LONGVIEW — Local representatives have already filed bills about selling cannabis, funding schools and protecting tow truck drivers in preparation for the 2023 legislative session that starts in two weeks.
Republican Sen. Ann Rivers — representative for the 18th District and the city of Longview’s director of community development — pre-filed a bill to allow for interstate cooperation among cannabis businesses.
The bill would only go into effect once the U.S. Department of Justice or Congress eases federal regulations around marijuana, at which point Gov. Jay Inslee could sign agreements with other states to allow cannabis to be sold and shipped between states.
The measure has major support from both sides including Senate President Pro Tempore Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, and Curtis King, R-Yakima, ranking member for the Labor and Commerce committee that oversees the cannabis industry.
King said that state law and federal law currently prevent businesses from shipping across state lines. If the federal government decriminalizes marijuana, the bill would make sure the state’s cannabis industry could quickly move into new markets and not wait for the next year’s Legislature to change the laws.
“We have a variety of concerns that we need to be ready to respond to. Part of the way we do that is to have these agreements with other states,” King said.
School funding
Schools were the major focus of early bills proposed by 19th District representatives.
A bill by Rep. Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet, would create a state grant program to modernize or build new facilities in the state’s smallest school districts. The bill builds on a similar proposal McEntire made last year, and the advancing funding lawsuit against the state by the Wahkiakum School District to build and improve school buildings.
Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, filed a bill to require funding for a school resource officer to be placed in every school in Washington. The bill was filed shortly after Inslee announced his proposal for the Legislature to ban semiautomatic rifles, which Walsh has repeatedly called an unconstitutional policy.
“This will actually do something to improve school safety and the quality of our kids’ lives,” Walsh said of his resource officer bill.
Returning bills
A few bills that didn’t pass last year are returning in 2023.
Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, is taking a second attempt at a bill to provide roadside safety measures for tow truck drivers by expanding their ability to use flashing lights on the sides of the road. A similar bill by Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, easily passed the House last year but stalled out in the Senate.
Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, has brought back a bill to add signs to bridges with warnings about cold water shock in Washington rivers to deter jumpers. The bill is called Zack’s Law, named after a Chehalis teenager who died in March 2021 after jumping into the Chehalis River, and the measure would also create a memorial spot on the Lewis County bridge he jumped from.
