB 5032 would give offenders a chance to undergo a highly structured treatment program.

SB 5032 now goes to the House of Representatives for more consideration.

A similar proposal that I introduced, Senate Bill 5054, was passed by the Senate during the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions, including unanimous approval last year. The bill later died in the House both years.

Custodial sexual misconduct bill receives House hearing

Sen. Padden talks to members of the House Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Committee during his testimony on Senate Bill 5033.

Senate Bill 5033, a bipartisan measure that I introduced that would impose longer sentences on sexually abusive jail and prison guards, received a public hearing yesterday in the House Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Committee.

This proposal would reclassify the crime of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct as a Class B felony, allowing a prison term of 10 years instead of the current five-year maximum.

Officers who work in our state’s correctional facilities are part of the law-enforcement community. Like all the other officers who serve the public, corrections officers must be held to a high standard, especially when you consider the unique level of authority they have over people in custody. Senate Bill 5033 would increase the punishment for corrections officers who sexually assault or abuse inmates in the course of their jobs.

The bill was inspired by a KING-TV investigation about a Clallam County jail guard, John Gray, who was convicted in 2021 of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of custodial sexual misconduct and served 13 months of his 20-month sentence.

Just as she did when SB 5033 received a hearing in the Senate Law and Justice Committee earlier this session, Dawn Reid testified in favor of the proposal during its House hearing. Reid is the mother of Kimberly Bender, a 23-year-old Quileute woman who died by suicide in her Forks jail cell in 2019 after reporting to city officials that Gray harassed her.

March 29 is the last day for House policy committees to pass Senate bills.

Chart reveals operating budget growth

As Democratic budget writers prepare to unveil a two-year state operating budget proposal in a few weeks, it is worth seeing how much the operating budget has grown in recent years. As this chart shows, the budget has experienced a 108% spending increase since 2015 if you factor in Governor Inslee’s $70.4 billion proposed budget.

Contact us!

Phone: (360) 786-7606

Olympia Office: 215 Legislative Modular Building, Olympia, WA 98504-0404

Email address: Mike.Padden@leg.wa.gov

To request public records from Sen. Padden, please contact Randi Stratton, the designated public records officer for the Secretary of the Senate and Senate members.

Bill that threatens parents’ rights approved by Senate

Note: The following e-newsletter was sent to Sen. Padden’s subscribers March 3, 2023. To subscribe to Sen. Padden’s newsletter, click here.

The Legislature is halfway through its 2023 session. This is Day 54, and Washington’s constitution allows our “long” session to run for no more than 105 days.

On Monday, the Senate began a two-week stretch in which our chamber will debate and vote on bills that were approved by various Senate committees in recent weeks. During this period, the Senate meets on the floor in the morning and works for a few hours before taking a short lunch break. We then return to the floor in the early afternoon for more debates and votes on proposals. On some days, we adjourn in the early evening, though we occasionally take a short dinner break and resume floor action for a few more hours into the evening.

The Senate on Wednesday passed a Democrat-sponsored bill that threatens the rights of parents in Washington.

This proposal would give youth-related facilities a troubling new excuse for withholding the whereabouts of runaway children from their parents. Under Senate Bill 5599, those children could effectively disappear by simply claiming they are seeking what the bill calls “protected health services,” such as gender counseling or puberty-blocking chemicals.

The legislation, passed on a party-line vote, would not allow teens staying at licensed youth shelters or host homes to undergo “gender-affirming” surgery without parental approval. Nor would it allow other parents to hide children. But it does clear the way for children between ages 13 and 18 to stay at these facilities without their parents’ knowledge for an indefinite time while seeking services related to gender dysphoria and gender transitioning.

It also clears a path for any teenager to “game the system.” A child can run away to a youth shelter, claim they are seeking protected health care services even if they really aren’t, and be hidden from their parents. It would not be the first time a teenager would take advantage of a legal loophole to avoid general accountability.

During floor debate on SB 5599, one of my Republican colleagues, 10^th District Sen. Ron Muzzall gave a moving five-minute speech in opposition to the proposal. You can view it here.

