WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO THESE PAST SIX YEARS
I love this job. Voters in the 37th District seem to take a heightened interest
in political issues, and are not shy about voicing their progressive views. In
the letters, calls, and e-mails I receive, there is a wide variety of
subject-matter, reflecting the full scope of the Legislature’s duties. But some
things are constant among my constituents’ messages: a powerful sense of
community, a high degree of political intelligence, a willingness to ask serious
questions, impatience with political platitude and doublespeak, and most
importantly, a willingness to articulate the policies that would best improve
the lives and opportunities of the folks at the bottom of the pile.
I love this job because it keeps me on my toes. These folks insist on a high
level of discourse, and better yet, action. It’s not enough to be able to
explain the issues well, it’s not enough to vote right—if I’m representing the
37th I’d better be out there leading the charge. That’s what I’ve been up to
these past six years.
Here’s a list of my favorite battles. Some we won, some we lost, and some have
yet to be decided finally. This can’t be a list of all I’ve done, for there
isn’t space, and anyway some of our work is pretty boring. But here are the
highlights.
For an
extensive list of what I've been up to click here!
Protecting Our Civil Liberties
This past session, I used my power as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to
kill a particularly evil bill: HB 2416, which would have expanded the authority
of police to wiretap phones during investigations of “terrorist acts.” Coming in
the wake of September 11, this bill would have altered much too drastically the
fragile balance between police power and traditional American civil liberties. I
also recruited and led a bipartisan majority, 32-13, to defeat the Governor’s
broadly-worded proposal on Anti-Terrorism measures, which we felt would have
criminalized too broad a spectrum of activities, including some non-terrorist
acts and dissent. I
had authored a bill, SB 6704, that would have created the same sanctions against
major criminal acts without invading the privacy of citizens, expanding racial
profiling, or allowing the prosecution of lower-level suspects as “terrorists.”
By working effectively with Republicans and making this a non-partisan effort, I
won passage in the Senate by a vote of 42-7.
Treatment, Not Prison, for Addicts
As a first step in the long process of substituting treatment for incarceration
as our society’s response to drug addiction, I co-authored SB 6361/HB 2338 which
drastically shortens prison time for possession and street-dealing, while
introducing for the first time a mandatory treatment process for addicts
arrested for drug crimes. This, I hope and believe, is the first step in two
related movements: first, making drug treatment more available on a
sliding-scale basis for addicts, whether or not criminally charged, and second,
reducing the sentences for those non-violent offenses which we now over-punish.
Long prison terms may be appropriate for “hardcore” violent offenders who have
proven their resistance to rehabilitation, but they don’t serve a real purpose
when applied to
lesser and non-violent crimes. I worked to make sure that we funded the
treatment programs adequately—no mean feat, given the Legislature’s focus last
session on stripping $1.6 billion from the Budget because of our reduced tax
revenues. This effort required me to co-chair, with Rep. Ruth Kagi, a long
series of meetings with representatives of all the interested parties and
agencies: judges, prosecutors, the ACLU, drug treatment professionals, the
counties, defense lawyers, and many others.
Putting a Stop to Racial Profiling
One of my first acts as Chair of Senate Judiciary after the 2000 election was to
hold hearings—even before the 2001 session began—on Sen. Rosa Franklin’s bill,
SB 5852, requiring the police to keep track of whom they stop, for what purpose,
and what action was taken. Despite opposition from some police spokespersons and
sheriffs, we won passage of the bill in the 2001 session. The law is already
resulting in a lower rate of questionable traffic stops of minority drivers.
Transit, Transit, Transit
It took a little chutzpah, because I’m not on the Senate Transportation
Committee, but just the same I entered the debate over how many billions to put
in the transportation plan, and whether to separate a regional (three county)
plan from the state’s overall plan, and whether to pass it as a bill in Olympia
or send it to the voters. My goal was funding for transit in all its forms—and a
final vote in Olympia. As a member of the unofficial “Mobility Caucus,” I met
regularly with Puget Sound legislators, Ron Sims, and representatives of
environmental and growth management groups in favor of reducing our automobile
addiction. We won a regional package—unfortunately, it will go to the voters as
a referendum in 2003—which the three county councils are now drafting jointly,
using the choices of taxes and projects that we set out. I am concerned that the
counties’ joint version may not take the best advantage of the transit projects
we included. The statewide package is Ref. 51, a dispiriting result: 85%
highways and only 15% non-automobile. This is less than half the “one-third for
choices” that the Blue Ribbon Commission recommended two years ago. Our clearest
victory was the Monorail Referendum, which will create a local system funded
entirely by taxes collected in the city.
