Remembering Our Neighbors
Dear Friend,
By and large when I send you these email updates, I generally start with an upbeat story or a joke. But, honestly, as I write this, I do so with a heavy heart.
Recently, tragedy struck our region when a shooting in Belfair took the lives of a family and one of their neighbors. This senseless violence shocked us all. It’s something we have seen too often, in too many communities.
As is often the case in our region, this tragedy also showed how we support one another. People came together for vigils and memorials to the victims. Our law enforcement community showed extraordinary bravery.
Last week I said a few words from the House floor about this tragedy. You can watch my comments here.
I sincerely hope that we can come together to find ways to stop tragedies like this. As we work to do that, we should remember the friends and neighbors impacted by this shooting. As Pastor Jamie McCallum said, “Violence and pain may have the strongest voice for the moment, but love and life have the final say.”
For a look at what else has been going on since my last letter, please read on.
Puget Sound Day Comes to Washington D.C.
Our region believes in the power of working together to make progress. That’s why I was happy to welcome more than 50 local stakeholders to our nation’s capital to bring attention to the effort to save our Puget Sound. This diverse group included leaders from local government, tribes, non-profits, businesses, and state agencies that are all doing terrific work on behalf of Puget Sound.
I even received a few letters from students in Ms. Castro’s class at Sherman Elementary School in Tacoma urging me to support clean water and a healthy Puget Sound. I couldn’t agree more!
Along with my fellow cofounder of the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus, Representative Denny Heck, we wanted to mark their visit in a special way. To do that we introduced a bill last week that would help communities stop the spread of toxic stormwater runoff.
When heavy rains hit our cities and towns, the pollution that washes into nearby waterways (like Puget Sound) becomes a toxic mix that hurts salmon, oysters, and the overall health of our waters. Our legislation would assist state, Tribal, and local governments to utilize Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) to help.
GSI uses natural systems (think rain gardens and planting natural trees and vegetation) and engineered systems to filter out the worst elements of stormwater before they can do damage. If our legislation passes, local communities would be able to access dedicated funding within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for water quality projects that utilize GSI. Our hope is that this can increase the number of breakthroughs that are happening in places like Tacoma to help protect these vital waterways. I hope you’ll support our efforts!
That wasn’t the only big news related to Puget Sound. While everyone was in DC, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell also took questions from members of the Appropriations Committee. In keeping with the spirit of the week I asked her about the importance of continuing investments in Puget Sound recovery and better coordination among federal and local partners.
An Economy that Works for Everyone
By many measures, our country has made economic progress since the darkest days of the Great Recession. Overall, we’ve seen job creation, a reduction in unemployment, and an increase in job openings. But there is still a big question on the minds of a lot of folks: “Is our economy working for everyone?” Frankly, that’s something I spend a lot of time thinking about – and working on.
The news last year that outsourcing firms had abused a temporary visa program proved that we still have some work to do. The abuses created a dynamic in which Americans were asked to train foreign workers so that their jobs could be shipped overseas. In my view that’s absolutely wrong.
The H-1B visa program was designed to keep businesses competitive in a global economy. But in this instance it was abused. What happened here goes against what this temporary visa program was designed to do. In these cases firms brought in foreign workers who took their knowledge back overseas, and, in the end, American jobs along with them. Let me be clear: That’s not something that should be allowed.
In response to this craziness, I introduced a bipartisan bill to close this loophole and stop these jobs from going overseas. Take a look at my blog entry in the Huffington Post to take a deeper dive into what happened and the solution I’m offering to make sure we keep American jobs here in the USA.
Appropriations Corner
In Congress, Appropriations season has kicked into high gear. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, that means things are definitely heating up.
It’s been a busy couple weeks as heads of agencies have appeared before the committee to talk about their budget proposals for the upcoming year. It’s a time where I get a chance to ask about how their priorities would impact folks in our region. Along with the visit from Secretary Jewell, I also heard from U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.
Chief Tidwell spoke to the committee about how increasingly intense wildfire seasons are swallowing up the agency’s budget. He said “…the growth of fire from 16% of the agency’s budget to more than 52%, before transfer, in FY2015 is putting the agency in an untenable position. Major shifts in financial resources and in staff capacity, with non-fire staff down 39% as a result of the increasing costs of fire suppression, are having a real impact on our ability to fulfill our mission of caring for the land and serving people.” That’s why I’ve sponsored bipartisan legislation to address this problem. I also spoke with Chief Tidwell about supporting forest collaboratives like the one we've launched on the Olympic Peninsula (as a refresher here’s a report from the Peninsula Daily News on our first public meeting in December) and about managing the impacts of storm damage on forest roads.
I also got the chance to hear from Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. I asked her about the epidemic of opioid abuse and what we can do to enhance prevention, treatment, and enforcement to stop the spread of these drugs. I also spoke to her about community efforts like Project Peace in Tacoma to foster productive relationships between local law enforcement and the citizens they work to protect. The Department is seeking additional resources to support community policing.
Ensuring the safety and security of all our neighbors must be a priority in our society. With that in mind, I took the opportunity to discuss recent efforts by the Department of Justice to ensure the equal treatment of members of the LGBT community with the Attorney General. Read more about her answer on the Human Rights Campaign’s blog. Finally, the level of reported violence against transgender people is deeply alarming – in 2015 there were more transgender homicide victims than any year on record. It’s something else I talked to FBI Director James Comey about and asked for his continued effort to reduce this unacceptable trend.
A Visit
I invited tribal leaders from our region to view their original treaty documents at the National Archives.
What an incredible experience to see these documents firsthand! Not to mention a powerful reminder of just how important it is that the federal government fulfills its treaty and trust obligations.
Working for You
Last Friday, I had the honor of joining Rep. Denny Heck at Joint Base Lewis McChord for the visit of Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. Secretary Carter spoke about the critical role JBLM plays in protecting our country – tackling challenges like cyber attacks and projecting power as our security strategy pivots to the Pacific. You can read more about his visit here.
It was also my honor to join Pastor Anthony Steele and community members at Allen AME Church in Tacoma to dedicate an artistic memorial to the tragedy at Emmanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina, last year. The piece, created by artists at Tacoma’s Museum of Glass, is appropriately titled "Forgive." My thanks to everyone involved in this moving tribute and for the courage and grace of the two survivors from Emmanuel AME who joined us at the ceremony.
I had the privilege of joining the Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective on the last Saturday of Black History Month. I left grateful and inspired by this amazing group of community leaders that have met every Saturday, without exception, since the early 1970s.
I also had a great visit at Workforce Central in Tacoma. We discussed efforts to ensure that servicemembers can successfully transition to jobs in the civilian workforce. In fact, when I served in the State Senate, I was proud to sponsor a law that made it easier for professionals who had served in the military to get the certification they needed for healthcare jobs. It was cool to get an update from the folks at Workforce Central about the progress that’s being made on that front.
Thanks for reading. As always, I’m honored to work for you.
Sincerely,
Derek Kilmer