At nearly a month into the 2015 legislative session, lawmakers in Olympia are busily attending committee meetings, reading bills, talking to constituents and hearing public testimony.
District 39 Reps. Elizabeth Scott and Dan Kristiansen each have a different role this session. As the House Minority Leader, Kristiansen is focused on budget negotiations and working closely with the speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders in the Senate and the governor's office. In his 13th year in the Legislature, Kristiansen took over as minority leader in 2013, which has given him the opportunity to broaden his focus.
"I really enjoy the big-picture stuff,GÇ¥ Kristiansen said.
In her third year of serving in the Legislature, Scott is focused on sponsoring and co-sponsoring legislation, as well as on her committee appointments. In addition to serving on the Commerce and Gaming Committee, she sits on the Early Learning and Human Services committee as the assistant-ranking member, which means she's second to the top Republican.
Floral, agriculture bills
Scott campaigned in both 2012 and 2014 on a platform of smaller, smarter government. Her priorities include reducing government spending, decreasing intrusive regulations and supporting small business owners.
Several of her bills have already had hearings this session, including House Bill 1422, which concerns floral products. The bill is actually an amendment to an existing RCW concerning the misrepresentation of a floral-products business' geographic location. The existing law directly prohibits misleading advertising in telephone books, so Scott's bill would make the law current by also disallowing geographical misrepresentation via Internet websites.
Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe (D-Bothell) has a companion bill in the Senate, which could potentially help the legislation get through the process in a more streamlined manner. Scott testified before the Business and Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 3.
"A large online company can masquerade as a local business using a local phone number that routes to a 1-800 number, and even using a local sounding name, such as, for example, Arlington Flowers,GÇ¥ Scott said. "Then, when a customer orders flowers online, the company routes that order to a real local flower shop, which is then in charge of filling the order and delivering it, even if the delivery address is an hour away.GÇ¥
Jennifer Wirt, owner of 39th District flower shop, Monroe Floral, has been negatively impacted by order-gathering companies that operate as sort of a middleman between customers and florists. Order-gatherers don't have inventory, but are able to solicit orders via a well-established and far-reaching online presence.
"The biggest thing I hate is the fact that our customers are being tricked into thinking that they're calling a local mom-and-pop shop-á and they're calling some bank of phones out of our area,GÇ¥ Wirt said.
A florist in Monroe might receive an order for Duvall, or a florist in Arlington might receive an order for Darrington, Wirt said. And with wire-service orders, the fulfilling flower shop has no mechanism in place to recoup the additional costs associated with a lengthier delivery route. The order-gathering service collects the money for the order and gives a percentage back to the fulfillment shop.
Wirt no longer accepts orders via floral order-gatherers. She and some other florists around the region are hopeful that the floral products legislation will make it to Gov. Jay Inslee's desk this year, making it illegal for large online marketing companies to masquerade as local companies on the Internet.
"This is one of those examples of a non-partisan, common-sense solution,GÇ¥ Scott said.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, House Bill 1422 passed unanimously out of the Business and Financial Services Committee, and will advance through the process.
Daylight-saving time
Scott's House Bill 1479 would eliminate daylight-saving time, implementing year-round Pacific Standard Time. Washington state shifts to daylight-saving time on the second Sunday in March each year, reverting back to Pacific Standard Time on the first Sunday in November. Scott got the idea for the bill from her constituents last summer, and after researching the idea, she could not find a compelling reason to continue the practice.
Daylight-saving time was originally implemented during World War I to conserve fuel. It was abolished after the war, but reinstituted during World War II. Eventually, U.S. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which set parameters that provided for daylight-saving time. Individual states were allowed to exempt themselves from daylight-saving time if they chose to do so.
Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight-saving time.
House Bill 1479 had a hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 3, in front of the House State Government Committee.
Scott is also sponsoring a series of agricultural, land-conversion bills that will help farmers and ranchers by protecting land that is designated for agriculture. House Bill 1215 is related to the Growth Management Act (GMA), 1629 is related to the Shoreline Management Act (SMA), and 1630 relates to both the GMA and the SMA. All three bills include the language, "designated agricultural lands may not be converted to wetland or fish habitat, nor may they be subjected to tidal inundation.GÇ¥
Scott explained that, for many years, Washington has emphasized both protecting farm lands, as well as protecting salmon, but that sometimes, the two interests end up competing GÇô as is the case with Smith Island, in Everett.
"It seems the fish have won out over the food production,GÇ¥ Scott said. "I think that's backwards.GÇ¥
Scott was raised on a fourth-generation farm in central Illinois. She explained that once you alter agricultural land, it oftentimes cannot be reclaimed.
"When you put asphalt down on ag land, it's not ag land anymore. You can't reclaim it as ag land GÇô it's done,GÇ¥ Scott said. "The same thing happens with salt water; if you add salt water to ag land, very few crops can grow on that land again. So it's a big mistake to flood agricultural land used for food production.GÇ¥
Other areas of focus for Scott this session will be on bills related to Initiative 502, which legalized marijuana for recreational use.
Last October, Scott attended a town hall meeting in the Wagner Lake area of Monroe, organized by a group of citizens concerned about the county permitting marijuana processing and production facilities in rural residential (R-5) zoning. As a result of the meeting, Sen. Kirk Pearson is planning on introducing legislation to prohibit marijuana production and processing in R-5 zoning and while Scott thought about running a companion bill, after much consideration, she decided against it.
"I decided that since counties are already in charge of zoning, that we should not usurp that authority at the state level and should, in fact, leave it at the county level,GÇ¥ Scott said. "I really believe that government works best when it's closest to the people it represents.GÇ¥
Last week, the Commerce and Gaming Committee was preparing to hear a bill that would establish two separate systems, to ensure that the rules and regulations to guide medical marijuana users are kept independent from the rules and regulations to guide recreational users GÇô something that Scott supports.
"I want the medical marijuana users kept out of the recreational marijuana users' rules and regulations,GÇ¥ Scott said. "It's totally different.GÇ¥
While not necessarily in favor of legalized recreational marijuana, overall, Scott is supportive of the initiative process because it gives her the opportunity to hear from citizens all over Washington.
"It is a good thing to hear what the public wants. I, for example, am coming down on the side of, well, the public wants legalized marijuana,GÇ¥ Scott said. "I voted no, but now it's my duty to make sure it works.GÇ¥
Scott and Kristiansen conduct telephone town hall meetings periodically as a way to interact with their constituents and answer questions. The most recent meeting was held on Tuesday, Feb. 3, during which they had more than 3,600 participants and took 72 questions.
"If you were not able to get your question answered while we were live, we do a follow up with those individuals afterwards,GÇ¥ Kristiansen said.
To check in with Rep. Scott, visit houserepublicans.wa.gov/elizabeth-scott/. For Rep. Kristiansen, visit houserepublicans.wa.gov/dan-kristiansen/.
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