House work: A day in the office with Wash. Rep. Tom Dent

OLYMPIA — A day in the life of a legislator never looks the same from one day to the next, but here’s a snippet into a day at the Capitol for Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake.

Wednesday, April 5, started with a meeting at 7 a.m. for Dent for a weekly media interview to discuss various bills.

After discussing proposed legislation such as House Bill 1134 that implements supporting infrastructure to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Dent headed from his office in the John L. O'Brien Building to the Capitol Building only a few hundred feet away.

That day there were demonstrators dressed in purple, hanging out in between the O’Brien and the John A. Cherberg buildings, as well as in front of the doors to the Capitol Building. They were part of SEIU 775, a labor union that represents more than 45,000 long-term care workers. The state has a shortage of home care workers and the union is calling for legislative support to address the issue.

Once inside, Dent met with Rep. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, and Ben Tindall, the government affairs outreach coordinator for the Washington Farm Bureau. During a short interview, they discussed how Dent and Chapman worked across the aisle in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

“The thing is, one size doesn’t fit all across the state,” said Dent. “What might work for one side of the state may not work on another and all the legislation we looked at before was one size fits all and we knew we had to do something different.”

Chapman agreed. Dent also said every bill, except for one, that came out of the committee was bipartisan, lining up with goals the pair had set for that committee.

“We made up our mind that we were going to work for the people,” Dent said.

From there, Dent went to the House Chamber so he could do a couple of phone interviews at his desk on the floor. During the interviews, other representatives, pages, and legislative assistants came and went, conducting state business.

It was 9:30 in the morning when Dent decided to go to the other side of the building to the Senate Chamber. He had a letter to give to Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, and spoke with Sen. Javier Valdez, D-Seattle, about his airport commissioners bill currently before the Senate. A misunderstanding about the bill resulted in a legislator proposing an amendment that Dent said would have upended the entire purpose of the proposed legislation. Dent explained the matter to Valdez, who said he would help fix the issue. However, Valdez told Dent that had the amendment not been accepted, the bill would have died on the floor of the Senate.

Dent returned to the floor of the House as it was called to session, then joined legislators who had gathered to meet in their various caucuses.

Dent introduced a local reporter – who later went on to write this story – to the Republican Caucus. Other legislators introduced various people their respective caucuses as well before they got down to business. Networking during caucus meetings helps legislators work together and move bills forward or iron out kinks in legislation.

Those meetings lasted about thirty minutes before legislators returned to the floor of the House to consider bills.

Dent sits next to Rep. Sam Low (R-Lake Stevens) on the House Floor, to whom he is a mentor, Dent said.

Low recently had his first bill passed to Governor Jay Inslee’s desk. The bill, HB 1031, makes it easier for civilians to be recognized with Washington’s Medal of Valor, an award created in 1999 that is given to those who risked their lives to save another person. The changes, according to a statement from Low’s office, will make it possible to award the medal to groups, including the communities of Oso, Arlington and Darrington and the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe for their rescue efforts during the 2014 Oso Landslide disaster.

Floor action continued until just after noon at which point the House broke for caucus and to get lunch. Legislators returned to the floor around 2 p.m. and continued until about 3 p.m. after which Dent returned to the Senate Chamber to tell Sen. Judy Warnick (R-Moses Lake) good news. During the House’s work that day, representatives passed SB 5460 98-0, a bill sponsored by Warnick, that concerned the collection of assessments directly affecting the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District.

After visiting with Warnick, Dent was greeted by several people along his way back to his office to finish up his day. He said that relationships with other legislators were very important to make change and ensure bills he proposed had a good chance of passing.

He ended with meeting his page for the week, Lena Fuchser, an exchange student from Switzerland who is staying with a host family in Naches.

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