Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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I walk. A lot. Maybe I waved when you drove by. (If I didn’t – Sorry! I always mean to.) Maybe we visited as you watered your plants last summer, or shoveled your sidewalk last week. Since I moved to Ritzville in July, I’ve walked every block of every street, most of them several times. I’ve walked miles out into the county. The times I love best are in the morning or just before sunset, when the low sun catches the bright green of the new blades of wheat, and highlights the gentle curves of the rolling fields. As the light f...
The circumstances leading to Amazon’s decision to scrap its New York City project are trends corporate leaders need to examine closely. There are cultural and political shifts in America which are changing the way business is done. Amazon walked away from its deal struck with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio which would create 25,000 new jobs and added $27 billion in new city and state tax revenue. In return, Cuomo and de Blasio, who a...
Last week, Congress came together to pass, and President signed into law, bipartisan legislation that prioritizes securing our border and keeps the federal government open. The legislation may not have provided as much as I would have liked for President Trump’s request, but in the end the legislation represented significant progress by providing tools our Border Patrol agents need to do their job. I have no doubt that there is a humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border. I have visited the border to hear f...
Dear Friends, This fifth week of the 2019 legislative session began with a snow day for a lot of people, due to the 18 or so inches that fell (and stayed) around the Olympia area in a four-day period. But by today, the “snowmageddon” (or “snowpocalypse”) was mostly over. Instead, we were met with the newest of the tax threats coming from the majority party, which are so far-reaching they could be called “taxmageddon.” Keep reading for the details. Even though road conditions slowly got better as the week went on, the weather...
Dear Friends, One of the more newsworthy things coming out of Olympia this week had to do with the independent commission of citizens that sets the pay of “statewide elected officials” -- from the governor to Supreme Court justices to legislators. It comes up with new salary figures every other year, and the new recommendations were made public this week. I’ve never asked for an increase in the pay I receive for serving the Ninth District, and I never will, but this year I felt compelled to write to the salary commi...
The good news is that it looks like your District will have ended 2018 with a six-digit profit. We have to say “looks like” because the final audit adjustments are not completed, but that seems to be what the number will end up being. That is great news, because a number of other Public Hospital Districts similar to ours are still losing money. That takes us to the less-than-good news. The state Health Care Authority continues to press their proposed new “Alternate Payment Model,” which would drastically change how about half...
The issue of abortion is likely one of the biggest fault lines that divide Americans, but there is one aspect of this ongoing debate that is not controversial: According to a 2018 Gallup poll, only 28 percent of Americans believe that abortion should generally be legal in the second trimester. The poll found that only 13 percent of Americans believe that should be the case in the third trimester. Sadly, despite overwhelming national opposition, lawmakers’ late-term abortion extremism is on the rise. On January 22, the g...
Christmas is a difficult time for anyone grieving the death of a loved one. It is especially hard when they were slain in the line-of-duty while protecting our country. It hit home again last month when Army sergeants Eric Emond, 39, Brush Prairie, and Leandro Jasso, 25, Leavenworth, were killed in Afghanistan. Both were experienced elite soldiers who served multiple tours in combat zones. Normally, the fallen are remembered on Memorial Day, but thanks to a Maine family and ov...
Last week, Congress voted 369-47 to pass the 2018 Farm Bill, sending this critical legislation to President Trump for his signature into law. The agreement sets us on a better path for our country’s farmers and ranchers, for our rural communities, for small businesses, and for consumers across the country at the grocery store and at kitchen tables. In March, I traveled across Central Washington to speak with farmers from every county in the Fourth Congressional District about their goals for the Farm Bill. With passage of t...
Dear Friends, State law requires the governor to submit a budget proposal to the Legislature ahead of each of our sessions. This week Governor Inslee submitted the seventh budget of his time in office, and he’s now 7-for-7 on wanting new taxes. Keep reading for details, including how he is continuing the crusade against the Snake River dams. I was west of the mountains early this week for a meeting of the Select Committee on Pension Policy, and also the meeting where the Senate Republican Caucus divided up our seats on the v...
Dear Friends, The time has come to ease up on legislative business and focus on enjoying time with family and friends as we reach the peak of the holiday season. That includes taking a brief break from commenting on things coming out of Olympia, even though the list of deserving topics has been growing lately. I’ll touch on a few of those before signing off. This week’s legislative calendar included a meeting of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy board. WSIPP takes a deeper look at a variety of issues that cro...
New Year’s resolutions are now underway—for at least the next two weeks. Wouldn’t it be better to resolve to never undertake New Year’s resolutions in the first place? In practice, we already never follow through with the resolutions we promised. Most New Year’s resolutions are broken almost as quick as we made them. Some of the novel New Year’s resolutions may include promising to be nicer, promising to go to church more than once this year, promising to be a better Christian, a better neighbor, and maybe, just promise to...
