Washington House Republicans sent this bulletin at 03/20/2020 04:33 PM PDT
2020 interim • March 20, 2020
Dear Friend:
The last week of the legislative session was dominated by coronavirus (COVID-19). And the first week of interim has been dominated by the same issue.
While our state has a part-time Legislature, state lawmakers represent their constituents full time. And we are here to help. House Republicans participated in three coronavirus conference calls this week, including one with the governor's office on Wednesday. We will continue these calls. I have also had one-on-one conversations with the governor and his Secretary of Health. I appreciate their time and candor.
Never before has it been more important for all levels of government -- federal, state and local -- to work closely together to protect public health and preserve the economy. While government must lead, we need everyone to be engaged and part of the solution -- including the private sector, non-profits, faith-based communities and volunteers. This crisis will abate. In the meantime, we must be resilient and creative.
Coronavirus | Questions and answers
Many constituents have asked us questions about coronavirus. I asked my Policy team to record these questions and help us answer them, if possible. If we don't have immediate answers, we are passing the questions along to agency liaisons or the governor's office for further consideration. We are responding to constituents as soon as possible. If you have a question, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Coronavirus | Information and resources
On Monday, I challenged my Communications team to create a website that had information and resources on coronavirus. By day's end, they launched this website. It has been updated every day since. We welcome your input on how we can make it more helpful to the public.
I also encourage you to bookmark and share The Ledger -- our legislative news aggregator. This platform also has coronavirus resources and the top stories in the news each day.
In our last email update, I said we would discuss the 2020 legislative session this week -- including Republican bills that passed, good Republican bills that were rejected, bad Democratic bills that passed, and bad Democratic bills that were stopped. In time, we will unpack all of this information.
For now, the focus will continue to be on bipartisanship and what can be done to protect public health and preserve the economy. And that will continue to be our focus until we are through this crisis.
