- This event has passed.
Washington 14th District legislators to hold telephone town hall March 28
March 28, 2017 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Sen. Curtis King and Reps. Gina McCabe and Norm Johnson will hold a telephone town hall Tuesday, March 28, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The lawmakers encourage those residing within the 14th District to join them for a community conversation to discuss bills and issues before the state Legislature.
To participate, residents should call (509) 204-7030 at the start of the event. Those who have questions during the event may press the star (*) key on their telephones.
Residents unable to participate in the call are encouraged to contact the legislators directly using the following information:
For Sen. King — curtis.king@leg.wa.gov | (360) 786-7626
For Rep. McCabe — gina.mccabe@leg.wa.gov | (360) 786-7856
For Rep. Johnson — norm.johnson@leg.wa.gov | (360) 786-7810
The 2017 legislative session is scheduled to adjourn April 23.
Issues particularly important in the Gorge include our grossly inadequate prevention and response capabilities for another oil train accident. BNSF derails a freight train every 600,000 train miles, and heavy oil or coal trains are the most likely to find weak track spots, as a Union Pacific unit oil train did in Mosier last June 3.
In the 2015 legislative session, all three 14th District legislators voted to dilute the oil train safety bills proposed by Governor Inslee, siding with the fossil fuel industry and railroad lobbies. Instead of weak and piecemeal legislation, our unprecedented oil train safety problem deserves dramatically improved regulations, such as requiring specialized firefighting and spill equipment and personnel on both ends of such trains while in Washington, with the ability to stop fires or spills in any weather condition, before a fire wipes out whole towns or a spill spreads in the river for hours unchecked.
In Washington two bills have been introduced to build on oil transportation safety and accountability legislation passed in 2015. They are seeking to: (1) Enhance safety measures that protect against the risk of oil spills occurring on land and water; (2) Provide a sustainable source of funding for the state’s oil spill preparedness and response program; and (3) Ensure the state’s ability to recover from a large oil spill. Read about this new legislation by clicking here.