In the News
KENT, WA — Rep. Kim Schrier (D-8th District) took on a familiar role Monday, donning a white coat and helping administer doses of coronavirus vaccine inside the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent. Before being elected to the House in 2018, Schrier worked as a pediatrician for nearly two decades at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Issaquah.
Congresswoman Kim Schrier, whose 8th District includes parts of Kent, Auburn and Renton, voted Wednesday, March 10 in support of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
The House passed the bill 220-211 without a Republican vote. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to oppose it. Senate Democrats approved the measure last weekend 50-49 without a Republican in favor of it. One Republican senator missed the vote due to a family emergency
President Joe Biden, who proposed the plan, is expected to sign the bill on Friday, March 12.
SEATTLE (AP) — Farm exporters in Washington state have been left with stockpiles of product and idle trucks as the pandemic has created a shortage of cargo containers.
Dave Martin, export sales manager for Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee, one of the state's biggest tree-fruit exporters, said the company would ship up to 15 containers of fruit a week to Taiwan before the pandemic. "This week, we will not have a ship," he said.
Dive Brief: - Lawmakers have written to the Federal Maritime Commission in recent days voicing concern about the current state of the ocean shipping market that has resulted in U.S. exporters having a difficult time obtaining containers.
- So far, three letters were sent to the FMC. One by Rep.
ISSAQUAH, WA — A new partnership between Seattle Children's and nine Washington school districts will provide 300,000 rapid coronavirus tests to screen thousands of staffers and students each week. Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Issaquah) announced the pilot program this week, slated to begin in the Auburn School District first, before expanding throughout March.
In a statement, Schrier said:
The $1.9 trillion relief package making its way through the House of Representatives has approximately $16.1 billion earmarked for agriculture and the two centerpieces of the bill include $12 billion for food-aid benefits and a landmark $4 billion program of debt relief for socially disadvantaged farmers.
While the Biden administration's America Rescue Plan began its journey through Congress Feb. 3 as the next U.S. effort to address the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers came together to identify steps to improve vaccine distribution and curb ongoing supply shortages.
Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, Luciana Borio, vice president of In-Q-Tel and a former acting chief scientist at the FDA, warned that the worst days may lie ahead, given the emergence of variants, especially the South African variant that seems to cause more severe disease.
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is underway in North Central Washington. The fact that safe and effective vaccines were on the market less than one year after the pandemic arrived in the U.S. is nothing short of a scientific marvel, a testament to modern medicine and the work of scientists around the world.
WASHINGTON – State health officials from across the country urged a congressional committee to increase distribution of COVID-19 vaccine doses at a hearing Tuesday that also had Republicans and Democrats sparring over who was to blame for the slow vaccine rollout.