Category: Legislative Advocacy

Posted inElections, Legislative Advocacy

Brian Dansel resigns; Washington’s Senate Republicans lose their majority (temporarily)

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Repub­li­cans are tem­porar­i­ly with­out a major­i­ty in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate owing to the res­ig­na­tion of 7th Dis­trict Sen­a­tor Bri­an Dansel, who has just tak­en a job in neo­fas­cist Don­ald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion. Dansel’s res­ig­na­tion, effec­tive as of 1 PM today, leaves the Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus with just twen­­ty-four mem­bers, includ­ing Tim Shel­don (R‑35th Dis­trict), who […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Open Government, Policy Topics

Progressive Ideas We Need: Biennial budgets that record tax breaks as state expenditures

by Steve

Editor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy, Party Politics, Policy Topics, Public Service

Badly-behaved Senate Republicans are an embarrassment to the State of Washington

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

It’s only been ten days since the six­­ty-fifth Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture con­vened for its long ses­sion, but already, the bad behav­ior of Sen­ate Repub­li­cans sug­gests it’s going to be very dif­fi­cult for the state’s law­mak­ing branch to get much of any­thing done before the ses­sion is sched­uled to end on April 23rd. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans have a reasonable […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Education, Events, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Join us tomorrow at the Rally for Student Civil Rights and Amply Funded Schools!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

It is the para­mount duty of the state to make ample pro­vi­sion for the edu­ca­tion of all chil­dren resid­ing with­in its bor­ders, with­out dis­tinc­tion or pref­er­ence on account of race, col­or, caste, or sex. – Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, Arti­cle IX, Sec­tion 1 Read­ers! Do you believe in the Con­sti­tu­tion of Wash­ing­ton State? Do you believe that all of […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Legislative Advocacy, Live Coverage, Policy Topics

HAPPENING NOW: U.S. House Democrats stage sit-in on House floor over gun violence

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Fed up with inac­tion in Con­gress on gun safe­ty reform, Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­bers of the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives have decid­ed to occu­py the well of the House until Speak­er Paul Ryan and his lead­er­ship team agree to hold a vote on leg­is­la­tion that would address the nation’s gun vio­lence epi­dem­ic. The sit-in began with […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Elections, Legislative Advocacy

Washington voters want revenue bills decided by a simple majority vote, NPI research finds

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Over the course of the past twen­­ty-five years, right wing Repub­li­cans in Wash­ing­ton have been on a mis­sion to sab­o­tage the major­i­ty vote clause of our state’s Con­sti­tu­tion. Through a series of statewide ini­tia­tives spon­sored by Lin­da Smith and Tim Eyman, they’ve repeat­ed­ly attempt­ed to grant them­selves the pow­er to block any bill that would […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Legislative Advocacy

Washingtonians really, really want a capital gains tax to address education funding crisis

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton vot­ers believe our pub­lic schools are under­fund­ed and strong­ly sup­port rais­ing rev­enue at the state lev­el to address the prob­lem, accord­ing to a new sur­vey con­duct­ed last week by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute. 63% of the like­ly vot­ers who respond­ed to the sur­vey agreed that Wash­ing­ton’s schools need more funding. […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Senator Chris Murphy’s talking filibuster to stop gun violence enters its fourteenth hour

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ear­ly this morn­ing, at 8:21 AM Pacif­ic Time, Demo­c­ra­t­ic U.S. Sen­a­tor Chris Mur­phy of Con­necti­cut took to the Sen­ate floor to call for action to address gun vio­lence. But instead of mere­ly giv­ing a short speech and then yield­ing the floor, Mur­phy coura­geous­ly began what has now turned into the eighth longest “talk­ing fil­i­buster” in […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Eyman’s I‑1366 is buried; now the Legislature needs to get back to work on school funding

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, Wash­ing­ton’s Supreme Court gave Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 a prop­er and fit­ting bur­ial, rul­ing 9–0 that the mea­sure was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. In affirm­ing Judge William Down­ing’s deci­sion strik­ing down Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 in its entire­ty, the high court both did its job and res­cued the Leg­is­la­ture from hav­ing to wor­ry about los­ing $8 bil­lion in funding […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

NPI calls on Governor Jay Inslee to uphold our Constitution by vetoing charters bailout

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Editor’s Note: Two weeks ago, Repub­­li­­can-dom­i­­nat­ed majori­ties in the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Sen­ate passed a bill restor­ing fund­ing for char­ter schools and allow­ing new char­ters to be autho­rized, in defi­ance of the Supreme Court’s rul­ing in League of Women Vot­ers v. State of Wash­ing­ton. NPI is ask­ing Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee to veto […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Washington State Legislature adjourns 2016 session Sine Die; special session needed

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Not long ago, the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture adjourned its 2016 reg­u­lar ses­sion Sine Die, fol­low­ing the adop­tion of HCR 4417 by the House and Sen­ate. Though the reg­u­lar ses­sion is now offi­cial­ly over, law­mak­ers can­not head home just yet, as their work is unfin­ished (sur­prise, sur­prise). Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee plans to call a spe­cial session […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Senate concurs with House’s amendments to charters bailout, sending it to Governor Inslee

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

By a vote of twen­­ty-six to twen­­ty-three, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate has con­curred in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s amend­ments to E2SSB 6194, Steve Lit­zow’s bill to bail out char­ter schools, which were declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court in League of Women Vot­ers last autumn. The vote was most­ly along par­ty lines, though […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Washington Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson forced out by Senate Republicans

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

After three years on the job, Wash­ing­ton State Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion Lynn Peter­son­’s employ­ment has been abrupt­ly ter­mi­nat­ed — though not by Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, the chief exec­u­tive who hired her and who she reports to by law. Instead, in a stun­ning turn of events, Peter­son is being forced to pack her bags by the vindictive, […]

Posted inElections, Legislative Advocacy

Washington State House passes Voting Rights Act (again) on a party-line vote

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A revised ver­sion of the Wash­ing­ton Vot­ing Rights Act, cham­pi­oned by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Luis Moscoso (D‑1st Dis­trict: Both­ell, Kirk­land, Mill Creek), today passed out of the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives with­out a sin­gle vote to spare, thanks to Repub­li­cans’ refusal to pro­vide a sin­gle vote in sup­port. (Democ­rats cur­rent­ly have a bare major­i­ty of fifty […]