Category: Politics

Thoughts and updates from our work.

Thanks to your efforts, we continue to have success in the Legislature.  Yesterday – March 8, 2018 – marked the end of the 2018 Supplemental Session, and this short session was full of historic wins for low-income families across our state. Legislators heard from you and they are responding to your insistence on “justice for […]

Good news – both the House and Senate have passed their supplemental budgets and both include increased funding for civil legal aid! However, there is an important difference between the House and Senate budgets, and we need your help in contacting your legislators to make sure the House budget for civil legal aid is the one that’s […]

During the legislative session, we are constantly seeking to keep civil legal aid top-of-mind for legislators and policymakers, in an effort to better fund the critical work being done by our alliance of providers throughout the state. Last Sunday, the Tri-City Herald published an op-ed entitled To Keep People out of Poverty, We Must Support […]

The 2018 State Legislative Session officially began earlier this week, on Monday, January 8. As you may know, this year’s session is a “short” session, meaning it is only scheduled to last for 60 days. Last year, with the hard work and support of advocates from around the state, we secured a $4.8 million increase […]

Sunday, April 23rd was the formal “sine die” to the end of the 2017 state legislative session. However, in the absence of agreement on either the state operating or capital budgets, Governor Jay Inslee called for a 30-day Special Session beginning today, Monday, April 24. As we all know, the central issue of this session […]

The Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee, Washington Supreme Court and Washington’s Board for Judicial Administration have all urged congress to protect funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing civil legal assistance to those who otherwise would be unable to […]

Today, the Trump Administration released its initial budget that includes the complete elimination of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). As a reminder, LSC administers federal civil legal aid funding, which currently accounts for approximately $6.5 million to provide critical legal assistance to low-income families and individuals in Washington State. Since LSC’s creation during the Nixon […]