State Representative Julia ReedThe best sign in the world is the one that says Sine Die! It’s been a truly historic session and a pleasure to follow along with all of you! You can keep in touch at @[email protected] over the interim, and hopefully I’ll see you back here in November! #waleg
Update: it was a false alarm. Everyone is fine. #waleg
Proving that anything can happen on Sine Die - we were just about to pass the Capital Budget and someone in the legislative building pulled the fire alarm. You can't make this stuff up. #waleg
Data Center bill has passed. Now we're working on passing the Operating budget. Passing the budgets is the only thing the legislature *must* do every year, according to the state constitution. Ready to cast my vote! #waleg
It's been a big day for milling -- the legislature's second favorite thing after passing laws. But now we're taking up HB 6231, which is an early sunsetting of tax exemptions for data centers. This bill is very necessary to implement the budget, so it has to be done before the budget passes #waleg
We’re also honoring retiring State Rep Jenny Graham. #waleg
Lovely moment for all of us as we honor retiring State Representative Steve Tharinger on the floor. Rep Tharinger is a real one, and he'll be sorely missed, especially by this slightly wild young legislator that he mentored. I always loved finding a way to make Steve laugh #waleg
We’re doing concurrences on a bill about cannabis cooperatives, and Republican speaker says she doesn’t believe cannabis growth is agricultural production, but instead thinks it is drug production and that it’s offensive to call it agriculture because farmers don’t grow poison. Sine die! #waleg
Bill passes! Go buy some direct sales Rivians and everyone go to bed! See you tomorrow for the very last day! #waleg
Energy authority bill passes! Now we're on to SB 6354, which allows electric vehicle manufacturers like Rivian and Lucid to sell vehicles directly to consumers, a privilege that currently only Tesla enjoys (it's a long story). #waleg