When SB 5599 received a public hearing before the Senate Human Services Committee on Feb. 6, more than 4,700 people signed in with an opinion on the bill – and 98% were opposed, including parents from the LGBTQ community.

This controversial proposal now moves to the House for consideration. Members of the public wishing to testify on this bill, if it receives a public hearing in the House, should visit how to testify on a bill on the Washington State Legislature’s website.

This newsletter covers other issues and events happening in Olympia in this past week.

If you have questions about how to participate in state government this year or thoughts to share on anything in this e-newsletter, please give me a call or send me an email.

Thank you, as always, for the honor of serving as your state senator!

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

Senate passes bill raising penalty for custodial sexual misconduct

The Senate on Monday unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that aims to impose longer sentences on sexually abusive jail and prison guards.

Senate Bill 5033, which I prime-sponsored, would reclassify the crime of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct as a Class B felony, allowing a prison term of 10 years instead of the current five-year maximum.

Officers who work in our state’s correctional facilities are part of the law-enforcement community just as much as the officers who patrol our communities and investigate crimes. Like all the other people we entrust to administer justice, corrections officers must be held to a high standard, especially considering the unique level of authority they have over people in custody. Senate Bill 5033 would increase the punishment for corrections officers who sexually assault or abuse inmates in the course of their jobs.

During the Senate Law and Justice Committee’s public hearing on SB 5033 earlier this session, Dawn Reid testified in favor of the proposal. Reid is the mother of Kimberly Bender, a 23-year-old Quileute woman who died by suicide in her Forks jail cell in 2019 after reporting to city officials that Gray harassed her. Reid asked me to name the legislation after her daughter. The Law and Justice Committee later named the proposal “Kimberly Bender’s law.”

SB 5033 now goes to the House Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Committee for a public hearing on March 9.

Senate passes bill helping employee stock ownership plans

Yesterday the Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 5096, a proposal I introduced that would aid businesses looking to adopt an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) corporate structure.

This bill promotes employee ownership, which I think is a very valuable thing, not only for our employees but for society. Studies have shown that employees are happier, they stay in their job longer and they retire in a much better financial position. And the companies are more likely to stay locally. Additionally, this bill would help those businesses looking to adopt an ESOP.

The proposal is backed by a very diverse group of supporters, including the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories.

SB 5096 specifically would:

Create the Washington Employee Ownership Program at the state Department of Commerce to offer technical support and other services to certain businesses considering certain employee ownership structures.
Form the Washington Employee Ownership Commission to oversee the program.
Provide a business and occupation tax credit for costs related to converting a qualifying business to an employee ownership structure.

ESOPs are recognized under federal tax law as a qualified defined contribution retirement plan. The ESOP must be designed to invest primarily in qualifying employer securities and meet certain other requirements. The IRS and United States Department of Labor share jurisdiction over some ESOP features.

The bill now goes to the House for further consideration.

Senate honors Ukrainian Americans

Sen. Padden speaks on the Senate resolution honoring Ukrainian Americans.

Besides debating and voting on the many bills that reach the floor every session, the Senate also passes several floor resolutions each year. Floor resolutions typically honor Washington citizens or remember notable Washingtonians who recently passed away.

Last Friday, the Senate passed an important resolution that recognizes and supports the tens of thousands of Ukrainian Americans in our state. You can view the resolution here. I’m proud to be among the nearly 40 senators who sponsored it.

Many Ukrainian Americans in our state came to the Capitol and filled both Senate galleries to watch senators on both sides of the political aisle give floor speeches in support of the resolution and to see the Senate approve this important resolution. You can watch my floor speech supporting the Ukrainian American resolution here.

Assisted-suicide bill passed by Senate

One of the more controversial and divisive bills of the session so far was passed by the Senate on Monday.

Senate Bill 5179 was approved 28-20. It would add advanced registered nurse practitioners and physician assistants to the category of health-care providers authorized to order the lethal drugs for someone who has decided to use Washington’s assisted-suicide law.

The bill also would reduce the required 15-day waiting period between the first and second oral requests for life-ending medications to seven days and would eliminate the 48-hour waiting period for such medications once a written request is made. Even the seven days is misleading because the lethal drugs can be administered immediately if the death appears imminent. In addition, the requirement for a second opinion has been eliminated. Safeguards are gone.

