Rep. Green celebrates Red Hat Day in Olympia

Today, Rep. Tami Green (D-Lakewood) celebrated the joy of aging and showed her support for empowering women at all stages of their lives.

“It’s exciting to go through this journey of aging,” Green said. “The older I get, the less I worry about what others think of me and the more I worry about what I think of me.”

Sponsoring House Resolution 4641, she recognized Red Hatters throughout Washington State.

The Red Hat Society is a social organization for women over age 50. The mission of the Red Hat Society is to gain higher visibility for aging women and to reshape the way they are viewed by today's culture.

The age 50 and over women of The Red Hat Society wear elaborately decorated red hats with purple dresses and clothing, while the junior postulants wear pink hats and lavender clothing.

Dawn Morrell discusses House Democratic efforts to support our troops

House Democrats are honoring Washington’s National Guard not just with words, but with legislation and programs that are designed to serve the men and women who serve us and who defend our flag and freedoms. Rep. Dawn Morrell was recently honored to receive a flag flown by Washington’s 81st Combat Brigade team at Camp Ramadi, which is in the heart of Anbar Province in Iraq .

The flag, along with images from our National Guard in Iraq, were sent by Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Grenon in appreciation of Morrell’s support of the Washington National Guard and Reserves. Morrell expressed her appreciation for the honor—and for our troops—in a recent video update.

House budgets coming next week

With four weeks left in the session, it's time for the 2009-2011 budgets to be released. The House transportation budget will be unveiled by Chair Judy Clibborn next Monday at noon in House Hearing Room A, followed by the operating budget on Tuesday. Ways and Means Chair Kelli Linville will roll out that proposal at 10:00 a.m., also in HHR A.

Details are still sketchy, but given the dismal economic situation our nation is suffering, nobody is expected to be very pleased with the budget plans.

Today's Hot List

Not too many public hearings to advertise today. Today is House Policy Committee Cutoff, so committees are scrambling to vote out non-budget-related bills.

NTIB bills (bills necessary to implement the budget) are not subject to today's deadline.

1:30pm in Finance
Public Hearing: HB 2320 - Revising the tax code to ensure that products transferred electronically, and the gross income derived from such products, will continue to be subject to sales, use, and business and occupation taxes in a manner that complies with the streamlined sales and use tax agreement. (This is a revamped version of Rep. Ross Hunter's bill to update the tax code related to digital downloads.)

Today's Hot List

So you're wondering why the hot list below is so short, right? Committees are actually really busy today trying to pass bills out before tomorrow's House Policy Committee cutoff. So most committee have a long list of bills planned for executive session (meaning a committee vote) today and tomorrow.

But there is one really interesting public hearing this morning that voters might be interested in...


8:00am in State Government & Tribal Affairs
Public Hearing: SB 5599 – Approving the entry of Washington into the agreement among the states to elect the president by national popular vote.

Some song and dance (without the dance) at ed hearing today

Rep. Pat Sullivan sat before the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee today to once again make his pitch for an overhaul of the state's basic education funding structure. Ninety people, mostly parents, teachers and students, drove to Olympia to testify on the legislation.



In proper bi-partisan fashion, he was joined by his Republican colleague, Rep. Skip Priest. Priest provided a rather memorable, and entertaining, explanation of why now is the time to fix our system. That short but perfectly executed performance has earned Priest a cameo spot on our caucus blog.

Rep. Morrell elected as Chair of HDC

Representative Dawn Morrell of Puyallup was elected chair of the House Democratic Caucus this morning. The position has been vacant since the death of Rep. Bill Grant in January. Grant, a wheat farmer from Walla Walla, had held the position since 1993.

Morrell was elected caucus vice-chair last December, and has served as acting chair since the first day of the 2009 session. She is a critical care nurse at Good Samaritan hospital in Puyallup, where she has worked since 1984.

“I am deeply honored by the confidence shown me by my fellow caucus members,” said Morrell. “I look forward to leading this group of hard-working legislators who care so deeply about our state.”