Sen. Mona Das, D-Kent, was elected Monday as caucus vice chair by her Democratic colleagues in the state Senate.<\/p>\n
The second-year lawmaker will be a member of the caucus leadership team and will play a large role in determining which legislative priorities to advance in the 2021 session that begins Jan. 11.<\/p>\n
“It’s such an honor to have the faith of my Senate colleagues,” Das said in a Senate Democratic Caucus news release. “In the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, we need a unified Legislature with clear goals to help answer the many difficult challenges Washingtonians are facing. Our families and businesses need support and resources to get through this crisis, and I am confident we can meet the moment when we work together. I’m humbled and I’m ready to take on the vice chair role and help advance solutions for our state.”<\/p>\n
Das replaces Sen. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, as caucus vice chair. Hasegawa is now majority caucus chair, replacing John McCoy, of Tulalip, who retired earlier this year. Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, remains the Senate majority leader.<\/p>\n
Das serves as the vice chair of the Senate Housing Affordability and Local Government Committee, and as a member of the Senate Transportation Committee and the Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee. For the first two sessions of her term, she was also a member of the Senate Financial Institutions, Economic Development and Trade Committee.<\/p>\n
Das has been a vocal proponent of increased access to stable and affordable housing, as well as a champion for environmental protection policy, according to the news release. In her first two years as a state senator, she has passed a single-use plastic bag ban into law and has sponsored several bills that advance economic growth, affordable and sustainable housing development and issues of equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n
Das represents the 47th Legislative District, which includes parts of Kent, Auburn and Covington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Second-year lawmaker will help decide legislative priorities <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":48049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-48048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48048"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}