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Legislative Priorities for Week 3
The session is moving rapidly with more than 1500 bills released. Please consider taking action on the following:
HB 1140 Establishing empowerED scholarships using educational savings accounts. Good news, this bill has been scheduled for a committee hearing on Feb. 6. Please sign in pro before 7:00 AM on Feb. 6. Sending written comments to the committee about the need for lower income parents to have access to school environments that may be best for their children is also encouraged. The bill would provide up to $12,700 in an individual educational savings account which a family at or below 100% of the state family median income could use for K-12 tuition, uniforms, fees, computers, tutors, extracurricular and other educational expenses at private and public schools. The bill provides a preferential option for the poor and recognizes the rights of parents to seek educational services that best meet the needs of their child.
HB 1232 Concerning private detention facilities. Private prisons and detention facilities make human life a commodity. This bill would impose basic health and safety requirements on these facilities to better protect the dignity and sanctity of life for undocumented immigrants detained in the existing private facility in Tacoma and any others that may be opened in response to the federal actions on immigration. Please sign in pro on this bill before 3:00 PM on Feb. 4.
HB 1307 Easing the financial burden on families by removing sales and use tax on diapers and essential child care products. Diapers for babies, older adults and others with medical needs requiring incontinence products are expensive commodities. Though necessary for the heath of the individual, for lower income families, the cost of these products creates a significant financial burden. Easing the costs by eliminating the sales and use tax, the bill helps "improve public health, reduce economic strain, and support the dignity and quality of life for individuals across all ages." The bill will be heard in committee Feb. 7. Please sign in pro by 12:30 PM Feb. 7.
HB 1404 and SB 5352 Increasing student access to free meals served at public schools. No child should go without food. Studies show that hungry children struggle academically but for many families, three meals a day is a luxury they cannot afford. This bill promotes the dignity and sanctity of life by providing free meals to all public school students. A House committee will consider HB 1404 on Feb. 3 and the Senate will discuss its bill in committee on Feb. 4. Sign in pro for the House bill by 3:00 PM on Feb. 3 and for the Senate bill before 7:00 AM on Feb.4.
SB 5436 Interfering with access to a place of religious worship. As hostility toward religion grows, this bill makes it unlawful to interfere with a person's lawful exercise of religious freedom by prohibiting individuals from coming within 8 feet of a person at a place of worship with the intent to harass, intimidate or threaten the person. Sign in pro before 7:00 AM on Feb. 4.
HB 1211 and SB 5375 Concerning the duty of clergy to report child abuse and neglect. In the Senate committee hearing, reference was made to an ongoing Attorney General investigation of abuse in all three of our dioceses. There is no such investigation. The Attorney General issued a subpoena to the Archdiocese of Seattle seeking to show that charitable funds were misused to address abuse cases. That effort was dismissed by a court of law.
As a reminder, all three Washington state dioceses have enacted policies requiring all church personnel to report reasonable suspicions of abuse to law enforcement. We are not opposed to declaring clergy mandatory reporters. We are opposed, however, to the state stepping into the sanctity of the Sacrament of Confession. Doing so will not make kids safer, but may have the opposite effect by discouraging people from confessing to abuse, thereby prolonging the abuse. HB 1211 will be heard in committee on Feb. 4. Please send in your written comments expressing support for mandatory reporting with the exception of communications made during the Sacrament of Confession before 12;30 PM on Feb. 4.