The curtain goes up in Olympia

Toxics in cosmetics, housing, weed, and a bid to whack Eyman's advisory votes

The 2023 Washington Legislature kicks off today. We’re going to skip the community-theater pomp and circumstance in favor of the real action: Which bills get heard early.

Nominally first¹ out of the chute is House Bill 1047, which gets a hearing in House Environment & Energy this afternoon. The bill by newly minted Rep. Sharlett Mena would restrict the manufacture, sale, and distribution of cosmetics containing any of nine nasty-sounding chemicals. Mena was elected in Pierce County’s 29th District last year after the retirement of longtime Rep. Steve Kirby. She’s worked for the Department of Ecology and Gov. Jay Inslee, so she knows her way around the building.

Mena got sworn in over the weekend by Chief Justice Steven Gonzalez to serve out the very tail-end of Kirby’s term.

She’s also the prime sponsor of House Bill 1048, which would make it easier to bring challenges under the Washington Voting Rights Act. That measure gets a hearing in State Government & Tribal Relations on Friday. New lawmakers frequently get preferential treatment on bills to help solidify their political positions back home. Mena doesn’t need much help there; she got more than 58 percent of the vote in the safely Democratic 29th.

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Some other notable action coming up this week: