Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This is the second week of the legislative session. On Monday, we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day and Children’s Day. It was a joy to have my two young boys join me on the House floor again – what a reminder of how important the decisions we make here are on future generations! Last year I gave a speech in the House on Children’s Day – you can watch it here.

Wenatchee fruit shipper testifies about importance of rail

Last week, I invited Columbia Marketing International (CMI) from Wenatchee and officials from the Port of Quincy to share the importance of agriculture and its dependence on a reliable transportation system. We presented local apples to the entire Transportation Committee – it is not often you see committee members so engaged in a presentation! The Port of Quincy officials discussed the use of cold trains to ship 70 percent of our state’s apples domestically. The importance of rail in getting our fruit to market cannot be understated. You can see photos from our presentation at left and right, and more photos of the hearing here.

 

 

 

 

Hearings held on my legislation

I was pleased to see two of the bills I’ve sponsored receive public hearings in the House Government Operations and Elections Committee last week.

• House Bill 2105 would require meeting agendas for any public agency with a governing body to be made available online at least 24 hours before a meeting. This bill was approved by the committee yesterday and will now go to the House Rules Committee for consideration to be scheduled for a vote by the full House.
• House Bill 2106 would allow counties to save election dollars by not holding a primary election when just one candidate for a county position has filed to fill an unexpired term. The committee approved the bill to move forward on Tuesday.

In the News

Transparency is important to me as your legislator – talking regularly with reporters and being open to interviews is part of my job. Below are some news articles you might find of interest:

• Bill would improve public access to state project info (Wenatchee World)
• Importance of Cold Train to fruit growers explained in Olympia (iFiber One TV)
• Newlyweds share their story of care, gratitude — and perseverance (The Wenatchee World)
• Lawmakers eye expanding open government laws in Wash. (The News Tribune)
• OPINION: Serving the Methow Valley (Rep. Brad Hawkins/Methow Valley News)

My weekly video update

Watch my video update this week where I gave a tour of my Olympia office and discussed my goals for the session:

As always, please feel free to contact my office anytime. It’s an honor to serve you.

Sincerely,

Brad Hawkins

State Representative Brad Hawkins
12th Legislative District

E-mail: brad.hawkins@leg.wa.gov
Web site: www.representativebradhawkins.com

Olympia Office (January-March)
122G Legislative Building – P.O. Box 40600 | Olympia, WA 98504-0600
(360) 786-7832 or Toll-free: (800) 562-6000

District Office (March-December)
11 Spokane Street, Suite 205A | Wenatchee, WA 98801
(509) 662-5733