Office of Government Relations

February 4, 2023

Week 4 Recap

Good morning Huskies! Today, I am writing to you from the Washington Student Association office in Olympia. The office is located in the Davis-Williams building which houses a number of labor unions including the Washington State Labor Council. I, unfortunately, do not know the history of the building as to who it is named after, nor can I find anything on the internet. The WSU student lobbyists are in the midst of preparing for their lobby day tomorrow and I’m in the midst of preparing for the upcoming week. We have seen a lot of movement on our legislative priorities, so let’s get to it:

Week 4 Overview

Days 1 this week consisted pretty much entirely of meetings. This includes our weekly OGR staff meeting.

Day 2 was a bit more exciting. I testified during the House Finance Committee in support of HB 1075 which expands eligibility of the Working Families’ Tax Credit from those over the age of 25 to those at or over the age of 18. You can view my testimony linked on the bill page and it will be embedded below soon. Later that afternoon, two UW students joined me in the House higher ed. committee in testifying in support of the Basic Needs Act. This bill helps to combat food insecurity at campuses across the state and puts resource navigators on college campuses. You can view our testimony linked on the bill website and it will be embedded below soon.

Day 3 was a bit slower. I joined the other campuses in attending both the Senate and House higher ed. committees. The Native American Scholarship Program was initially scheduled for executive action on Wednesday, but go pushed off to Friday.

Day 4 was also a bit slow and consisted mostly of internal and external partner meetings. I also worked with the OGR team to prepare for our Huskies on the Hill lobby day.

Day 5 was more exciting that day 4. We began with an early meeting of the House higher ed. committee. Later that morning, I sat in on the Senate Higher Ed. committee where we heard a work session about the trends in higher education enrollment. The rest of my day consisted of internal and external partner meetings and preparing for our Huskies on the Hill lobby day.

– Alex