During the Senate’s deliberation on the bill, I offered a floor amendment that would have required the state Department of Health to contract with an independent organization to confirm, before a patient is qualified to end his or her life, that the patient is not a person with disabilities who is being coerced into providing their OK to take life-ending medication. However, it was defeated along party lines.

My speech against the bill can be watched by clicking this link. You can watch another powerful floor speech by Sen. Muzzall on this bill here.

This bill would do more harm than good. SB 5179 would further normalize suicides, and it would remove safeguards that were put in by the original law to protect vulnerable patients. The current waiting period allows people the time to reflect and change their mind, but this bill would cut down that time drastically. The terminally ill have declining decision capacity, which gives them impaired capacity to make the decision to end their life. Vulnerable patients might make rash decisions and a bad day could be their last day. This bill would increase assisted suicides and worsen the existing law.

SB 5179 is now in the House Health Care and Wellness Committee.

Senate passes ‘ergonomics’ bill that would threaten jobs

During our floor action Wednesday, the Senate voted 27-21 to pass Senate Bill 5217, a Democratic proposal that ignores the wishes of our state’s voters by allowing the state Department of Labor and Industries to again impose workplace ergonomics rules on employers.

After L&I adopted ergonomics workplace rules in 2000, nearly 55% of Washington voters in 2003 passed Initiative 841, which repealed the ergonomics regulations.

SB 5217 is job-killing bill that would restore burdensome and expensive ergonomics regulations on employers. Only one other state in the U.S. has adopted an ergonomics regulation. If this bill becomes law, it could put Washington at a competitive disadvantage.

During floor action on this bill, I offered an amendment that would have required L&I to consider including the least burdensome and least costly options for an employer to demonstrate alternative control methods during rule making. It was defeated along party lines.

Contact us!

Phone: (360) 786-7606

Olympia Office: 215 Legislative Modular Building, Olympia, WA 98504-0404

Email address: Mike.Padden@leg.wa.gov

To request public records from Sen. Padden, please contact Randi Stratton, the designated public records officer for the Secretary of the Senate and Senate members.

Democrats should reconsider proposed ‘abortion anytime’ change to state constitution, says Padden, who notes strong opposition to proposal

State Sen. Mike Padden issued this statement following the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee’s public hearing today on Senate Joint Resolution 8202, a Democrat-sponsored proposal requested by Gov. Jay Inslee that could remove all limits on abortion through a change to Washington’s constitution. Padden, R-Spokane Valley, is a committee member.

“Contrary to what our governor might believe, most people have complex and nuanced views on abortion. According to a national Marist Poll last May, only 24 percent of Americans think abortion should be available at any point during a pregnancy, while 68 percent favor some type of restrictions on abortion. This proposed constitutional amendment could open the door for future legislatures in Washington to ease current restrictions on abortions in our state.

“We need to show our humanity and compassion toward the unborn child as well as the mother, and there are proposals this session that reflect this need. For instance, I have sponsored a proposal (Senate Bill 5098) that would ban abortions of unborn children with Down syndrome. One of my Senate colleagues, Senator Shelly Short, has introduced a measure (Senate Bill 5227) that would ban abortions based on sex selection – like aborting a girl simply because the parents want a boy.

“As we saw during testimony today on this divisive and controversial proposal, 622 people signed up against SJR 8202, while only 325 were in favor of it. Senate Democratic leaders should consider this strong opposition when deciding whether to move their proposal forward.

“I think most Washingtonians, even those who generally support abortion, would find this proposal too extreme and unacceptable.”

Besides serving on the Health and Long Term Care Committee, Padden is ranking Republican on the Senate Law and Justice Committee. He serves the 4^th Legislative District.

Because SJR 8202 is a proposed constitutional amendment, it would require two-thirds approval in the Senate and two-thirds approval in the House for the Legislature to pass it. If this measure is approved by the Legislature this year, it would be placed on the statewide ballot for Washington voters to decide in the 2023 general election in November.

The 2023 legislative session is scheduled to end April 23.