April 30, 2021
Doing the work of the people: Nooksack adjudication, Billy Frank, Jr., statue and a wrap-up of 40th and 42nd legislator success
Salish Current Editorial Staff

Billy Frank, Jr., lifelong native rights and environmental activist, will be honored with a statue in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol, per legislative action in the 2021 session. Frank, who died in 2014, was a member of the Nisqually Tribe. (Image: THISISINDIANCOUNTRY, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

photo: © 2006
April 30, 2021
Doing the work of the people: Nooksack adjudication, Billy Frank, Jr., statue and a wrap-up of 40th and 42nd legislator success
Salish Current Editorial Staff

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The Washington state 2021 legislative session ended after 120 days on April 25, with funding for Nooksack watershed rights adjudication, health aid for unhoused people through a cooperative Bellingham-area program and analysis of San Juan County water supplies included in the biennial budget.

Along with funding for adjudication, the budget includes additional money for Whatcom County to support a complementary collaborative process among water users and water rights holders. Specifically, the funding is for facilitation and mediation, development of planning and technical information, and assessment of local solutions. The bill stipulates that the process must provide opportunities for discussion on increasing salmon populations and preserving farmland.

Among the bills introduced by 40th and 42nd district representatives and senators that passed were those establishing planning for a transition to zero-emissions transportation; honoring Billy Frank, Jr., in the National Statuary Hall; and expanding tax exemptions for farmworker housing.

Here’s the full list of legislation introduced by our 40th and 42nd District legislators as posted by Salish Current at the beginning of the session, with updates as to how their bills fared as of April 27, as tracked by WashingtonVotes.org.

40th Legislative District

Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-Bow) 

Rep. Alex Ramel (D-Bellingham)

Sen. Liz Lovelett (D-Anacortes)

42nd Legislative District

Rep. Sharon Shewmake (D-Bellingham)

Rep. Alicia Rule (D-Blaine) 

Sen. Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale)

— Reported by Salish Current editors

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