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A win for rural Washington
The Senate finally approved a Hirst fix for our district's water troubles. Senate
Bill 6091, which was a bipartisan compromise, was signed into law.
I had some concerns about the bill, but our community fares
well under the proposal. People will be charged a bit more to drill a
well, but the solution really puts us back to the status quo, allowing rural
residents to get water. It also includes an exemption for livestock. They
imposed some new limits on water usage in areas without a way to actually
measure it, but don’t tell anybody.
Click
here to read my press release.
Fighting for the most vulnerable
Things are moving fast in Olympia and the new majority is
working hard to jam through controversial legislation aimed at pleasing special
interests. This week I spoke out against a law that mandates abortion coverage
for insurers in our state. I view this as an anti-choice bill that takes away
constitutional rights of religious organizations and silences the voices of
those who want a choice about what their money buys in the insurance market. I
offered an amendment and spoke in support of others that sought to protect the
most vulnerable, stopping practices that target minority communities and
abortions targeting gender and the developmentally disabled. Unfortunately, the
other side didn't want to protect these vulnerable communities, instead
choosing to side with special interests that wrote the bill.
 Common sense laws that need to be passed
Sometimes government needs to get out of the way. We have to
pass laws to fix what should be common sense. The Senate approved my
legislation, Senate
Bill 6070, that would allow motorcycles to park in angle spots and permits
more than one motorcycle to park in a stall. Some cities have been issuing $125
tickets to riders for doing what they are supposed to - that is ridiculous!
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Bump Stock Ban,
SB 5992 limited in scope
As
with many bills that don’t actually do what they are sold to do, this bill
would have banned any trigger job to improve performance and semi-auto
firearms. I worked to mitigate the damage by working with other members
to limit it just to an actual bump stock. This is what happens when the
other side has control and lawyers that have never pulled a trigger write gun
laws.
I
will be vigilant in protecting state preemption of gun laws and magazine bans.
It's an honor to serve as your state Senator. Please don't hesitate to reach out to my office with any questions or concerns about your state government.
Sincerely,
 Phil Fortunato,
Your 31st District State Senator
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