Governor signs bills by 13th District lawmakers
Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake shakes Gov. Jay Inslee’s hand after the governor signed Dent’s bill Thursday morning.
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee signed bills Thursday morning sponsored by Reps. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg and Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake and Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake.
Manweller and Dent each had one bill signed and Warnick had three.
Manweller’s bill, House Bill 2637, creates a grant program for historic cemeteries to help pay for facility upgrades and maintenance. The program is particularly aimed toward cemeteries with a large number of veterans buried there. This bill passed unanimously in the House and in the Senate with a vote of 41-7.
HB 2925, sponsored by Dent, allows livestock owners to access public land to protect their livestock during a wildfire. The livestock owners are liable for their own safety and are only allowed access if it will not interfere with the wildfire response. Dent’s bill passed unanimously through the Senate and nearly unanimously in the House with a vote of 97-1.
Warnick’s bills covered water reservations, waste management and retirement benefits. Senate Bill 6513 requires the Department of Ecology to act on all water right applications that rely on areas in the Wenatchee River Basin and the Elwha-Dungeness River Basin. This bill passed unanimously in the Senate and with a vote of 93-4 in the House.
SB 6605 adds requirements for solid waste management to prevent the spread of disease, plant pathogens and pests. The bill requires the Department of Agriculture to work with the Department of Ecology to review applications for moving compost from a quarantined area to a non-quarantined area. The composters will have to submit a plan to the departments for preventing the spread of diseases, pathogens and pests. This bill passed unanimously in the House and Senate.
Warnick’s bill SB 6263 states members of the state retirement system for law enforcement officers and fire fighters can receive unreduced retirement benefits if a member dies or becomes disabled as a result of federal service in response to natural disasters or other federal emergencies. This bill passed in the House with a vote of 92-5 and through the unanimously in the Senate.
Inslee signed 48 bills Thursday morning and took action on 37 more in the afternoon. To view a complete list of the governor’s bill action, visit www.governor.wa.gov.