Norma Smith Letter from the Legislature: March 13, 2015

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The Legislature is past the midway point of the 2015 session. We have just completed eight days of voting on the House floor before the "cutoff" deadline to pass House-originated bills out of the House. We are now back to our committee schedule, and are holding hearings on Senate bills.

Town hall meetings this Saturday

Please join my fellow 10th District legislators, Rep. Dave Hayes and Sen. Barbara Bailey, and me for town hall meetings tomorrow, Saturday March 14. We welcome your questions, comments and ideas, and will provide you with a legislative briefing.

Here are the details:

Coupeville: 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Coupeville Rec Hall
901 NW Alexander St.
Meet and greet: 10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Town hall meeting: 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Mt. Vernon: 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Conway School
19710 SR 534
Meet and greet: 2 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Town hall meeting: 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Privacy bills

A bipartisan coalition of Republicans and Democrats, of which I've been a part, have worked together to pass legislation critical to protecting people's personal data privacy and addressing cyber-security concerns:

• HB 1896 passed the House unanimously on March 5. It establishes a statewide minimum privacy policy for disclosure of customer energy useImage may be NSFW.
  Clik here to view. data. Currently, investor-owned utilities are subject to data privacy policies as enforced by the state Utilities and Transportation Commission; public utility districts (PUDs) and other power providers are not. My bill would extend the policies to the PUDs and other services collecting energy data within homes. The Washington PUD Association supports this bill.
• HB 1078, sponsored by Rep. Zack Hudgins, passed the House unanimously on March 4. It says that when a breach involving consumer financial information occurs, the business or organization must notify consumers within 45 days.
• HB 1094, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Morris, passed the House on a 91-6 vote on March 4. It prohibits the collection and tracking, for commercial purposes, of so-called "biometric identifiers" -- through fingerprint and eye scans, for example, or facial identification and voice analysis -- unless a person is first informed or gives consent. The same goes for the sale of such information.
• HB 1639, sponsored by Rep. David Taylor, passed the House 73-25 on March 4. It creates new guidelines for when a state or local agency can use extraordinary sensing devices (ESDs), also known as "drones," and what they can do with the personal information gathered.
• HB 1093, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Morris, passed the House 94-3 on March 4. It prohibits the use of unmanned aircraft (drones) equipped with sensing devices that collect personal information, including images of individuals on private property, without the individual’s consent.

These privacy bills will now be considered by the state Senate.

Capital budget brief

As the assistant ranking Republican on the House Capital Budget Committee, I am involved in helping craft a responsible, sustainable capital budget that will make good investments in our state and spends your tax dollars responsibly.

Do you have questions, comments or ideas you'd like to share? Please don't hesitate to contact me -- I am here to serve you. You'll find all my contact info at the bottom of this email update. Thank you so much.

Warm regards,

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Norma Smith