House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, seen here in the House chamber during inauguration ceremonies for Gov. Bob Ferguson on Jan. 15, says Democrats in the Legislature are trying to be proactive when it comes to responding to Trump administration policies. (Photo by Ryan Berry/Washington State Standard)
With a large budget gap to solve and major bills on topics like housing and education to shepherd, Democratic leaders in Washington’s Legislature say they are trying to avoid getting too caught up with President Donald Trump’s actions during his early days in office.
“We have our own job to do,” Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said Tuesday. “We’re, I think, not going to allow ourselves to be distracted by the chaos machine in Washington, D.C. We’re going to stay focused on meeting the needs of folks in Washington.”
Still, Pedersen acknowledged there could be overlap. As an example, he pointed to legislation discussed in committee on Tuesday that is geared toward protecting transgender students.
Among dozens of directives Trump signed on his first day in office was one stating that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”
The barrage of executive orders was hard to ignore, especially as Washington’s new attorney general, Nick Brown, moved quickly to sue the Trump administration over an attempt to block citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not in the country legally.
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said Brown called her Monday night to let her know about the lawsuit and that she expressed “strong support.”
“We will be very focused on protecting the constitutional rights of Washingtonians,” she said, adding that she was not familiar with all of the orders Trump signed on Monday.
Jinkins highlighted a bill from Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma, that would restrict when the National Guard from other states could enter Washington as the kind of “proactive” legislation that Democrats would look to pursue in the new Trump era. Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson also voiced support for that bill last week, noting that Texas and Montana had adopted similar policies.
Democrats hold majorities in both chambers of Washington’s Legislature and Trump won just 39% of the vote statewide during last year’s November election. While the president is popular in parts of Washington, voters have overwhelmingly rejected him in the population-dense Puget Sound region, which includes Seattle.
Republicans in state government have urged their Democratic counterparts to not get preoccupied with federal affairs.
“We got elected to solve state issues,” House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, said Tuesday. “I didn’t read any of the things that Trump did yesterday, didn’t read any of the lawsuits that, you know, people who want to get their names in the paper are filing already.”
House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, was critical of Trump for moving to withdraw — for a second time — from the Paris climate agreement and for the president’s decision to pull back from offshore wind power development. But Fitzgibbon also said actions like these increase the urgency around Washington’s climate programs.
“State governments are aware that progress needs to happen,” he said. Referring to Trump, he added: “We just try not to think about him every day.”