Legislative Recap Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. The legislative session in Olympia has ended and the Agricultural Community is now weighing the wins and losses.
Washington Farm Bureau Government Relations Director, Tom Davis thinks, all-in-all for agriculture, we did better than expected given the one-party rule in Olympia, including two bills that failed to pass …
DAVIS … “I suppose the best news will be that House Bill 1338, the mandatory riparian buffer, and House Bill 1117, that would have instituted a net ecological gain, you would have to actually increase the environmental conditions at every permitted project in the state. Both of those bills failed to pass.”
And for that, Davis says we can be thankful …
DAVIS … “Both of those would have been destructive to farmers, ranchers, and frankly landowners all across the state, and were done in a way where the stakeholders that would be most affected, and that is the landowners, were not included in any of the conversations that led to the creation or the amending of those bills as they went through the legislative process.”
But, Davis says we may not have seen the last of them …
DAVIS … “Yeah, I think in both cases we will see something like each of those bills introduced again next year.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the legislative session and what agriculture didn’t get.
