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Brief
With a large budget gap to solve and major bills on topics like housing and education to shepherd, Democratic leaders in 51ԹϹ’s Legislature say they are trying to avoid getting too caught up with President Donald Trump’s actions during his early days in office.
“We have our own job to do,” Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said Tuesday. “We’re, I think, not going to allow ourselves to be distracted by the chaos machine in 51ԹϹ, D.C. We’re going to stay focused on meeting the needs of folks in 51ԹϹ.”
Still, Pedersen acknowledged there could be overlap. As an example, he pointed to protecting transgender students.
Among dozens of directives Trump signed on his first day in office that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”
The barrage of executive orders was hard to ignore, especially as 51ԹϹ’s new attorney general, Nick Brown, moved quickly to sue the Trump administration over an attempt to block citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not in the country legally.
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said Brown called her Monday night to let her know about the lawsuit and that she expressed “strong support.”
“We will be very focused on protecting the constitutional rights of 51ԹϹians,” she said, adding that she was not familiar with all of the orders Trump signed on Monday.
Jinkins highlighted a bill from Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma, that from other states could enter 51ԹϹ as the kind of “proactive” legislation that Democrats would look to pursue in the new Trump era. Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson also voiced support for that bill last week, noting that Texas and Montana had adopted similar policies.
Democrats hold majorities in both chambers of 51ԹϹ’s Legislature and Trump during last year’s November election. While the president is popular in parts of 51ԹϹ, voters have overwhelmingly rejected him in the population-dense Puget Sound region, which includes Seattle.
Republicans in state government have urged their Democratic counterparts to not get preoccupied with federal affairs.
“We got elected to solve state issues,” House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, said Tuesday. “I didn’t read any of the things that Trump did yesterday, didn’t read any of the lawsuits that, you know, people who want to get their names in the paper are filing already.”
House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, was critical of Trump for moving to withdraw — — from the Paris climate agreement and for the president’s decision to . But Fitzgibbon also said actions like these increase the urgency around 51ԹϹ’s climate programs.
“State governments are aware that progress needs to happen,” he said. Referring to Trump, he added: “We just try not to think about him every day.”
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