In Danny Westneat’s May 24 column, (“WA’s ‘town crier’ in DC is appealing to better angels no longer there“) he implied it was futile to call out the corrupt power grab that’s happening in the other Washington. This is exactly what President Donald Trump and his administration want: to create a sense of apathy and helplessness that silences critics and allows them to further deteriorate our democracy and ransack your taxpayer dollars.
Not a chance.
I got into politics because I was mad. I was mad about state lawmakers planning to defund my kids’ preschool program, so I spoke up and did something about it. I organized thousands of parents, and I saved that preschool program.
Now, as your voice in the United States Senate, when I see something illegal or corrupt happening in Washington, D.C. — of course, I’m going to say something, even if my Republican colleagues do not want to listen.
Recently, Trump defunded the construction project for the Howard Hanson Dam on the Green River in a political act to punish blue states and reward his allies. Rest assured, I’ll be using every legislative tool at my disposal to fight back. I don’t believe for a second anyone should count solely on the good graces of my Republican colleagues to stand up to Trump. I don’t believe for one second that simply asking my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to do the right thing is all it takes to get anything done. As someone who has cut more tough bipartisan deals than nearly any other member of Congress — I never have.
Democrats do not control either chamber of Congress, so there are serious limits to what we can do on our own. However, when we do have leverage, we need to use it. That’s why I was the leading voice urging all of my colleagues to vote against the Republican spending bill this past March (a Continuing Resolution), which empowered President Trump to turn all kinds of government accounts into his personal slush funds. Just like Trump did with Army Corps construction funding, zeroing out funding for the entire state of California and shorting Washington nearly half a billion dollars.
I will fight to fund the Howard Hanson Dam project in any future spending bill that I negotiate. But right now, Trump is using the latitude gifted to him through the Republican CR to abuse taxpayer dollars. So, at the very least, I’m going to make sure everyone knows about it.
Westneat wrote that I’m “appealing to angels that are no longer there.” Whether Republicans want to listen, we have got to keep sounding the alarm about the attacks on working families and our democracy.
Why? Because public pressure makes a difference. That’s exactly how Democrats were able to defeat Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
Small and large victories — they happen only when we raise our voices. Earlier this year, I called out the absurd nature of Bonneville Power Administration layoffs. Its employees are paid solely by Pacific Northwest ratepayers, not federal funds. Within weeks, we forced the administration to reinstate fired employees and shield the agency from future layoffs. When the administration attacked Head Start funds and planned to eliminate it altogether, I was among the first to speak out. A chorus of voices, across states, pressed the administration, and now they have backed off their plan to eliminate the program.
Sometimes my Republican colleagues have even joined me in pushing back against this administration, either privately or publicly. Just recently, I led the entire Washington congressional delegation in appealing Trump’s refusal to grant a disaster declaration for the recent bomb cyclone that hit our state. I’ve also joined with U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, in calling on the administration to reinstate the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which supports local efforts to protect and harden our communities from natural disaster.
Navigating the Trump era and minimizing the damage will take an all-of-the-above approach to our politics. Democrats need to:
● Call out the corruption — do it loudly and at every turn;
● Leverage every existing legislative tool to stop policies that hurt people;
● Remind the public to pay attention and make themselves heard at the ballot box;
● And, yes, speak out loudly and press our Republican colleagues to do the right thing.
Make yourself heard however you can. Maybe that’s a social media post or maybe it’s organizing thousands of parents to speak up for funding you care about. Big or small, it all makes a difference and it all adds up.
If I hadn’t spoken up all those years ago, my kids’ preschool program would have been defunded. If we don’t all speak up against Trump today, we might not have a democracy in the future.
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