Legislative Commentary

Earlier this week I was in Spokane to speak at the eastern Washington part of the “Farm Hall” series sponsored by the Washington Policy Center.

It gave me an opportunity to share a favorite quote about the intersection of government and agriculture: something President Eisenhower said when he was campaigning for re-election in September 1956:

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”

For the past five years, the Senate has been led by a coalition of senators who in geographic terms represent most of our state, including most of its plows and cornfields.

But a Democrat prevailed in the special election last month for the Senate seat from east King County’s 45th Legislative District. When the 2018 legislative session convenes next month, Democrats will control both houses of the Legislature plus the governor’s mansion.

I will continue as leader of our side, and our side will continue its commitment to work for families throughout Washington, from the Seattle metro area to the four corners of our state.

Our priorities will continue to be on promoting family-wage jobs, improving the state’s education system at all levels, and defending the policies that are in place to protect Washington’s economy, like the four-year balanced budget law we created in 2012.

My Democrat colleagues talk a lot about “fairness” and “opportunity”; we’ll see if they govern this next year in a way that is fair to and promotes opportunity in all 39 counties.

Inslee administration blocks another energy/economic development project

This week the state’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council voted to advise Governor Jay Inslee against approving the Tesoro Savage Vancouver Energy Project. The project would have brought oil by rail to the Port of Vancouver for shipping to refineries.

Considering the chair of the council is a director at the governor’s budget office, and was appointed by the governor, this decision was basically orchestrated by Inslee himself.

This is the third recent executive-branch decision that has put the brakes on good jobs in southwest Washington. The others involve a proposed methanol plant in Kalama, and a coal-storage/export facility proposed for Longview. Both saw their permits pulled by state officials.

This doesn’t bode well for energy companies looking to do business in Washington.

As an example, the Clark County project has been after state approval since 2013, so the recommendation to deny the project comes after four years of permit reviews, hearings, and other interaction.

Talk about rolling up the welcome mat – it’s as though no energy facility other than wind or sun is acceptable to the liberals, even in areas where it could serve as an economic lifeline.

Lieutenant governor goes after law-abiding firearm owners...and overcoat wearers

Washington is an “open carry” state when it comes to firearms, which is why you have to get a permit to carry a gun out of the sight of others.

It’s been a few years since openly carried weapons were banned from the “galleries” above the House and Senate chambers, where the public can watch us at work, and from the committee hearing rooms.

Now the lieutenant governor, whose job includes serving as president of the Senate, is going after those who are legally permitted to carry a concealed weapon, and anyone who wears an overcoat or carries a large bag that could hold a gun.

His order banning those items from the viewing galleries is to take effect when the Senate convenes on Jan. 8, even though there aren’t metal detectors on the premises, or lockers for someone to store a gun (or an overcoat) while viewing the Senate’s proceedings.

It’s interesting that we are seeing this ban only now that the lieutenant governor’s fellow Democrats have gained the majority in the Senate.

And his focus on concealed weapons makes me think of our state’s Democrat attorney general, whose office is considering whether to endorse the public release of names of people with concealed-weapons permits.

The lieutenant governor defends his order based on the Senate rule that defines his authority. Not surprisingly, it’s already being challenged.