2005 Legislative Report Card

This is the Sierra Club Cascade Chapter's first Legislative Report Card. By publishing it mid-term in the two-year legislative cycle, we offer our representatives and senators the opportunity to make changes in their policy making and voting behavior.

The Report Card examines how lawmakers voted to protect our state's environment. We encourage you to use it to praise and thank your representatives and senators for their positive actions. If your lawmakers have failed to measure up to your expectations, let them know. They'll have a second year to do better...if we let them know we're watching!

Without question, 2005 was one of the best years for the environment in recent memory. The Legislature passed two of the environmental community's top priorities: reducing dangerous auto emissions and adopting green building standards for state-funded construction projects. The environmental community made significant progress on the other two priorities: phasing out toxic flame retardants and restoring Hood Canal. Other important bills we supported also passed. What’s more, the Legislature didn’t pass any bills in forms we opposed. Consequently, for the first time in years, we didn’t have any veto requests.

Senator Erik Poulsen (D-34) had an incredible session. In his first year as Chair of the Senate Water, Energy, and Environment Committee, he helped pass nearly every major piece of environmental legislation.

He showed extraordinary leadership, particularly on the Clean Cars bill, where he managed the floor debate. He also showed superb political judgment, knowing exactly when to compromise. On almost every issue, he helped reach compromises that addressed the legitimate concerns of other stakeholders, while at the same time improving environmental protection.

Representative Ed Murray (D-43) demonstrated extraordinary leadership last session and used his position as Chair of the Transportation Committee to help pass landmark environmental legislation. He was the prime sponsor of the Clean Cars bill, and was a principal author of the transportation package that was supported by a broad coalition of environmental, business, and labor organizations. He also helped change the Legislature's transportation mindset, shifting the thinking from how to move cars to how to move people and goods.

Senator Lisa Brown (D-3, final grade A+) demonstrated extraordinary leadership during her first session as Majority Leader. She communicated well with the environmental groups and knew just when to get more involved, helping give a bill the final push.

Senator Dave Schmidt (R-44, final grade A) voted with the environment on nearly every issue; he co-sponsored a number of environmental bills and came through on the Clean Cars bill when it counted most.

In 2005, the following legislators were out of step with their districts on environmental issues.

Senator Mark Doumit (D-19, final grade C) continues to stay involved in many environmental issues and plays a leadership role on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He loses points for offering an amendment to the Green Buildings bill that would have rendered it meaningless. The amendment died, narrowly.

The goal of this report card is to authentically tell the story of what the Washington State Legislature did in the 2005 session to help or hurt our environment. Letter grades summarize our assessment of each legislator's performance on key environmental bills. In the table of grades, legislators' final grades are next to their names, followed by their votes on the legislation we're using for the report card. In the bill explanation section, we describe why each bill mattered and tell the story of how it evolved during the session.