This Washington
It's Not Just the Budget, Stupid
Coverage of the 2011 legislative session has been (rightly) dominated by the the $5.2 billion budget shortfall, which has forced the state to cut core programs including the Disability Lifeline for the disabled, the Basic Health Plan for the poor, health care for kids
, K-12 education, higher education, and teacher salaries.
Yet, even while legislators, particularly Democrats, have been demonized by their liberal base for cutting the social safety net, some legislators have worked to push through pieces of substantive legislation. Here are 10 bills—and legislators—that deserve shout outs.
Footnote: We have calls in to several Republican leaders in the legislature to get their response to these non-budget policy wins for the majority Democrats.
1. Bicycle advocates finally scored this year with the passage of vulnerable users legislation that raises penalties for drivers who strike bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists. The bill, pushed by Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34, W. Seattle, Burien) and Sen. Adam Kline (D-37, Seattle), raises penalties to between $1,000 and $5,000 and suspends the driver's license for 90 days.
Rep. David Frockt
2. Rep. David Frockt's (D-46, Seattle) bill to ban the sale of products containing coal tar sealants around the state was a key priority for environmentalists in a session where other top green priorities, particularly a proposal for a fee on oil companies for storm water cleanup, went down. [pullquote]Jinkins said "more and more of the public is on the same side of same sex couples, and so are the legislators."[/pullquote]
3. Rep. Laurie Jinkins (D-27, Tacoma), the first out lesbian in the state legislature, successfully pushed through a bill recognizing same sex marriages from out of state as domestic partnerships here in Washington (previously they weren't recognized at all). After the bill's passage in the senate, Jinkins said "more and more of the public is on the same side of same sex couples, and so are the legislators."
Rep. Laurie Jinkins
4. The controversial legislation , sponsored by Rep. Jamie Pederson (D-43, Capitol Hill), to legalize paid surrogacy hit some serious (and accidental) roadblocks in the senate (the paid surrogacy part eventually got left out). But Pedersen still managed to create a new set of rules making it easier for same sex parents and opposite sex parents to stay legal parents of a child. The new legislation, for example, says that if you lived in the same home as the child for two years and openly took the child as your own, then you are the legal parent.
Says Pedersen: "This makes our parentage law match with the current reality of Washington's families. It recognizes that children are being born to same sex couples and different sex couples through assisted reproduction and that traditional genetic based rules don't work for everyone."
"This is real stuff," Pedersen says, explaining that before his legislation, if lesbian couples have a child the non-bio mom has no rights to the child unless she adopts the child, "which is expensive and time consuming. (His ally Rep. Jinkins own story is instructive—one partner was the egg donor and one partner carried the child, but the current law only recognizes the partner who carried the child as the legal parent.
Pedersen's fix provides two different paths to legal parenting: 1) If the couple are registered as domestic partners (under another Pedersen law passed previously), they are both automatically presumed to be the parents and 2) if the non-bio mom, including a man in a straight couple, by the way, lives with the child for the first two years of its life and "holds themselves out as the parent," then they become the legal parent—with all the rights and obligations.
This certainly comes in handy for the non-bio mom—and again, for a man too—if the couple breaks up. Indeed, non-traditional het couples benefit from Pedersen's bill in many ways. Anyone couple who uses a non-paid surrogate (a "compassionate surrogate") can now be the legal parents.
5. Rep. David Frockt (D-46, Seattle) also passed another sensible reform flipping the burden of proof to lift domestic violence protective orders so that the abuser, not the victim, has to prove he or she is not a threat.
Confirming feminists' longstanding criticism that public policy on domestic violence tends to blame-the-victim, current law makes victims to prove that the abuser is a threat.
6. A group of UW law students, with the help of Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D-27, Tacoma), pushed through legislation that would prohibit consumer reporting agencies from releasing (or acknowledging) records for juvenile offenders after a person turns 21. Current law allows agencies to distribute records to landlords and employers, preventing young adults from getting jobs or finding rental housing.
7. Rep. Marko Liias (D-21, Edmonds) and Sen. Scott White (D-46, N. Seattle) passed emergency transit funding legislation this session, passing a bill to allow King County to implement a temporary $20 car tab fee. [pullquote]The legislation was the compromise to end all compromises: Environmentalists, the Governor, Democratic and Republican legislators, Transalta execs, labor folks , and the local chamber of commerce all signed off on this previously-intractable debate.[/pullquote]
Footnote: The bill was watered down to include a two-thirds requirement for the county council to implement the fee or a simple majority to send it to the people as a referendum. With no Republicans on the King County council likely to vote for it, the measure will likely go to the people for a vote.
