It has been a difficult year for students, parents, and school officials. With a limited percentage of Washington school districts offering in-person instruction and very few districts, if any, back to their usual operations, 12th District state Sen. Brad Hawkins is urging districts to think differently about how to maximize...

Another hurdle has been cleared for legislation sponsored by 12th District Sen. Brad Hawkins to implement recommendations by the Electric Utilities Wildland Fire Prevention Task Force on ways to prevent wildfires. Senate Bill 5158 was approved late today by the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The proposal now goes to...

Sen. Brad Hawkins’ bill to promote hydrogen-powered vehicles has taken a step closer to a full Senate vote this session. The Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday unanimously approved Senate Bill 5000, which would establish an eight-year statewide pilot project for the reduction of sales tax on purchases of fuel-cell electric...

Sen. Brad Hawkins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, responded to today’s announcement of the “Get Ready Plan” partnership between the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Kaiser Permanente. “I applaud Superintendent Reykdal for working with partners to bring in expertise and...

Following a challenging school year for students, parents, and schools, and anticipating significant learning loss across Washington state, the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee has taken a step forward to address “learning loss” throughout the state. The committee today approved 12th District state Sen. Brad Hawkins’ bipartisan legislation,...

Gov. Jay Inslee’s move yesterday to make all of the state’s public-school employees eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of their age, is good news, says Sen. Brad Hawkins, ranking Republican on the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee. The governor’s action came Monday, one week after Hawkins and...

Two years ago, the Legislature created the Electric Utilities Wildland Fire Prevention Task Force that focused on ways to prevent wildfires. This critical work included an effort to begin drafting model agreements to remove dangerous trees, developing communications protocols, and considering investigation recommendations. Now that the task force recently released...

Following his Jan. 11 letter with legislative education committee leaders to the governor and state Department of Health urging greater access to the COVID-19 vaccine for school employees, 12th District state Sen. Brad Hawkins is now calling for a statewide “School Employee Vaccination Day.” With the federal government’s recent decision...

Washington state’s education committee leaders, including 12th District state Sen. Brad Hawkins, urged Gov. Jay Inslee and the state Department of Health to revise recent guidance so that all school employees who wish to get a vaccination can receive one in February as part of Phase 1B2. According to the...