Sticking to my priorities
Friends and Neighbors,
One of the ways Senate Republicans decide what our legislative priorities will be each year is to take a deep and thoughtful look around the state at the problems everyday people face.
What complicates their lives? What puts them in danger? What makes things more expensive? What do our children need to succeed? What is important to them?
We explore the opportunities to develop solutions and, working with staff and outside stakeholders, craft bills that would address those issues.
This is how I established my top three priorities, which continue to be important in our 20th District and every corner of Washington.
People are still worried about their personal security and the safety of their communities. They are still struggling to make ends meet as everything gets more expensive, often relying on credit to pay the bills. And people are still concerned about the ability of our K-12 students to recover from the pandemic learning loss and get the education they need to succeed in life.
Majority Democrats have blocked important Republican bills that could have made a difference for people from all walks of life and political parties. Meanwhile, they have also pushed bad policies that have made things worse for everyone.
As senators, we don’t just hear Republican concerns. We answer the phone no matter who’s calling, and we hear the same feedback from people across the board. People just have different ideas about how to address them.
What is universally clear, though, is that they don’t want us serving special interests. They need us in Olympia working on their interests – policies that will make their lives better.
There’s a lot to do around the state to secure a safer Washington, fight for an affordable Washington, and build a better future for Washington’s children. Between now and when the 2025 legislative session begins in January, I will be identifying areas where I can help improve people’s lives and working with staff to draft the necessary legislation.
In the meantime, listen to this Elephant in the Dome podcast where I explain more about my priorities and why I continue to work on these issues as your Senator.
Sincerely,
John Braun
“Braun calls for more legislative action after three infants exposed to fentanyl”
“Centralia Republican says Democrats refused to vote on legislation to punish those who allow children access to narcotics”
I recently sent out a statement about three fentanyl overdoses suffered by three babies in Everett and put House Democrats on notice that this problem needs serious consideration. I will again be sponsoring a bill this upcoming session that will add fentanyl to the list of drugs included in the statute for felony child endangerment. It should be a felony for someone to expose children to deadly street drugs — and it is, just not when it comes to synthetic opioids.
Read this article from The Chronicle and learn more.
The Seattle Times saw my statement and published an editorial agreeing with me.
In it, they say, “In the last two years, state lawmakers have failed to fix a glaring gap in Washington’s criminal law. Adults who expose children to fentanyl, even if the children are seriously injured, face only a misdemeanor-level charge. Only in the most tragic of cases — when a child dies of an overdose — are prosecutors likely to pursue a felony conviction for manslaughter, and more serious prison time.”
Read the editorial from The Seattle Times.
House Democrats should be ashamed of sweeping the lives of children under the rug and should support my legislation to hold people who expose children to deadly synthetic opioids fully accountable. Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
The hits just keep coming from Democrats’ cap-and-tax law
Read my full commentary that appeared in the April 26th edition of The Chronicle.
Excerpt:
“Anyone who buys gasoline already knows how the price of a gallon of unleaded regular in our state has shot up since majority Democrats’ cap-and-tax law — the so-called Climate Commitment Act, or CCA — took full effect in 2023. The same gas costs significantly less in Oregon and Idaho, which are free of a cap-and-tax policy.
“Washington customers of an Oregon-based natural-gas company know they are getting hit at more than the gas pump. Their billing statements include a “WA Climate Act Fee” line item showing what the law is costing them. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) wanted to do the same for its customers, but this past fall, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office and the state Utilities and Transportation Commission forced PSE to keep that information secret.”
As of Monday, May 6, I will be under Washington state’s election-year restrictions. You will not receive this e-newsletter between
May 6 and when November’s election results are certified.