Peter Abbarno: Late nights, high stakes and the battle to protect

The most important issues I hear about daily from constituents in Southwest Washington and across our state are affordability and crime. Families are struggling with the rising cost of living — housing, childcare and basic necessities continue to climb beyond reach. At the same time, crime is increasing, and communities are demanding real solutions to keep their families safe.

The week following policy and fiscal cutoff this month has been grueling as we debated policy late into the night on the House floor working to pass meaningful legislation that helps Washington families while also pushing back against bad policies that would have made life even harder.

The results were mixed. Some good bills passed, some damaging policies made it through, and some terrible ones failed to advance.

It’s important that we celebrate victories, but we must also remain engaged as bad House bills move to the Senate and vice versa.

Here’s a quick recap of the fight to Fix Washington.

House Republicans are advancing real solutions to help families, homeowners and businesses. One of those solutions is House Bill 1106, which provides property tax relief for disabled veterans. Too many of our aging heroes on fixed incomes are being priced out of their homes, leading to a rise in homelessness among our veterans. This bill would lower the service-connected disability rating required for tax exemptions from 80% to 40% over two years, ensuring more veterans can afford to stay in their homes.

Another key issue I hear about constantly is the rising cost of housing. House Bill 1108 takes an important step toward identifying the root causes of skyrocketing home prices by creating a bipartisan task force that brings together industry experts and community leaders to examine what’s driving up costs.

For those in manufactured home communities — one of the last truly affordable housing options in Washington — House Bill 1191 improves access to financing, making it easier for residents to secure better loans and achieve homeownership.

Homeownership should not be out of reach for working families. As the assistant ranking member on the House Capital Budget, I will continue to advocate for reducing overburdensome regulations, investing in housing inventory and advancing more home-ownership programs.

Affordability isn’t just about housing — it’s about child care, too. Families are struggling to find affordable, quality care, and small providers are being pushed out of business due to burdensome regulations. House Bill 1648 helps address this crisis by extending qualification timelines for child care providers and recognizing experience-based competency, removing unnecessary barriers that have forced skilled professionals out of the workforce.

Public safety is another top concern for communities across Southwest Washington. We passed House Bill 1457, which strengthens monitoring requirements for sexually violent predators on conditional release. This ensures that law enforcement has the necessary tools to protect neighborhoods from those who pose the highest risk. We also advanced House Bill 1460, making it easier for domestic violence survivors to carry proof of their protection orders with Hope Cards.

Simple, effective policies like these help keep people safe.

Not every battle is about what gets passed — it’s also about what we stop. One of the worst ideas by House Democrats that we defeated this session was House Bill 1178, which would have weakened sentencing for gang-related crimes and drug offenses in school zones. Our communities deserve stronger public safety policies, not watered-down consequences for criminals.

Another victory was stopping House Bill 1607, a costly and unnecessary bottle deposit program that would have acted as a hidden tax on consumers, forcing families to pay more while doing little to improve Washington’s recycling efforts.

We also successfully stopped House Bill 1399, a dangerous attack on local control that would have undermined voters’ ability to elect their sheriffs. This bill would have given politicians more influence over law enforcement leadership by opening the door to appointed, rather than elected, sheriffs in counties across Washington. Local communities should have the power to decide who enforces their laws — not Olympia bureaucrats.

The stakes are high, and the fight to Fix Washington is far from over. With your help, we can protect our communities, keep government accountable and ensure our state works for the people — not against them.
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State Rep. Peter Abbarno represents the 20th Legislative District and is the House Republican Caucus chair.