Many pundits predict American political warfare will worsen in 2019 and grow more ruthless in 2020—our next presidential election year. The swamp that candidate Donald Trump promised to drain is expanding. James Astill, Washington bureau chief for The Economist, wrote: “As America approached the mid-point of President Donald Trump’s first term, sober commentators suggested it had not been so divided since the 1850s.” Political disagreement is the heart of America’s way of go...
As 2018 comes to a close, so does the 115th Congress. It is an honor to represent the diverse interests of the Fourth Congressional District, and I am especially proud of the accomplishments we achieved that will improve the quality of life in Central Washington. One year after Congress passed historic tax relief for American taxpayers, we are seeing results in the form of higher paychecks, improved employee benefits, and growing small businesses. We are making it easier for Americans to save for their futures and...
Last year, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) global study of aerospace manufacturing attractiveness found the United States is top rated and within our country, Washington is the best. The study reaffirmed that “Washington’s economy and industry size are heavily tied to Boeing’s commercial aircraft business.” Boeing Commercial Airplane Co. is based in Renton. PwC pointed out that our state also is home to 1,400 aerospace-related businesses and has the highest concent...
Last Thursday, I took an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution as the representative of the people of the Fourth Congressional District in the 116th Congress. It is an honor to be entrusted with this office to represent the people of Central Washington, our values, and our liberties. In this period of divided government with a Republican president, Republican Senate majority, and Democratic House majority, it is our responsibility to find common ground as representatives of the people. I am proud that my first votes...
Dear Friends, Maybe you’ve heard the old line that suggests the making of laws is like the making of sausage. In that sense I guess the sausage-making that went on at my farm a week ago was like a warm-up for the lawmaking ahead -- because the start of the 2019 legislative session is now just 10 days away. After a nice break from Senate business from before Christmas through New Year’s Day, I was back in the saddle bright and early Wednesday morning for a phone interview with one of the big radio stations in Portland. Tod...
While many eyes are on trade talks between our country and China, America’s port leaders are positioning their seaports to compete for increasing volumes of container traffic. After container shipments surged in November---primarily from pre-tariff contracts—they plunged by year end--impact of U.S. and China trade war. Outbound container volume at the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 11.8 percent in November from the same month in 2017. It was a dec...
As of this writing, today is the 24th day of the partial federal government shutdown – the longest in our history. The funding of certain portions of the federal government and border security have unfortunately become highly partisan, with congressional Democrats refusing to negotiate with President Trump to fund his border security request even when they supported similar policies in the past. The Department of Homeland Security’s request to secure the border goes beyond a physical barrier to include resources to inc...
Dear Friends, It’s customary for me, as leader of one of the four legislative caucuses, to do a round of media interviews on the opening day of a legislative session. You never know exactly what the questions will be, but my interview with the TVW public-affairs network in the Rotunda (click here or on either photo to watch) was fairly typical, going something like this: -What are the Senate Republican Caucus priorities this year? Our list includes improvements to mental-health services (which does not automatically mean b...
Dear Friends, It’s customary for me, as leader of one of the four legislative caucuses, to do a round of media interviews on the opening day of a legislative session. You never know exactly what the questions will be, but my interview with the TVW public-affairs network in the Rotunda (click here or on either photo to watch) was fairly typical, going something like this: -What are the Senate Republican Caucus priorities this year? Our list includes improvements to mental-health services (which does not automatically mean b...
“There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer,” World War Two hero Jimmy Doolittle once said. Last week, I had the privilege to announce my nomination of 11 volunteers across Central Washington for consideration to attend U.S. military academies including West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy. Each year, I have the honor of providing nominations for prospective students at U.S. service academies. Students must complete applications for nominations, which includes an interview process with my mil...
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. That’s particularly true in difficult times when “business as usual” no longer works. As our national deficit approaches $22 trillion ($180,000 per taxpayer) and state and local governments deal with skyrocketing costs for health care, pensions, education and public safety, we will have to do things differently, or, in some instances, not at all. One way is to develop private-public partnerships to share costs and coord...
Dear Friends, Before the 2019 legislative session took up, Democratic leaders in the Legislature indicated that they shared our interest in addressing two major issues: improving the delivery of mental-health treatment and addressing the shortage of available (and affordable) housing. I was proud that members of our Senate Republican caucus had put good ideas on the table back in the fall, and hopeful that we could see early action on those priorities. Two weeks into the session, my colleagues in the Senate’s Democrat m...
The good news is Washington’s cherry crop is projected to be as good as 2018; however, absent tariff relief from the ongoing U.S.-China trade tiff, a key market will remain limited. When China’s tariff went from 10 percent to 50 percent last July, right in the middle of the harvest, exports to China went from the most profitable to the pits, Fox News reported. “Growers in Washington State, by far the largest producer of sweet cherries in the U.S., saw their bumper crop lose...