Sen. Ann Rivers and Rep. Brandon Vick will hold town-hall meetings Dec. 9 in Ridgefield, Battle Ground and Camas. The 18th District lawmakers say they want to hear from their constituents about decisions made by the Legislature this year and issues that need attention in 2018.

Times and locations for the Saturday meetings are:

• Ridgefield: 9:30 a.m., Clark County Fire & Rescue, 911 N 65th Avenue
• Battle Ground: 1 p.m., City Hall, 109 SW 1st Street
• Camas: 4:30 p.m., Camas Library, 625 NE 4th Avenue

“As we prepare for the legislative session, we want the constituents of the 18th District to have an opportunity to ask questions and provide input on the upcoming session,” said Vick, R-Felida. “I am concerned about protecting taxpayer dollars and finding new economic opportunities and family-wage jobs for Clark County. However, there will be many other issues before us including education, transportation and possible tax proposals. It is important we hear from our constituents on these issues and others before the session begins.”

“To me a big part of being a citizen legislator is knowing what is on the hearts and minds of the people I represent, and carrying those questions and concerns to the state Capitol,” said Rivers, R-La Center. “I realize national politics are attracting a lot of attention, but these meetings are a time to focus on the state-level issues that concern southwest Washington – like the ongoing need for good jobs, which has been amplified by the coming job losses at the Camas paper mill, and where Olympia fits in when it comes to economic development.”

Residents needing more information may contact either lawmaker’s office: Rivers’ email address is Ann.Rivers@leg.wa.gov, and her Olympia telephone number is 360-786-7634; Vick’s e-mail address is Brandon.Vick@leg.wa.gov, and his telephone number at the Capitol is 360-786-7850.

Sen. Ann Rivers is the newest member of the Legislative Committee on Economic Development and International Relations. She was appointed recently by Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib, who chairs the bipartisan committee comprising six senators and six representatives.

“I wanted to serve on this committee because it puts special emphasis on international trade, tourism, investment and industrial development – the areas where I want to be a strong voice for southwest Washington,” said Rivers, R-La Center.

“I also don’t want our communities to miss out on important business opportunities because the regulatory side of state government oversteps. I’m hopeful this appointment will put me in a position to make sure there is balance in the state’s broader economic-development approach.”

Rivers said the time commitments that go with being chair of the Senate Health Care Committee and serving on three other major committees (Early Learning and K-12 Education; Ways and Means; and Rules) have kept her from serving on the Senate’s economic-development committee.

“Participating on this committee affords me the opportunity to do some of that work,” she said.

Also, she is intrigued by the fact that her new committee, which meets quarterly, is dedicated to economic development and works at the legislative level.

“The committees in the Senate and House of Representatives that handle economic development also have other policy responsibilities, and being in different chambers they can come at the same issues from different angles,” said Rivers. “That’s fine within the Capitol, but when it comes to trade policy, our state should present a single, consistent face to the outside world, and I see that as being part of this joint committee’s territory.”

Rivers succeeds Sen. Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, who stepped down after serving four years on the committee. The other two Republican senators on the panel are based in Yakima and Kennewick.

OLYMPIA… On Saturday the state Access to Justice Board will honor Sen. Ann Rivers with its “Access to Justice Community Leadership Award” for 2017.

The award goes to a person outside the legal community who “has played a strategic, significant and courageous leadership role in improving access to the justice system for those who face economic or other significant barriers.”

Rivers, R-La Center, was nominated for the honor by an official with the state Office of Civil Legal Aid, which is part of government’s judicial branch, and an Access to Justice board member. The state Supreme Court established the board in 1994, charging it with planning for the statewide delivery of civil legal aid services.

“We say the words ‘and justice for all’ when pledging allegiance to our nation’s flag, and Washington’s constitution calls for justice to be administered ‘without unnecessary delay,’” Rivers said.

“Just as a ZIP code shouldn’t restrict educational opportunities for a child in our state, justice for residents of our state shouldn’t be dependent on a person’s income or fluency in English,” she explained.

The award will be presented at the Access to Justice conference in Yakima.

TACOMA – A bipartisan effort by state lawmakers to target distracted driving received the governor’s endorsement today. The Driving Under the Influence of Electronics Act updates the 2010 state law regarding the use of personal electronic devices by people when they are behind the wheel.

Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Rep. Jessyn Farrell, D-Seattle, worked together throughout this year’s legislative session to build support for the measure in the Senate and House of Representatives. It received strong bipartisan votes shortly before lawmakers concluded their regular legislative session April 23.

“I wish we didn’t need a stronger law, but it’s clear that people need a new reason to concentrate on the road ahead instead of something else in the car,” said Rivers. “I’ll bet most people who drive our highways have witnessed the kind of risky behavior this bill is meant to discourage.”

“Because of this bill, our law-enforcement officers will be able to do an even better job of keeping our roads safe,” Farrell said. “They see drivers holding phones and other devices all the time, but the wording of our law has made it extremely difficult for them to actually do anything about it. That will now change, and it will help save lives.”

Holding a cell phone to one’s ear or texting while driving is already prohibited under state law. But other uses of electronic devices – such as sending messages or posting photos through apps like Facebook, Instagram, or SnapChat – were not specifically prohibited because those technologies were not as prevalent in 2010.

Rivers and Farrell had proposed distracted-driving legislation in 2015 and 2016, respectively. After joining forces, they chose against proposing a measure that could quickly become outdated due to ever-changing technology, in favor of a straightforward approach. The Driving Under the Influence of Electronics Act prohibits any holding of a personal electronic device, watching video on such a device, or using a hand or finger to use the device’s features – other than to activate or deactivate a function.

Pushing a button with one finger to initiate hands-free calling is permitted, as is the use of citizens’ band or ham radios in vehicles.

Legislators voted to have the updates take effect in 2019. However, Gov. Jay Inslee chose to veto that part of the bill today. Now the new law will instead take effect July 23, as will most other laws created during the legislative session that ended April 23.

“We wanted to give both drivers and law enforcement ample time to prepare for these stronger restrictions. Now that the governor has dramatically shortened the timeline, people need to be ready much sooner,” Rivers said.

The House passed Farrell’s version of the bill (House Bill 1371) in early March, just after the Senate adopted Rivers’ version (Senate Bill 5289). It was Rivers’ bill that reached Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk after changes proposed by Farrell were approved by both chambers.

The bill was signed along with two other impaired-driving measures, HB 1614, and SB 5037. All three measures support the state’s continued Target Zero efforts, which aim to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Washington’s roadways to zero by 2030.

OLYMPIA… At Sen. Ann Rivers’ request, the state Senate is proposing to pay for auxiliary lanes to ease traffic congestion on State Route 14 east of Interstate 205 to S.E. 164th Avenue. The project is included in the 2017-19 state transportation budget endorsed by the Senate Transportation Committee today.

The project, which would increase capacity and reduce travel time, is not in Rivers’ legislative district. However, the funding would come from a project in her district that is part of the Connecting Washington transportation package approved in 2015.

“I’m basically trading one SR 14 improvement for another. The Camas Slough replacement bridge would come off the Connecting Washington project list and these auxiliary lanes would go on the list instead. It’s a more impactful investment, for approximately the same cost,” Rivers said.

The La Center Republican explained the auxiliary lanes weren’t included in the 2015 transportation package because of conflicting priorities among other legislators.

“I think there’s a better understanding now of what projects like this mean to our region, but that alone wasn’t going to bring the project back to life,” she said. It fell to Rivers, Clark County’s only Republican legislator to support the Connecting Washington package, to request the funding shift aimed at putting the auxiliary lanes on the Department of Transportation’s to-do list.

“As someone who asks ‘what does southwest Washington need?’” rather than ‘what does my district need?’ I knew which project would help both my district and our region more,” Rivers said.

“All of Clark County will benefit from this project and I appreciate Senator Rivers’ request to replace the project,” said Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver. “This particular section of SR 14 is quite the bottleneck and widening it will give relief to Clark County citizens traveling both east and west.”

The Senate transportation budget also includes $190,900 to implement a new distracted-driving law, should the Legislature approve either Rivers’ Senate Bill 5289 or an identical House bill.

OLYMPIA…Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center and chair of the Senate Health Care Committee, offered this statement today in response to claims by the governor and state insurance commissioner regarding the proposed federal American Health Care Act.

