by Ruth Peterson
First up are bills that have to do with law enforcement and our criminal justice system. These are some very bad bills – everything from civilian oversight of police departments and putting all law enforcement complaints on a public database to gutting our 3-strikes-you’re-out policies and removing requirements of criminals to pay back what they owe to society. I’m adding a link to the bill next to each one.
Some of the descriptions do not have much information, so please click on the link (the bill number below) and when you get to the bill page, click on the “Bill Report” (click on the last one in the list – if there are more than one bill reports, that means the original bill was amended). I will try at a later time to summarize what is so bad about a lot of these, but for now, I’m giving you a list and links.
The bill report tells you about a bill in general layman’s terms. It tells you the background and what the bill does. It also gives you a summary of the people testifying for and against the bill. That testimony will point out some of the issues. Remember also, that many bills may sound great and may have many good ideas in them. The problem with many of these is they have terrible ideas in them, as well. If the Republicans cannot get amendments to change those bad parts, they must vote against the bill entirely.
I am also going to add a link to one of the debates related to the bills. You can hear for yourself some of the problems with the bills. It takes some time to listen to these, but please at least listen to 15 – 20 minutes of each of these. Pay attention the arguments, but also note the attitudes –> https://www.tvw.org/watch/?
Here are the bills that passed the Senate related to Law & Justice.
| E2SSB 5051 | Changes oversight an accountability of peace officers and corrections officers – oversight by civilians with no training or experience as police officers. Takes away confidentiality of complaints (whether the complaints are based on fact or not). |
| SSB 5035 | Concerning offender scoring of drug offenses – currently, a criminals drug-related felony past will influence a current penalty (repeat offender). This changes it, so all convictions 5 years and prior will be ignored. |
| E2SSB 5036 | Concerning conditional commutation by the clemency and pardons board – expansion of the program to release prisoners from prison early. |
| SSB 5066 | Concerning a peace officer’s duty to intervene. Requires police officers to tell on fellow officers and to intervene when “excessive force” is used. (poor definition of the terms – which means if you get it wrong, and you don’t intervene, you get into trouble) |
| ESB 5164 | Resentencing of individuals sentenced as a persistent offender due to a robbery in the second degree conviction – gutting the 3-strikes-you’re-out law |
| ESSB 5118 | Supporting successful reentry – letting more people out of prison early. |
Here are the bills related to social justice –
Watch one of the debates here (this points out another negative about this session. The Democrats do not allow all the members on the floor, so they have to participate remotely. Like many school kids, there are technology problems. In this debate, you will see that Senator Ericksen could not participate because of technology problems and was listed as absent. That wouldn’t have happened, if we were on the floor)–> https://www.tvw.org/watch/?
| E2SSB 5141 | Implementing the recommendations of the environmental justice task force |
| ESSB 5044 | Concerning professional learning, equity, cultural competency, and dismantling institutional racism in the public school system |
| 2SSB 5313 | Concerning health insurance discrimination |
| SB 5227 | Requiring diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism training and assessments at institutions of higher education |
| SSB 5228 | Addressing disproportionate health outcomes by building a foundation of equity in medical training |
Here is the open carry ban debate –> https://www.tvw.org/watch/
| ESSB 5038 | Prohibiting the open carry of certain weapons at public demonstrations and the state capitol |
Two here have to do with pro-life issues. But even if you are not pro-life, if you have a daughter, you might want to watch this debate. Did you know that if your child is in public school, the school is their guardian while they are there? They can take your 14 year old daughter in for an abortion without even telling you as a parent. –> https://www.tvw.org/watch/?
| SSB 5140 | Protecting pregnancy and miscarriage-related patient care |
| SSB 5185 | Concerning capacity to provide informed consent for healthcare decisions |
There are more bills to tell you about, but it took me a couple of days to put this together, and I wanted to at least get you some information. The Democrats are able to pass much of their radical agenda this year. In fact, they will be passing more terrible bills today and then tomorrow, starting at 10:00 am, they will be on the floor. Rumor has it that the Income Tax debate will happen tomorrow. You can watch it live on TVW.org. I will try to get the House bills out this weekend.
It’s been a tough session, and it feels discouraging. But focus your anger and discouragement on getting organized. Get this information out to people. If they understand how damaging Democrat policies are, they will be more willing to help get Republicans elected. Without a majority, we cannot stop these bills – but also recognize that our Republican legislators are there all day every day into the night debating and making clear the problems with these bills. They aren’t giving up – neither should we.
One last link to a speech by Sen. Braun urging an amendment that would reopen our schools. https://youtu.be/