8. The legislation shutting down Centralia's Transalta coal plant was the compromise to end all compromises: Environmentalists, the Governor, Democratic and Republican legislators, Transalta execs, labor folks , and the local chamber of commerce all signed off on this previously-intractable debate. That legislation, sponsored by Sen. Phil Rockefeller (D-23, Bainbridge Island), would require the plant to shut down by 2025 and sets up a $30 million community economic development fund to spur new investment.
9. Rep. Tina Orwall (D-33, Des Moines) gets some serious points for passing foreclosure mediation legislation this session that would require banks to meet with homeowners before initiating foreclosures (the Foreclosure Mediation Program already has a website up — mediation starts July 22). Banks also have to pay a fee for each default notice they issue, raising an estimated $7.5 million a year to pay for housing counselors.
10. Rep. Christine Rolfes' (D-23, Bainbridge Island) oil spill cleanup bill is good old fashioned regulation. Never mind trying to pass industry taxes, oil companies were simply RCW'd into shouldering more cleanup costs in the event of a spill ($3 to $300 per gallon) and told to purchase new cleanup equipment. [pullquote]Rep. Christine Rolfes' oil spill cleanup bill is good old fashioned regulation. Never mind trying to pass industry taxes, oil companies were simply RCW'd into shouldering more cleanup costs.[/pullquote]
Oh, and...
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles
11. It's hard to leave out Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' (D-36, Seattle) legislation reforming and clarifying the state's grey medical marijuana laws — it's been a long sought after goal for groups on the left. But Governor Christine Gregoire's veto pen left gaping holes in the legislation, and those holes are likely to go unfilled until next year; longtime drug reformer, Rep. Roger Goodman (D-45, Kirkland) has an even better bill queued up with Kohl-Welles' approval. Some groups have even said that the unfinished legislation actually makes the system worse off .
Some other heavy lifts (and some losses) for the majority Democrats:
This doesn't count as successful legislation, but is was a successful defense: Liberals stalled Attorney General Rob McKenna's bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Ross (R-14, Yakima), to allow local law enforcement groups to issue protective orders against gang members who haven't previously been convicted of a crime. The ACLU raised red flags, saying the bill criminalized people who weren't criminals and could lead to racial profiling. In the end, McKenna's bill never even made it out of committee.
And a notable loss for Democrats. While an expansion of family planning and contraceptive services to 250 percent of the poverty line (up from 200 percent) went through in the special session, the majority Democrats did fail on another big women's choice issue: Rep. Judy Clibborn’s (D-41, Mercer Island) bill requiring so-called "limited service pregnancy centers" to disclose that they do not provide abortions or contraceptive services. The bill, which anti-abortion group came out strongly against, nearly got a vote on the house floor, but stalled when it turned out Democrats didn't have the votes to pass it in the house or senate.
Yet, even while legislators, particularly Democrats, have been demonized by their liberal base for cutting the social safety net, some legislators have worked to push through pieces of substantive legislation. Here are 10 bills—and legislators—that deserve shout outs.
Footnote: We have calls in to several Republican leaders in the legislature to get their response to these non-budget policy wins for the majority Democrats.
1. Bicycle advocates finally scored this year with the passage of vulnerable users legislation that raises penalties for drivers who strike bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists. The bill, pushed by Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34, W. Seattle, Burien) and Sen. Adam Kline (D-37, Seattle), raises penalties to between $1,000 and $5,000 and suspends the driver's license for 90 days.
Rep. David Frockt
2. Rep. David Frockt's (D-46, Seattle) bill to ban the sale of products containing coal tar sealants around the state was a key priority for environmentalists in a session where other top green priorities, particularly a proposal for a fee on oil companies for storm water cleanup, went down. [pullquote]Jinkins said "more and more of the public is on the same side of same sex couples, and so are the legislators."[/pullquote]
3. Rep. Laurie Jinkins (D-27, Tacoma), the first out lesbian in the state legislature, successfully pushed through a bill recognizing same sex marriages from out of state as domestic partnerships here in Washington (previously they weren't recognized at all). After the bill's passage in the senate, Jinkins said "more and more of the public is on the same side of same sex couples, and so are the legislators."
Rep. Laurie Jinkins
4. The controversial legislation , sponsored by Rep. Jamie Pederson (D-43, Capitol Hill), to legalize paid surrogacy hit some serious (and accidental) roadblocks in the senate (the paid surrogacy part eventually got left out). But Pedersen still managed to create a new set of rules making it easier for same sex parents and opposite sex parents to stay legal parents of a child. The new legislation, for example, says that if you lived in the same home as the child for two years and openly took the child as your own, then you are the legal parent.
Says Pedersen: "This makes our parentage law match with the current reality of Washington's families. It recognizes that children are being born to same sex couples and different sex couples through assisted reproduction and that traditional genetic based rules don't work for everyone."
"This is real stuff," Pedersen says, explaining that before his legislation, if lesbian couples have a child the non-bio mom has no rights to the child unless she adopts the child, "which is expensive and time consuming. (His ally Rep. Jinkins own story is instructive—one partner was the egg donor and one partner carried the child, but the current law only recognizes the partner who carried the child as the legal parent.
