In the News

WASHINGTON ― As part of a symbolic budget that would slash domestic spending, President Donald Trump this week proposed replacing some monthly food stamp benefits with a cardboard box of nonperishable goods. The “America’s Harvest Box,” as the Trump administration calls it, is an idea that apparently nobody outside the administration has ever heard of ― and one that the administration itself may not have vetted very carefully. On Monday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney likened it to a... Read more

Congress woman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) visited Rose Hill Elementary School in Kirkland to join students in making Valentines for Veterans — a program that encourages the community to recognize veterans throughout the year. “The Valentines for Veterans program is a wonderful opportunity for our local students to make a connection with a veteran and thank these brave men and women for their service,” DelBene said. “We can all show our appreciation for those who served our country in uniform by askin... Read more

SEDRO-WOOLLEY — The goal of the new Helping Hands Food Bank facility is not to make the operation bigger, said Executive Director Rebecca Larsen, it’s to make the need for the food bank smaller. “The idea is to get smaller by not just giving people food but connecting them with services that will allow them to not need the food bank anymore,” Larsen said. The 10,000-square-foot facility, set on 5 acres of land at the corner of Fruitdale and Wicker roads, includes space where other community orga... Read more

The Trump administration may be among the most optimistic of prospectors if it believes the offshore coasts of Washington and Oregon hold vast fields of untapped oil and natural gas. Currently, there is no offshore oil drilling off Washington’s coast, and hasn’t been for 50 years. There may not be much out there to tap. The most recent resource assessment by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates that the combined offshore area for the two states could hold about 810 million bar... Read more

It’s happening in front of our eyes: The workforce is shifting. More people are working independently than ever before, and we’re moving toward a future in which independent workers will outnumber salaried workers. This is good news for people who value flexibility and autonomy in the workplace. But it also comes with a cost: the lack of a social safety net in the form of benefits like unemployment, health care, retirement funds and disability insurance. Thankfully, there are signs that change i... Read more

President Donald Trump talked a lot about immigration in his State of the Union address last night. He said the immigration package in Congress right now would give a path to citizenship for Dreamers, fully secure the border, end the visa lottery and “chain migration.” Washington is home to 18,000 of those Dreamers. Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, Democrat, supports the bipartisan bill, but: “Legislation like this, we could put on the floor right away and I think would pass, but leadership has not ... Read more

Trade has gone digital and our agreements need to reflect this reality. The renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an opportunity to bring our trade agreements into the 21st century and the administration shouldn’t let it pass us by. At its signing ceremony in 1993, President Clinton declared, “ours is now an era in which commerce is global and in which money, management, technology are highly mobile.” At the time, the internet was still in its nascent stage, and opti... Read more

While many enjoyed a day off on Monday to observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, some people took a “day on” and joined Rep. Susan DelBene (WA-1) to clean up local parks. Green Kirkland hosted five volunteer events to remove invasive plant species from local Eastside parks. DelBene helped volunteers remove blackberry bushes that were taking over North Rose Hill Woodlands Park. “This is a beautiful park, and if we can clear out blackberries and ivy and put native species back in, we’ll help... Read more

Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, of Vancouver, joined Washington’s six Democratic U.S. House representatives on Thursday in opposition to renewal of the federal government’s warrantless surveillance program. Herrera Beutler was one of 45 Republicans who voted against the bill, which reauthorized U.S. spy agencies to conduct surveillance on foreign targets abroad, but also to sweep up some communications by Americans. It was supported by Washington’s other three GOP U.S. House memb... Read more

The House of Representatives has passed a bill extending the National Security Administration’s warrantless surveillance program for six years, rejecting a years-long effort from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to make changes that would protect the privacy of American citizens. The law allows the NSA to obtain the communications of foreigners from American companies like Google and AT&T without a warrant, even if data on American citizens is swept up in the process. The law now faces a vote in ... Read more