Sen. Shelly Short discusses the operating budget, a new cutoff deadline, and bills sponsored by Rep. Kretz and Maycumber. From April 8, 2019.
Author Archives: kimberlywirtz
The following op-ed appeared in the Omak-Okagonan Chronicle and was published March 30, 2019. To download the article, click on the below link:
Parental rights under attack in Olympia
By Sen. Shelly Short
Special to the Omak-Okanogan Chronicle
Parents are a child’s first teacher, guiding them throughout the stages and lessons of life. For generations, parents have taught their children right from wrong, instilled responsibility, and nurtured and cared for them. While parents aren’t the only influence in a child’s life, parents should be able to choose what’s best for their child.
There are several bills that have been proposed in the state Legislature that have the potential to erode the rights of parents. These proposals represent government overreach, as if the government knows better than mom and dad.
Senate Bill 5683, known as the Welcome to Washington Baby Act, would send a nurse or a government worker to your home to observe you and your newborn child during those first few months unless you opted out in writing. Such a proposal sounds reasonable on the surface, until you read deeper into the bill. These workers would observe you in all aspects of your interaction with your child. These subjective observations would be noted in a file kept by the Division of Child, Youth and Family Services to which you would not have access. What you may not know is that there is already a voluntary program to help provide services to families with children. One might ask why an intrusive program is necessary to target the 2.7 million families in the state instead of using an existing, successful program to reach the thousands of additional families who are in need?
The recent measles outbreak has reignited a vigorous debate on vaccinations and whether public health and safety outweigh the right of parents to choose what is best for their children. SB 5841 would make it difficult for parents to receive an exemption for their child from being vaccinated. The proposal removes the personal and philosophical exemption option many parents currently claim. Instead, the only options for parents under this bill would be to claim a religious or medical exemption. Parents would have to either prove they are an active follower of a particular religion, or have a specific document signed by a health care provider. Government should not force a child to be vaccinated over the objections of parents.
SB 5889 claims to have the overarching mission of strengthening confidentiality in communications between health insurance services and their enrollees. While confidentiality of health records is something we all support, what truly lies inside this proposal is something that negates parental rights by granting any minor the ability to procure health care services and procedures, without parental knowledge or consent. So parents will receive health care related bills to pay without any information of the services received! Just imagine a suicidal child seeking counseling and/or medical treatment without parental knowledge. The only information the parent may ultimately get is the description of the health service on a billing statement! SB 5889 fosters secrecy between parents and children instead of fostering healthy relationships and open communication. This proposal puts children at risk and undermines the parents’ desire to protect and care for their children.
Finally, SB 5395 mandates teaching of sex education from kindergarten onward under the guise of safety. Sex education curriculum is not needed to create safe spaces for students to share sensitive information with an adult. That is an excuse to teach students material that parents may consider inappropriate. While parents can opt their children out of these classes, this curriculum could be adapted to other class instruction. Whether you are a teacher, school counselor or voluntarily work with students, most organizations require some form of training on how to recognize warning signs of trauma or inappropriate treatment. As a former 4-H Club leader, I can tell you personally that I received such information and training.
Bills such as these emboldens government to determine what it thinks is best and infringe upon the ultimate responsibility and role of parents in caring for their children. It is the job of parents to take care of their children in all of these issues. Not Olympia’s.
Senators Shelly Short and Ann Rivers discuss new bills in the legislature which could harm parental rights.
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Sen. Shelly Short discusses the revenue forecast for the upcoming biennium, and a bill dealing with pharmacy benefit managers. From April 1, 2019.
Senator Shelly Short discusses this week on her radio update the recent revenue forecast for the state, and a bill she is sponsoring which will help local pharmacies and their partnerships with pharamacy benefit managers.
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OLYMPIA… A proposal by Sen. Shelly Short to ensure access to health-care benefits is being considered by the House after receiving strong Senate approval.
Senate Bill 5887 aims to ensure patients receive benefits for which they have already paid through their health plans. The proposal, which addresses concerns about prior authorization of care, was passed 45-2 by the Senate earlier in March.