Pedersen's fix provides two different paths to legal parenting: 1) If the couple are registered as domestic partners (under another Pedersen law passed previously), they are both automatically presumed to be the parents and 2) if the non-bio mom, including a man in a straight couple, by the way, lives with the child for the first two years of its life and "holds themselves out as the parent," then they become the legal parent—with all the rights and obligations.
This certainly comes in handy for the non-bio mom—and again, for a man too—if the couple breaks up. Indeed, non-traditional het couples benefit from Pedersen's bill in many ways. Anyone couple who uses a non-paid surrogate (a "compassionate surrogate") can now be the legal parents.
5. Rep. David Frockt (D-46, Seattle) also passed another sensible reform flipping the burden of proof to lift domestic violence protective orders so that the abuser, not the victim, has to prove he or she is not a threat.
Confirming feminists' longstanding criticism that public policy on domestic violence tends to blame-the-victim, current law makes victims to prove that the abuser is a threat.
6. A group of UW law students, with the help of Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D-27, Tacoma), pushed through legislation that would prohibit consumer reporting agencies from releasing (or acknowledging) records for juvenile offenders after a person turns 21. Current law allows agencies to distribute records to landlords and employers, preventing young adults from getting jobs or finding rental housing.
7. Rep. Marko Liias (D-21, Edmonds) and Sen. Scott White (D-46, N. Seattle) passed emergency transit funding legislation this session, passing a bill to allow King County to implement a temporary $20 car tab fee. [pullquote]The legislation was the compromise to end all compromises: Environmentalists, the Governor, Democratic and Republican legislators, Transalta execs, labor folks , and the local chamber of commerce all signed off on this previously-intractable debate.[/pullquote]
Footnote: The bill was watered down to include a two-thirds requirement for the county council to implement the fee or a simple majority to send it to the people as a referendum. With no Republicans on the King County council likely to vote for it, the measure will likely go to the people for a vote.
8. The legislation shutting down Centralia's Transalta coal plant was the compromise to end all compromises: Environmentalists, the Governor, Democratic and Republican legislators, Transalta execs, labor folks , and the local chamber of commerce all signed off on this previously-intractable debate. That legislation, sponsored by Sen. Phil Rockefeller (D-23, Bainbridge Island), would require the plant to shut down by 2025 and sets up a $30 million community economic development fund to spur new investment.
9. Rep. Tina Orwall (D-33, Des Moines) gets some serious points for passing foreclosure mediation legislation this session that would require banks to meet with homeowners before initiating foreclosures (the Foreclosure Mediation Program already has a website up — mediation starts July 22). Banks also have to pay a fee for each default notice they issue, raising an estimated $7.5 million a year to pay for housing counselors.
10. Rep. Christine Rolfes' (D-23, Bainbridge Island) oil spill cleanup bill is good old fashioned regulation. Never mind trying to pass industry taxes, oil companies were simply RCW'd into shouldering more cleanup costs in the event of a spill ($3 to $300 per gallon) and told to purchase new cleanup equipment. [pullquote]Rep. Christine Rolfes' oil spill cleanup bill is good old fashioned regulation. Never mind trying to pass industry taxes, oil companies were simply RCW'd into shouldering more cleanup costs.[/pullquote]
Oh, and...
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles
11. It's hard to leave out Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' (D-36, Seattle) legislation reforming and clarifying the state's grey medical marijuana laws — it's been a long sought after goal for groups on the left. But Governor Christine Gregoire's veto pen left gaping holes in the legislation, and those holes are likely to go unfilled until next year; longtime drug reformer, Rep. Roger Goodman (D-45, Kirkland) has an even better bill queued up with Kohl-Welles' approval. Some groups have even said that the unfinished legislation actually makes the system worse off .
Some other heavy lifts (and some losses) for the majority Democrats:
This doesn't count as successful legislation, but is was a successful defense: Liberals stalled Attorney General Rob McKenna's bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Ross (R-14, Yakima), to allow local law enforcement groups to issue protective orders against gang members who haven't previously been convicted of a crime. The ACLU raised red flags, saying the bill criminalized people who weren't criminals and could lead to racial profiling. In the end, McKenna's bill never even made it out of committee.
And a notable loss for Democrats. While an expansion of family planning and contraceptive services to 250 percent of the poverty line (up from 200 percent) went through in the special session, the majority Democrats did fail on another big women's choice issue: Rep. Judy Clibborn’s (D-41, Mercer Island) bill requiring so-called "limited service pregnancy centers" to disclose that they do not provide abortions or contraceptive services. The bill, which anti-abortion group came out strongly against, nearly got a vote on the house floor, but stalled when it turned out Democrats didn't have the votes to pass it in the house or senate.
