Rep. Brad Klippert on HB 2037, emergency powers reform, and the all-night floor debate on HB 1837

On Saturday, February 12th, during House floor debate, you voted in favor of House Bill 2037, seeking to define and clarify use of force standards for law enforcement officers. Is this bill a fix to the flawed anti-police bills passed by Democrats last year that make communities less safe? It is an attempt at a fix. It falls short of what we need in law enforcement to fix it, but I voted yes because we need to get something, some kind of a fix. I wanted to keep both bills moving so that we make sure we have a tool, a vehicle that we can use, that we can adjust, that we can amend, hopefully, to get exactly what law enforcement officers need so they can do their jobs to keep our communities safe and bring down this incredibly rising rate of crime in Washington State and the United States at large. Emergency powers reform is one of your top priorities. Is there any movement on this effort this session? There was a House bill, House Bill 1772, that was proposed. It was a great bill, but it reduced the governor's powers down to, if I remember correctly, 60 days if not approved by the legislature. That bill did not move forward onto the House floor for approval. So now what we still have alive is Senate Bill 5909. 5909 is not a bad bill. It's just like the other law enforcement bills we talked about. At least we still have a vehicle moving. 5909 is sponsored by Democrats, which is great because they're the majority party, so it's more likely to actually get signed into law or actually pass the legislature. Because when I say signed into law, that means this is a bill to decrease the governor's emergency powers that would have to be signed into law by the governor unless it gets a supermajority. And if we get a supermajority yes vote on that, we can override any governor veto. So that's exactly what I'm hoping for. And this bill does, in fact, limit the governor's powers to 90 days if it doesn't have to do with the suspension of statutory things. And if it has to do with statutory items in our laws, it reduces it to just 30 days, or it's actually 30 days already in law unless approved by the legislature. So and this is a great vehicle because actually it also restricts the governor on his spending abilities because it is the legislature that holds the purse, both in our state government and our federal government. If you read the Constitution, the legislature writes the expenditures, not the governor. So this bill would bring that back into the legislature's control, and it would establish a joint legislative committee on unanticipated revenue, a joint legislative committee on unanticipated revenue. So those are those millions of dollars or billions of dollars that would come from the federal government that the governor is trying to spend all on his own. And we're saying no, you do not control the expenditures in Washington state, the legislature does. That's why we have three branches of government, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. And both of these bills say you are not a monarch, you are not a king. We have three branches of government and all three of those branches of government must be in operation, including and at all times during emergency powers. Can you give us your thoughts on the current mask mandates and vaccine mandates? Is there's been some action in your district with your constituents standing up saying that it's time to end these mandates? My understanding is it's it started with Kettle Falls and the Kettle Falls School District said, we're done with this. Done. We're going to make masks optional in our schools. And I was so very proud of our Richland School District, which is in the eighth legislative district. They also fell right behind him and said, we're done with this emergency powers of the governor. And we're going to make the wearing of masks optional in the Richland School District. Now, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Ragdoll, tried to stand up and say, you can't do that or I'll withdraw your funding. Well, remember what I said just a few minutes ago, it's the legislature that holds the purse. So there's already an attorney who's filing suit against Chris Ragdoll for those threats, because Chris Ragdoll, the superintendent of public instruction, cannot withhold funding. It's not his job. That's the legislature's job. And so he can't do that. And I hope that Richland School District will continue to stand up and speak out and say, we are done with these emergency powers of Governor Inslee. This has been over two years. And I'm telling you, the kids are sick and tired of wearing masks in school, especially sick and tired of wearing masks in sports. So I am very, very proud of Kettle Falls School District and the Richland School District. And ladies and gentlemen, join us in saying to the governor, we're done with your emergency powers executions. You're not the king of Washington. We have three branches of government, and they all should be operating fully now, not just you. And we're done with your mandates. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know, the other day, it was early in the morning, and I got a call from a constituent. There'd been a horrific crash, where two young men had been T-boned. And one of them was at Cadillac Regional Medical Facility, and then another one had to be airlifted to Harborview. That father asked Life Flight if he could get on the aircraft with them. My understanding is, is what I was told, that they asked him, are you vaccinated? And the father said, I am not. They said, no, you cannot get on the aircraft. So the father drove three and a half hours to Seattle, went to the doors of Harborview Medical Facility, and said, my son has been airlifted there because he has had severe injuries to his body in a crash. Can I please come in and be with my son? And they asked him, have you been vaccinated? And he said, no. And they said, no, you cannot come in. Of course, it was just astounding to myself and many, many, many other people. Number one, we all know that this vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine, does not keep you from catching COVID-19, nor does the COVID-19 keep you from spreading COVID-19. So why is this father being denied the opportunity to come and be with his son who's been severely injured in an auto crash because he's not been vaccinated for COVID-19? So this father then turned around, had to drive all the way back to Richland, Washington, where he's with his other son, who's also in the hospital. And I have a fantastic legislative assistant that worked with myself. She arranged for me to get on the telephone with the CEO, the Chief Executive Officer, and the COO, the Chief Operating Officer of Harborview Medical Facility. And we got the father on the phone with them. And I just, I want to sing my praises right now to Harborview Hospital because they listened to this father. And they said, we'll do whatever we have to do to get you in with your son. Just go get a negative COVID test, bring it with you to the facility, and we'll get you in the door so you can be with your son. And so thank you to them for that. And then the CEO of Harborview went one step further. She said, is there any message that I can deliver to your son on your behalf right now? And he said, yes, please tell my son that we love him and we're praying for him. She said, I will leave my office right now and go upstairs and share that message with your son that you, his family, are praying for him and that you love him. And I just thought that was fantastic. So thank you to Harborview for listening to us. Thank you for making it possible for that father to be with his son before he went into surgery. I appreciate you for that. But this father should not have had to go through that. This father should have immediately been allowed to come in and be with his son and should not have been denied entrance into this medical facility just because he's not vaccinated with a vaccine that does not keep you from contracting COVID-19, nor does it keep you from spreading COVID-19. So ladies and gentlemen, please continue to work with me and fight back on the governor's mandates for vaccine. One last thing I want to talk to you about before we go. It was Monday night at nine o'clock at night. We started deliberations on the house floor on something that is commonly known as the ergonomics bill. House Republican, the minorities argued for nine and one half hours from nine at night till six 30 the next morning in opposition to this ergonomics bill, because if this bill passes and gets signed into law, it will hurt our business owners dramatically. And anything that hurts our businesses hurts our employees. Because if business owners can't afford to hire their employees, it's bad for everybody. That's why we fought so hard on this bill. Well, this bill passed by one vote 50 to 48. One more vote in denial would have made it 49 49, which is a tie and the bill would not have passed because it has to have a constitutional majority to pass. So that bill passed by one vote. And so I just want to thank my fellow Republicans for fighting with me against that bill. I just want you to know we're over here fighting hard for you in defense of you the people we fight for we the people so that your constitutional rights will be protected so that you the citizens of Washington State can grow and prosper. In reference to law enforcement bills, I just want to thank all of my fellow brothers and sisters in law enforcement, all the first responders who every day, get out of bed, go to work and put your lives on the line to keep our community safe. We love you. We appreciate you. God bless each and every one of you.