As Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives hem and haw over when and how to make a second attempt at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, President Trump has an opportunity to work with Democrats to keep one of his campaign promises and claim a major victory: protecting Social Security. Trump, in his promise, meant that he wouldn’t seek cuts to Social Security benefits, and his recent “skinny” budget stayed true to that pledge, instead making significant cuts to federal gove...
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An executive order from President Trump, signed on the eve of Equal Pay Day, has canceled an Obama policy that directed companies with federal contracts to afford equal treatment to women in the workplace. The Obama policy had also barred federal contractors from steering sexual harassment complaints into private arbitration, which often favors the employer. Quietly last week, Trump revoked the 2014 Fair Play and Safe Workplaces order by President Obama, requiring that those doing business with ...
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This week, I spent a few days in the “other Washington” where I had the opportunity to meet with the members of our federal legislative delegation and their staffs. I shared with them the invaluable, vital work that our University of Washington community does to expand the frontiers of scientific research, improve healthcare, develop creativity through the arts and provide quality and affordable education to our students. I also detailed the truly devastating effects some of the cuts in the Pres...
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A bipartisan group of Western lawmakers want to find a better way to help communities protect themselves from landslides. The National Landslide Preparedness Act aims to fill in the gaps in scientific knowledge about which areas of the country face potential landslides by increasing the amount of data available on areas at risk for landslides and help communities build infrastructure to protect themselves. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Patty Murr...
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MOUNT VERNON — On any given day, Mount Vernon police officer Edgar Serrano fields a variety of questions from families on his beat in the Kulshan neighborhood. Some people want to know how to obtain a driver's license, while others seek clarification on city laws. But since November, one question has come up more frequently for Serrano, a 10-year veteran of the Mount Vernon Police Department. Click here to read the whole story.
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Seattle-area Congress members Suzan DelBene and Dave Reichert squared off in their House Ways and Means Committee over an attempt to force Donald Trump to disclose his tax returns. DelBene represents the First Congressional District, stretching from Kirkland and Redmond north to the Canadian border. Reichert is in the eastside's Eighth District, going from Issaquah and Kent all the way to Wenatchee. The Democrats, including DelBene, introduced a resolution asking the US Treasury Department to se...
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Congressman Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-Wa.) this week introduced the Higher Education Loan Payments (HELP) for Students and Parents Act, bipartisan legislation that will make college more affordable by modernizing how the tax code treats employer contributions toward student loan repayment. “The average American student graduates with more than $37,000 in student debt and for too many middle class students, a college degree is simply out of reach all together,” sai...
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The House Ways and Means Committee has blocked a bid by Democrats to obtain the income tax returns that President Trump has refused to release, the first president or major-party nominee since the 1970s not to share this information with American voters. By a party-line 24-16 vote on Tuesday, the tax writing committee tabled (killed) a resolution introduced by veteran New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell and cosponsored by Rep. Suzan DelBene , D-Wash. Republican Rep. Dave Reichert, the other Washington...
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There are 13 million college savings accounts in this country, and more than half received at least one deposit in 2016. Those are decent numbers, and growing—but they cover just a tiny fraction of the country’s college-bound population. H.R. 529 say it could address both a lack of awareness of the plans—by encouraging employers to add 529 plans to their benefits package—as well as inflexible spending rules, by offering more ways to use 529 funds without getting hit with a penalty.' data-reactid...
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