Joe here. Two bad bills are on deck for tomorrow… so let’s plug in the burners, 45 degrees of left bank, turn off the angle of attack (AOA) limiter and pull back to 50 degrees Angle of Attack. Yes, burn it like Mach who is closing out her tour on the F-35A Demo Team!
Bad Bill One: ESHB 2637
That said, ESHB 2637 is worthy of a Washington Coalition for Open Government emergency message. As the emergency message goes with a bit of abridgement. Also considering recent allegations of bots attacking the state legislature, I decided to take some precautions:
Please contact Washington Senate State Government Committee Chair Javier Valdez and ask that his committee not pass ESHB 2637 when it meets tomorrow afternoon. He is at javier-DOT-valdez-AT-leg-DOT-wa-DOT-gov. … HB 2637 is a sweeping and dangerous piece of legislation that restricts Washington residents’ access to information to “personal information” that has long been available under the Public Records Act.
HB 2637 is a sweeping and dangerous piece of legislation that restricts Washington residents’ access to information to “personal information” that has long been available under the Public Records Act.
It’s ostensibly aimed at frustrating efforts of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. While the Washington Coalition for Open Government has no position on federal immigration policy, our coalition from across the political spectrum agrees that this would restrict Washington residents from accessing important information that has long been available under the PRA (which already has numerous more carefully considered exemptions for personal information.)
WashCOG’s sister government-transparency organization in Minnesota, Minnesotans for Open Government, tells us ICE used federal databases to target enforcement efforts there, and that there is no indication that ICE used state public-records laws.
As a WashCOG representative testified before a legislative committee last week:
“This bill would create an unintended and gaping hole in the PRA. ICE is not going after this information via the PRA. Please kill this bill.”
Bad Bill Two: ESSJM 8014
Originally, I was not going to write about this bill. I know my readers are here for the open government stuff, not fighting anti-Semitism.
But I’ll attach this to the missive because ESSJB 8014 is a waste of valuable legislative time to yak about a Turkish-Washingtonian activist who was at the wrong place, wrong time after October 7, 2023 in the Middle East - and not about the murders and rising antisemitism of the October 7 Wars. I’m asking you please sign in CON and if you feel the same way, speak up also please.
This is where we make our stand for prioritzation with the legislative calendar and focusing on bills that can actually affect Washingtonians. The legislative calendar:
There you go. Burn It Like Mach!