Rep. Stonier could achieve perfect record for getting her bills passed
By Lucas Wiseman
The Columbian/Murrow News Service
OLYMPIA — State Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, has accomplished something no other freshman House Democrat has done this session. She’s had nearly every one of her bills passed on to the Senate.
Not content with that, however, Stonier has also had her ninth piece of legislation amended to another bill so that it, too, might survive and be put into law.
Eight of Stonier’s nine bills passed along the traditional way, being voted on in committee, and then the House floor, all passing before the final deadline for legislation. Her lone bill, House Bill 1656, did not pass out of committee before a deadline, but was added as an amendment to Senate Bill 5530.
Stonier’s bill would change high school graduation requirements to be more flexible for students who may not intend to attend a four year college.
“(Her bill) got caught up in a bigger philosophical issue we’re grappling with in the Legislature,” said Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle and chair of the House Education Committee, where the bill died.
On Tuesday, Stonier’s final bill was added as an amendment to Senate Bill 5330, a broad education-reform proposal.The Senate bill will be voted on by the House and then sent back to the Senate so the amendment may be confirmed.
If the House passes the amended Senate Bill, Stonier will have had every single one of her proposals advance to the opposite chamber, a record among freshmen House Democrats this year.
