January 11, 2016

Progress with your help

Dear Friend,

One of the most memorable moments of the 1990s for me took place on October 8, 1995. Watching Ken Griffey Jr. in a dead sprint, running around the bases, and scoring the winning run against the Yankees in the Division Series was unforgettable. Though it happened more than twenty years ago, in some ways it feels like just yesterday. How cool was it to see “The Kid” with a giant smile on his face at the bottom of that pile as his teammates celebrated?!?!

I watched the clip of that moment (and a few others) this past week in honor of Junior’s near unanimous selection into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was fun to see some of the highlights from his playing days and to read comments from his teammates.

In one of the many articles written about Griffey, the Tacoma News Tribune mentioned a quote he once gave about his dad (who also spent 19 years in the majors). Griffey said,

“My dad would have bopped me on the head when I was a kid. If I came home bragging about what I did on the field. He only wanted to know what the team did.”

I like that ethic - that sense that success requires a team effort.

With that in mind, I want to express gratitude to my terrific staff and to you - the folks I represent. Your ideas and engagement help me represent this region more effectively. And it’s your partnership that I thought of when an article published in the Washington Post recently named me one of the ten most effective lawmakers in Congress.

It’s because of all of you who read my newsletter, show up at town halls, or stop me at the store to contribute your ideas and voices that we can advance our region’s priorities. Thank you for that!

Given the dysfunction in Washington D.C., I’m sure some folks look at a ranking like this a little like seeing someone getting named MVP of the Bad News Bears. It’s safe to say Congress is a fixer-upper. But as I’ve always said, if we are going to get our economy and this Congress moving forward then working in a bipartisan way and focusing on progress rather than partisanship is important.

To that end, as we swing into the New Year I’d like to hear what you think Congress should focus on in 2016. What you say matters; it helps me do a better job. So I hope you’ll share your thoughts on my Facebook page at this link or by email here.

Read on to learn more about what happened over the past two weeks. And congrats again to Griffey!

Hoping for a Better Path

The end of 2015 saw a flurry of legislative action (including passage of a transportation bill, a fix to the No Child Left Behind education law, a budget that set aside the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration, a new government funding bill, and a series of tax policy changes that will benefit working families and small businesses). If you’re an optimist like me, you saw that activity and hoped that Congress might be turning over a new leaf and setting aside partisan gamesmanship...at least for a bit.

Unfortunately, the first week in D.C. this year brought back the partisan games. Week 1 saw bills to undermine environmental protection and to make it harder for people harmed by asbestos exposure to seek legal redress. Each of these bills face a certain veto (if they get that far), yet the House spent the week debating them and voting on them. But that wasn’t all.

Last week, the House voted once again on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to cut critical funding for women’s health. This marks the 62^nd time the House has voted on repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Not only would passage of this bill undermine health and financial security for middle class Americans, not only would it mean a loss of consumer protections for patients throughout our country, not only would it negatively impact women’s healthcare, it was a bill destined for a veto. These types of political votes - where Congress goes through the theater of voting on a bill designed to make a statement rather than a law - are among the reasons that folks no longer care for Congress.

Here’s hoping we see more of the bipartisanship that people appreciated at the end of 2015. As you may have heard me say before, I don’t get frustrated - I just get motivated. We’ve got real work that needs to get done, and I hope we get to it!

Stepping Up

If folks in DC want to see what real collaboration on health care looks like, they should take a look at what’s going on in our region. For instance, in Pierce County we are seeing a community-based response to a crisis in behavioral health care.

Washington state ranks among the worst in the nation in terms of access to inpatient psychiatric beds, with roughly 1/3 the number of beds per resident than the national average. In Pierce County, the figures are even more alarming. Pierce County has just 2.8 beds per 100,000 residents - roughly 90% fewer than the national average.

This startling shortage of adequate hospital beds available for folks in need has real impacts. It’s led to overcrowded jails, frequent emergency room visits, and desperate families. We see the impacts in homeless shelters and on our streets. People are simply not getting the treatment they need.

So the community decided to do something about it. Together with the two largest health care providers, our community has formed the South Sound Behavioral Health Coalition, which is comprised of: health care experts, social service providers, local elected officials, law enforcement professionals, as well as labor, business, and faith leaders. This group has a plan to build a new facility to bolster local behavioral health care. I’ve been pleased to play a convening role in these efforts.

In our region folks are coming together and working to solve a problem. When it comes to healthcare, it’s an approach I’d like to see Congress take in 2016 as well.