 Dear Friends,
Today I lead my Senate and House Republican colleagues in releasing our Open Safe, Open Now plan for Phase 3 and beyond. I wanted to make sure you had an opportunity to hear about this plan first-hand.
Below is the press release we sent out to the media, along with a link to the full plan. I've also included a video link to TVW's coverage of our Republican Media Availability, which highlighted the proposal. If you have any questions, thoughts or concerns, I would love to hear them.
Thanks again for the honor of serving as your representative in the Washington state Senate.
Sincerely,
 Sharon Brown
State Senator
8th District
Video Alert:
Republican media availability
 Click here to watch the Republican Media Availability on the roll out of our plan to safely and immediatedly open Washington.
Republican lawmakers:
Move schools, employers to next phase now
Open Safe, Open Now: A Republican plan for Phase 3 and Beyond’ shows trust in the people
 Pre-COVID file photo.
READ THE PLAN
In response to sharply declining COVID-19 case rates and hospitalization rates statewide, legislative Republicans today announced a simple, practical and consistent plan to get all communities in Washington fully open for both school and business.
The Republican “Open Safe, Open Now” plan returns decision-making authority to local officials, ending top-down state mandates. It requires all school districts in Washington to resume in-person instruction and opens all business activity in the state to 50% capacity, with 100% capacity possible within three weeks.
The plan puts more trust in Washington residents to act responsibly, more than one year into the pandemic, and acknowledges people must learn to live – and earn a living – in the presence of COVID-19.
...The plan was crafted by 8th District lawmaker, Sen. Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick. She began questioning the governor’s ability to fairly reopen Washington after her district and the rest of the Governor’s south-central region was temporarily kept in Phase 1, while the rest of the state moved to Phase 2.
“Last month, our region dodged a bullet,” said Brown. “We were left out of phase two, because of alarmingly high hospitalization rates. It turned out to be a mistake, which was only identified thanks to the keen observations of a county officials who caught the error and brought it to the attention of the Department of Health. Had she not, a swath of the state – from the Tri-Cities to Ellensburg to Walla Walla – could still be in Phase 1 today.
“This near disaster highlighted how flawed the governor’s reopening plan was – overly large regions, failure to trust the public, and managed from upon high by the Governor through top-down decrees.”
Brown said her plan instead looks to county health experts, who know what is going on in their counties and can spot when data doesn’t mesh with the reality seen on the ground. More importantly, Brown said that it is a plan for moving forward, something Gov. Inslee’s staff neglected to provide her when she met with them in mid-February to discuss the issue.
Click here to read more.
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PLEASE NOTE: Any email or documents you provide to this office may be subject to disclosure under RCW 42.56. If you would prefer to communicate by phone, please contact Sen. Brown's office at (360) 786-7614.
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