“Having served in Congress, the governor and the insurance commissioner both know better than to suggest that any major health-care policy bill, Democrat or Republican, would become law without undergoing many revisions first. No matter what may come out of Washington, D.C., our state’s legislators will have an additional two years’ time to address any changes that affect Washingtonians. This state has been a leader on health-care policy and health-care coverage for a long time, and that won’t change – there is more common ground and less political division in our Legislature than people may think.

“No one can say how many people bought health coverage through the state exchange to avoid the Obama tax penalty, and how many of those would be affected by a new federal health-care policy. Also, no one knows what lies ahead at the federal level concerning the women, children and disabled for whom Medicaid is intended – but I remain committed to them and know my counterparts in our state House are as well.”

OLYMPIA… Washington’s Legislature has adopted more than 20 state symbols, from a state tree to a state folk song and, most recently, a state oyster and a state waterfall. But the state doesn’t have a designated “cryptid,” or cryptozoological creature – meaning an animal not proven to exist, such as Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster.

Nor does state law make a single mention of Sasquatch, also commonly referred to as Bigfoot and sometimes Forest Yeti, even though an organization of bigfoot researchers rank Washington as the national leader in sightings of the legendary being. Skamania and Whatcom counties adopted Sasquatch-protection laws more than a quarter-century ago.

Enter “Caleb,” a boy in Sen. Ann Rivers’ southwest Washington legislative district, who wrote a letter suggesting official status for the being that was once the mascot of the long-departed Seattle SuperSonics professional basketball team and the focus of a major 2010 exhibit at the Washington State History Museum.

Rivers, R-La Center, couldn’t resist what she views as a teaching moment. The result is Senate Bill 5816, through which lawmakers would designate Sasquatch as the state cryptid, and recognize Sasquatch’s “immeasurable contributions to Washington state’s cultural heritage and ecosystem” and the “importance of preserving the legacy of Sasquatch.”

“When our two sons were little they were fascinated with Sasquatch. The letter I received from my young constituent made it clear that children are still captivated by Sasquatch, or Bigfoot,” Rivers explained. “Why not encourage a young person who has engaged with his government and at the same time give some formal recognition to this unique part of our state’s folklore?

“I am certain that Sasquatch, the most eminent and recognizable cryptid in North America, is a native Washingtonian. And being an official state symbol has to be a big step up from being in television commercials for beef jerky.”

According to the Legislature’s website, state symbols are often adopted “after a concerted effort by citizens to have a significant item recognized for its importance to the state.” Most of the symbols adopted in the past 20 years were proposed by grade-schoolers through their local legislators.

Rivers knows people have questioned whether past state-symbol bills represent a good use of lawmakers’ time, even when suggested by children, and realizes her Sasquatch-as-symbol bill may draw a similar reaction.

“For those who will say this is silly, let me point out that the Senate has already approved an education-funding plan, and work on the new state budgets is moving along as quickly as it can,” she said.

“A bill to add Bigfoot to the list of state symbols is one of the simplest pieces of legislation we could pass this year or any year. Additionally, I can’t think of a better way for children to learn about the process of governing than to have them work on something of interest to them.

“Besides, who wants to mess with Sasquatch?”

OLYMPIA… Sen. Ann Rivers offered this reaction to the education-funding proposal issued today by Gov. Jay Inslee.

“The governor’s proposal looks more like another attempt to impose a new carbon tax and a new tax on income and less like a way to thoughtfully address the K-12 funding question. It fails to fully address the teacher-pay disparity, and the 8 billion dollars’ worth of tax hikes he wants would go well beyond what is needed to fully fund education.

“I was hoping to see new thinking from the governor on K-12 funding – like a proposal that is rooted in the actual cost of educating a child in our state, because that might start to gain some traction across the Legislature. What we got instead is a plan that would pull a truly massive amount of money out of the economy, through tax increases that can’t be dedicated to education the way he suggests, without showing how it would improve outcomes at the classroom level. The bottom line can’t be good for families and employers across Washington.”

Rivers, R-La Center, is a member of the Education Funding Task Force. She is about to begin a second four-year term as 18th District senator and will serve on the Senate’s early learning and K-12 education committee as well as the Senate Ways and Means Committee.