Washington lawmakers and lobbyists look back on working through a pandemic

(The Center Square) – Walk into the Washington Legislature this session and you will not see throngs of lawmakers lining the halls looking over bills or chatting up a constituent.

These days, state lawmakers are working alone in their district offices or out of their own homes while the state Capitol is shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Save for floor votes and other critical business, Washingtonians can find their representatives from behind a screen on the state’s public affairs network, TVW, hearing testimonials and passing bills out of committee.

A total virtual session was on the table for a time, according to House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma. It’s a constitutional possibility if things change like they have in Oregon and Idaho’s state houses where COVID cases are mounting.

“I think that if we were forced into that, we’d have to really think through whether or not that was possible to do,” Jinkins told The Center Square.

This session has been a productive one for the state legislature where 1503 bills have been introduced and another 537 have passed at least one of its chambers. In 2021, the body is poised to pass historic police reform and a capital gains tax, two big achievements in such trying times.

House Minority Floor Leader J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, told The Center Square that he misses the days when meeting new people meant a knock on his door rather than another name in an inbox.

“I really prized that the ability to have spontaneous kinds of contact I think is the most valuable and impactful,” Wilcox said. “Sometimes it makes a big difference in legislation.”

Jinkins said the hallway chats she remembers having during her own freshman session can mean a lot when it comes to writing the right bill.

“I met with somebody who wanted a bill on using oral chemotherapy drugs and keeping the insurance rates the same as getting chemotherapy in the hospital,” Jinkins said. “We only met the group and the lobbyists who were interested in it once before session for 15 minutes. Then we only ever met again walking in between meetings and then the bill ended up on the governor’s desk. That’s really hard to do this session.”

Face to face meetings are just as important for the Washington Legislature’s newest members who have yet to form those kinds of working relationships.

“We have a number of freshmen members who have not met their colleagues in person,” Jinkins said. “That’s a challenge.”

One challenge this session, Wilcox said, is the number of social media channels state lawmakers have to respond to constituents during the pandemic.

“A lot of members, whether they respond or not, will get Facebook messages, Twitter DMs, personal email, legislative email, official phone calls, non-official phone calls, and Zooms,” Wilcox said. “One of the problems that I run into myself is someone will reach out to me and I have trouble responding to them because I can’t remember which platform they reached out on.”

Wilcox worries virtual work will have more state lawmakers reading from a script rather than speaking their minds.

“I think that this has made it easier for those with a very well organized agenda to accomplish their agenda,” Wilcox said. “My concern is we will have this easily scripted system and it’ll diminish the ability of everyday citizens and the minority to have an impact.”

Working from behind a screen is just as challenging for the lobbyists left without a lobby this session. The profession is a big industry in Olympia, where at least 3,841 lobbyists are registered with Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission.

For Stephan Blanford, executive director of the nonprofit child welfare group the Children’s Alliance, lobbying in a pandemic means navigating a workspace where his family’s competing Zoom calls can get hairy.

“Sometimes someone has to get off the call because they don’t have enough bandwidth or a just get kicked out of a meeting for one reason or another,” Blanford said. “There’s a lot of grace that’s extended between the legislators and the lobbyists, and vice versa.”

Virtual or not, the workload this session is much like any other, Jinkins said, and comes with the same challenges of setting a healthy work life balance.

“I probably struggle like many, many members to get done with work at a decent time at night so I can see my family,” Jinkins said. “The job will overtake any work life balance unless you make sure it doesn’t go that way.”

In the time since armed Trump protesters took to the grounds of the governor’s mansion, security has been tight at the state Capitol where lawmakers have been privy to keep their distance, both from one another and the political unrest spurred by the pandemic.

It’s the literal barriers surrounding the state Capitol building that rubs Wilcox the wrong way.

“I don’t mind all kinds of rational security precautions, but looking like an occupied city is a terrible message to send to people,” Wilcox said. “Let’s do it in ways that send a little better message than chain link and barbed wire.”

The idea of someone walking into the state Capitol with a gun, Blanford said, is one he thinks about all the time. A bill working its way through the Washington Legislature would ban guns from public demonstrations, which Blandford said is all too likely to spur a tragedy one day.

“I hate to say this, but I think it’s almost predictable that at some point in some legislature that something like that could potentially happen,” Blanford said. “I desperately hope it’s not in Olympia.”

Overall, Blanford believes this virtual session tore down more barriers than it set up. That’s exactly what democracy looks like, he said.

“Doing it online has invited a tremendous number of diverse people who will be deeply impacted by pending legislation to have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process,” Blanford said. “I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

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