A related law made by the Legislature in 2018 allows six visits for a patient, without prior authorization, when those visits are a medical necessity and within health-plan limits. However, supporters of Short’s proposal say insurers, through benefit managers, need more guidance because of problems experienced by patients and providers.
“To say that I was frustrated in the response by insurers is an understatement,” said Short, R-Addy. “Again, this is about patients’ access to the treatment that they have already paid for through their health plan. It’s about timely access to care within plan limits and with the referral of a treating physician. I worked very hard to strike a good balance.”
If SB 5887 becomes law, health carriers could not require a patient to have prior authorization for the first six visits. Short’s legislation covers a multitude of health-care practices, including, but not limited to, massage therapy, physical therapy, chiropractic and occupational therapy. The health carrier would be required to provide rules and regulations on its website that can easily help a patient sign up online.
SB 5887 was recently heard in the House Health and Wellness Committee.
OLYMPIA… Senate Bill 5525, which would expect the Department of Fish and Wildlife continue the consistent, effective methods it has used to count whitetail deer populations, was passed unanimously by the Senate March 5 and is now in the House of Representatives.
Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy, is the prime sponsor. “It is critical that the department steps up and actively manage predators so our whitetail populations can thrive and grow,” said Short. “While weather and disease certainly impact the deer, the overabundance of predators has put tremendous pressure on fawn recruitment. Anyone who lives in Northeastern Washington or hunts has witnessed the significant decline in whitetail deer.”
Short has worked with multiple groups in her district on this bill, and looks forward to the full implementation of the proposal.
“This bill has been significantly worked with folks in my local community, with Fish and Wildlife, and other stakeholders to really keep this going,” Short said. “We think it is very important that Fish and Wildlife maintain consistent transect counts at a minimum to get the data collection necessary. Then the Department can better rely on these long-term trends to better adjust its management of deer and predators in Northeastern Washington.”
The bill has received a hearing in the Rural Development, Agriculture, and Natural Resources committee in the House of Representatives and now awaits a vote to progress to the House Floor.
The Senate earlier in March passed a bill prime-sponsored by Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy, that would add much-needed checks and balances to a state program that helps local governments increase their energy efficiency.
Short says her proposal, Senate Bill 5308, would create desperately needed transparency for construction and monitoring of these projects. When the performance-based contracting services program started during Gov. Chris Gregoire’s administration, the guidance for it began not as legislation but as a simple budget line in the capital budget.
SB 5308 was introduced in response to the significant ongoing challenges that Ferry County Memorial Hospital, in Republic, has had with its HVAC upgrade using this state program that helps match local governments with energy service contractors. Ironically, the program requires the contractor to guarantee its work and perform verification monitoring. Unfortunately, the program was ill-prepared to deal with a contractor who had no interest in fixing what was obviously not working at the hospital.
“For the last several winters, the hospital and staff have struggled to endure unacceptable indoor temperatures, damage to hospital equipment and broken pipes all because the state’s program didn’t anticipate what might happen if a contractor didn’t want to fix it,” said Short. “The situation has been indefensible and immoral. An audit of the program is a must, but I also want to make sure that there is a better process in place to prevent this kind of problem in the future. I look forward to working with my Democratic colleagues in embracing the need to add these protective measures.”
SB 5308 would provide greater protection to municipalities by creating a complaint process through the state’s Department of Enterprise Services, better monitoring, more thorough consultation before energy efficiency equipment is installed and then independent verification once the project is completed. It would also require a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee study to recommend additional reforms.
The proposal now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Homelessness took center stage Friday at the State Capital.
With little more than a month left in the legislative session, Republican senators emphasized their continued commitment to addressing the crisis, and expressed surprise that solutions they put on the table this past fall still have not been brought before the full Senate for votes.
Both Senators Hans Zeiger and Randi Becker says the homelessness situation often comes down to two things. Senator John Braun says people need to be held accountable.
The Republicans say there’s plenty of money to deal with the issue without raising taxes, but Senator Keith Wagoner adds that dollars alone won’t solve the problem. And Senator Shelly Short worries that cities might undermine legislation from Olympia by continuing or enacting failed policies.
The Senators stressed that most of the bills to tackle homelessness enjoy strong bipartisan support.