Reps. Chris Corry and Peter Abbarno discuss the floor debate on Senate Bill 5599 | April 12, 2023

Hi, State Representative Peter Barno here with State Representative Chris Corey. We just got off the House floor. It's Wednesday. It's about 10 30 at night and cut off night and we had a very controversial bill that we just got done debating after three hours. Yeah, Senate Bill 5599, which would create an exemption from the state of notifying parents where their kids were in the effort where they were seeking medical care, really eroding parental rights in the state of Washington. Essentially, what the bill would do would be if a child left a parent's home for certain medical care and went to a shelter or host family that that shelter or host family would not be required to notify the parents of their child's whereabout. This is obviously a fundamental violation of parental rights and something that's deeply concerning for parents across Washington State. Well, and you're a parent and I'm a parent and a lot of state legislators who are parents spoke on the House floor about their love for their children and how concerning it would be if a child disappeared for months, the state knew where they were, and then we're never notified of where that child was. And, and I think that was the crux of much of the debate of should we try to strengthen families, let families build together, or should we continue to let the state essentially hide where the child is? Yeah, and it was unfortunate. We had some really good amendments to help strengthen those parental rights and they were just roundly rejected by the Democrats. We offered really good and concise amendments that would essentially say under current law, where there is actual abuse or neglect, you wouldn't have to notify to protect the children, but in cases of disagreement or argument, you would. I know we talked a lot about on the floor, that feeling of if your child goes missing, and in this case over an argument or disagreement, what most parents in Washington state would do, would go to the ends of the earth to find their child. And the fact that we have a bill that may become law that would say, we're not going to tell you, was really just a bridge too far for us. Well, and there were a lot of wedge issues throughout this legislative session, and it's almost apropos that it culminates with one of the biggest wedges that we've seen, which is the wedge between who parents your child. Is it the parent or is it the state and the government? And you saw a really stark contrast where the Republican caucus was on the side of the parents and the Democrat caucus was on the side of government. And pretty unfortunate that it passed, but it's not over yet. Yeah. Fundamentally, we are committed to parental rights. We will continue to fight for those amongst every other issue that we have taken up this year as a House Republican caucus, working hard for you, the people of the state of Washington.