My bill advocates stricter oversight for 'unconscionable' agency actions The effectiveness of court-ordered drug and alcohol counseling for those convicted of driving under the influence has been compromised by the mismanagement of complaints and the settlement...
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Bill prompted by Corrections scandal set for Thursday vote in Senate committee
OLYMPIA – A bill prompted by deadly prisoner releases by the state Department of Corrections is set for a vote Thursday in the Senate Law and Justice Committee, a year after the agency revealed it had turned loose some 3,000 violent and dangerous prisoners ahead of...
Steve O’Ban: How Washington State Accidentally Released 3,000 Prisoners Early — and How it Failed to Fix the Problem
This guest column was published by The Weekly Standard Online, June 27, 2016. By Steve O'Ban, R-Pierce County In 2002, the Washington State Department of Corrections made a software programming error that wasn't caught for a decade. Over this period, the error allowed...
Mike Padden: DOC, governor must accept responsibility for deadly prison releases
This guest column was published in The Spokesman-Review, June 11, 2016. By Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley One of the most disturbing things about the deadly prison-release scandal at the Department of Corrections is the way top state officials keep telling us it...
Randi Becker: Education funding a big, contentious topic
This guest column was published in the Eatonville Dispatch, June 8, 2016. By Sen. Randi Becker, R-Eatonville The state Legislature adjourned its 2016 session on March 29. Since that time, I’ve had a number of local school officials and constituents ask me about...
Mike Padden: We’re already covered — The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 makes a state law unnecessary
This guest column was published in The Inlander of Spokane, June 2, 2016. By Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley The admirable cause of civil rights is being misused by partisans in the progressive camp as a tool to bash Republicans. We saw it happen last month in the...
Sharon Brown: Olympia misses another chance for quicker project reviews, job creation
This guest column was published in the Tri-Cities Business News, May 13, 2016. By Sen. Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick Economic growth in Washington rests, in part, on political oversight. Our state faces a number of infrastructure and trade opportunities that, if approved...
Pam Roach: State has much to learn from Panama Canal
This guest column was published in The (Tacoma) News Tribune, May 8, 2016. By Sen. Pam Roach, R-Sumner Failure to prepare for a coming storm can lead to disaster. So can the failure of public officials to take action when an approaching crisis is at hand. We have seen...
Judy Warnick: Billboards an unfair attack on farmers
This guest column was published in The (Everett) Herald, May 1, 2016. By Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake Recently, billboards have popped up in Western Washington that were sponsored by a campaign called “What's Upstream?” They were paid for with taxpayer money via a...
Sharon Brown: Growing the Industry
This guest column was published in Building Insight, published by the Building Industry Association of Washington, in May 2016. By Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick Small businesses are the engine of growth, and ultimately, it is small business entrepreneurs and other...
Andy Hill and Joe Fain: Constitutional amendment a must for balancing state budget
This guest column was published in the Seattle Times, April 28, 2016. By Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond, and Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn The Legislature spent months developing a state-budget update that was projected to balance for the current spending cycle as well as the...
Steve O’Ban: Getting out the truth on the DOC debacle
This guest column was published in The (Tacoma) News Tribune April 9, 2016. After this column appeared, the Senate completed its investigation, revealing information about the conduct of the executive branch that was not mentioned in the governor’s report. By Sen....