Lawmaking at a distance: Local legislators miss interaction with others during remote session

MOSES LAKE — Sitting in an office in his hangar at the Moses Lake Municipal Airport, Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, does not hesitate to say what’s hardest about this year’s online legislative session.

“I’m way lonely. I really am,” said Dent, who was elected to his fourth term in the state House of Representatives in November.

It’s Monday, and Dent sits at what looks like a control center for some kind of industrial production line — a high-powered ThinkPad laptop controlling two external screens, a second laptop to do research on, two iPhones (one issued by the legislature), and an iPad. All the technology a legislator could possibly ask for to do the elected job remotely.

In addition, Dent scribbles down notes with a pen on a sheet of paper to keep track of the bills the state House passes that day.

As part of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, legislative leaders decided to hold this year’s session mostly online, with a few legislators on the floor at any one time, socially-distanced and wearing masks.

Because of that, Dent said he misses being in Olympia. He misses being on the floor of the state legislature. And he really misses working closely with other people.

“It’s about people, and it’s about being with people,” he said. “And we’re not with people.”

Dent said he misses most sitting down and talking to other legislators and working things out, spending time listening to constituents as they visit and hearing their concerns. He also misses the collegiality among legislators and the ability to, if something comes up, go deeper into an issue.

Online legislating, like online schooling for many of the state’s students, just isn’t working as well as Dent would like.

“It’s a people thing, and we don’t have that right now,” he said. “I don’t think we’re serving the state, the constituents or each other. I just don’t believe we’re doing what we should be doing.”

Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, as she sat in front of a similar control center in her district office in downtown Moses Lake on Tuesday (instead of an iPad, she has a thick, three-ring binder full of legislation she’s keeping track of, but she also scribbles notes on paper to track the progress of bills), agreed with Dent about missing being with people.

Warnick, however, said she wasn’t lonely.

“I sleep in my bed every night, and that’s good, but I miss the opportunity to personally talk to somebody about a bill,” she said. “I still miss the people, and I miss the personal interaction.”

The mechanics of the online session for the state House and Senate are roughly the same, though there are a few differences. The legislators meet on Zoom, must adhere to the same dress codes that apply if they were actually on the floor meeting (men must wear ties and jackets). They vote electronically, pressing either a green button for “yes” or a red button for “no” when the leader of each chamber — Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, and Lieutenant Gov. Denny Heck, respectively — calls for a vote.

House members have a plain blue background they must use while online, while senators get a choice of several senate-related backgrounds or something that represents them or their districts.

Faces, at least for the senate, must be visible as votes are cast, Warnick explained.

Mostly the technology works, Warnick said, though a problem on Monday caused her voting system to lock up, requiring state capital IT people to remotely access her computer while she got on the phone and voted by voice for the measures under consideration.

But she’s in her office because her satellite internet connection at her home in rural Grant County simply isn’t robust or reliable enough for online legislative work.

“There are connectivity issues,” she said, noting several senators elsewhere in eastern Washington have connections making remote work difficult. “Sen. Mark Schoesler from Ritzville is in Olympia because he can’t get service in Ritzville.”

Warnick also said her two iPhones are constantly buzzing with text messages from lobbyists and others wanting to know when measures will come up for consideration because they cannot linger outside the legislative chambers and get the scuttlebutt from all sorts of legislators and aides about what’s going on.

“They’re bugging me all the time, and it’s different in Olympia,” she said.

It’s one more sign of a strange time, Warnick said, like the nearly year-old state of emergency the state has labored under since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Or the fence around the state capitol building in Olympia that went up after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, threatened the state capitol and trespassed into Gov. Jay Inslee’s mansion.

It’s a fence that needs to be removed, Warnick said, so people can get access to their government again.

And those elected to govern can get access to the people.

“The public doesn’t have access to our capitol,” she said. “I sure would like to see that taken down.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].