Encouraging Minority and Women-Owned Businesses
I’m almost 58 years old, and I hope to live to see the day when government may
legitimately quit making racial and gender distinctions in its remedial
programs. But folks, we’re coming after dozens of generations of Affirmative
Action for Wealthy White Males, and our American myth of an unstratified society
in which all can compete equally is just that—a myth. All runners do not start
at the same line. One generation of catch-up is not enough to change this. From
my first year in the Senate, 1997, until 2001, I worked on a variety of bills,
starting with SB 5971 my very first year, that would extend and expand the
Linked Deposit Program, by which the state reduces by 2% the interest paid on
loans by qualified women- and minority-owned businesses. So long as these small
businesses face greater hurdles in the old boy networks that deform the
marketplace, this help will be needed. I’m proud to have played a leadership
role in the eventual passage, and happy to acknowledge the good work of Rep.
Sharon Tomiko Santos in the 2001 legislation.
Environmental Protection
I was amazed to learn from my environmental lawyer friends that in each of
Washington’s major environmental laws, there is a provision prohibiting certain
acts which are detrimental to the environment, followed by another provision
allowing only the Attorney General to sue the perpetrator for an injunction
against that act, and in a few cases for money damages. The individual
“downstream,” whether a landowner whose land or water is polluted, or whether
affected in some other way, must petition the Attorney General to take action.
(So what happens when we have a Republican Attorney General?) So in 1999, I
prime-sponsored SB 5943, which authorizes the affected individual, as well as
the Attorney General, to take suit. The bill was opposed vigorously by the
construction industry, the mining industry, Big Timber, and just about every
polluting industry this side of Idaho. Boy, did I ever get kicked around! But
I’ll do it again, and again, and again, until we win this one.
Holocaust Survivors Insurance Claims
This was a bittersweet victory. Many American insurance companies are
subsidiaries of the European mega-conglomerates which dominate the insurance
industry. Some of those European companies had reaped windfall profits during
the Holocaust, by refusing to pay the life and property claims of Jewish and
other survivors whose families had perished and whose homes were looted and
taken over. (They were slick. They insisted on seeing the death certificate as
proof. Did the Nazis issue death certificates?) My response was SB 5509, which
requires the American subsidiary, in order to be allowed to continue to write
policies in Washington, to report to our Insurance Commissioner the names of all
the parent companies’ policy-holders whose policies remained unclaimed, so the
names could be published and the survivors could make their claims. (The statute
of limitations was also extended.) The bill passed by a wide margin, and was
signed by Gov. Locke, but our Insurance Commissioner could not enforce it
effectively because of a federal court order in a lawsuit by the insurance
companies. This summer, in late July 2002, the Court of Appeals reversed the
court order and upheld the constitutionality of the law. The companies continue
to refuse to identify their unclaimed policies or to pay survivors, so court
action by the Commissioner will be needed to enforce the law. I’ll be there to
see that he takes the needed action.
Standing with our Teachers and Public Employees
Despite a pay-rate that ranks in the lowest third of the states, our teachers
struggle with overcrowded classrooms, and in some districts have to make do with
outdated textbooks and “temporary” portable classrooms. As recently as 2000, the
starting salary for a brand new teacher with a BA degree was $23,100—whether in
Seattle or in Walla Walla County. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I
voted consistently for pay-raises, though we could never manage an adequate
raise with the money we had after the No-Taxers got their way. Finally, the
teachers and their allies persuaded the voters to pass Initiatives 728 and 732,
which gave COLAs to the teachers and gave each district a bonus with which to
hire more teachers. Since the Initiatives contained no new funding source or
tax, the money came out of the General Fund. We are now trying to find a way to
bring our other underpaid state and local government employees into parity with
the teachers, but we haven’t the money in the General Fund with which to do it.
Clearing Our Neighborhoods of Abandoned Junk Cars
At the request of the South Seattle Crime Prevention Council, I sponsored and
passed SB 6748, which allows the police to remove junkers from our streets more
effectively, and imposes a stiff fine on those who leave them in the streets.
The new law requires buyers of used cars (hulks) at auctions to list their names
on a form, along with the vehicle’s identifying number. If the vehicle is found
in the streets, stripped and abandoned, the police can still identify the owner
and impose the fine. The neighbors are happy.
Shielding State Employee “Whistleblowers” from Retaliation
After hearing testimony from several State employees whose lives had been made
miserable by their bosses in the bureaucracy after they complained of improper
governmental action by their agencies, I drafted SB 5672. This bill, which was
passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Locke in 1999, makes it much harder
for agencies to retaliate, by assigning to them the burden of proof in any
subsequent Whistleblower complaint. Before this new law, an ostracized employee
had to prove that the agency retaliated because of his or her earlier act of
blowing the whistle. Now, the agency needs to prove that it didn’t act out of
retaliation. Our public employees are now much more free to let the public know
when an agency is acting improperly.
For
an extensive list of what I've been up to click here!
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