John Braun

Friends and Neighbors, This will be my final e-newsletter for 2023. You will receive my next one during the first week of January, so I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The 2024 Legislative Session begins Monday, Jan. 8. It will end Thursday,...

Several of my e-newsletters have highlighted news about the governor’s cap-and-trade program that would be more appropriately titled “cap-and-tax.” This is the policy that has resulted in a 50-cent increase to a gallon of gas — an increase that could climb much higher. As I shared before, the governor was...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, Two full academic years have passed since Washington’s governor belatedly ended his pandemic-related closure of the state’s public K-12 classrooms. Data from the state’s latest assessment of Seattle high school students shows those at more affluent schools are close to the pre-pandemic scores of their peers....

CENTRALIA…Upon learning that 114 bags of contraband were discovered at Green Hill School, and that it was necessary for law enforcement to issue a search warrant because school officials refused to turn the items over, Senate Republican Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, shared the following comments. “I strongly support the call...

Friends and neighbors, I don’t think that any of us are blind to Washington’s drug epidemic. Many of us have loved ones who have struggled with, or succumbed to, addiction. Police and other emergency responders are overwhelmed with calls to assist in overdoses, including overdose deaths. Mental illness is often...

CENTRALIA… Efforts to build a behavioral-health treatment facility in Lewis County are being pushed back another six months by what Lewis County lawmakers say is another broken promise from Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration. Sen. John Braun and Rep. Peter Abbarno, both R-Centralia, are particularly frustrated because the governor’s office assured...

An audit by the U.S. Department of Education found that Washington state school officials had little oversight in how school districts spent $1 billion in student funding, 20% of which was intended to help students catch up from learning loss as a result of COVID shutdowns. The Seattle Times reported...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, The state of Washington’s K-12 education system remains one of my top priorities as we approach the 2024 legislative session. And, according to the Seattle Times, significant learning loss remains a critical problem.   The equity issue of our time Last year, I worked to get...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, As I shared in my previous newsletter, I suspected the carbon-pricing auction held by the Washington State Department of Ecology on August 30 (as part of the Democrats’ “cap-and-tax” plan) would result in another increase in the price of fuel. The results of that auction were...