"No Call For Celebration" This July 4: 60+ WA Elected Officials And Candidates Commit To Immediate Action After Big Beautiful Bill Passage

Washington State and local elected officials are not feeling very patriotic this 4th of July. Early Friday afternoon, 69 elected officials signed and published a letter in which they condemn the Trump Administration's recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and commit to immediate action to protect Washingtonians from its devastation. 

“On this Fourth of July, elected leaders are grieving the passage of the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans’ ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’” The letter read. “It is a national disaster and no call for celebration.”

The nearly 1,000-page legislation passed this week amounts to one of the largest wealth transfers from working people to billionaires in U.S. History, as the letter duly notes. The legislation will force hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians off their health insurance, slash food assistance programs, and jack up funding for ICE higher than most of the world's militaries, including Israel's. 

“...this shameful national budget demands the need for bold, decisive leadership from all levels of government in Washington state,” the signatories declared in the letter. 

But the letter doesn’t just pass the buck to Trump. The signatories also acknowledged the devastating cuts closer to home, enacted by a legislature completely controlled by Democrats. 

The letter read: 

“Even before Congressional Republicans voted to take away health care from 17 million Americans, Washingtonians were already reeling from the impact of austerity in our communities. The most recent budget signed into law by Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson reduced childcare access for working families, made college less affordable for thousands of students, defunded public employee pensions, and closed a reproductive healthcare clinic on Capitol Hill - the state’s most densely populated neighborhood.

Austerity measures enacted in Washington state this year will now be intensified by this national budget as Congressional Republicans voted to rip away cash assistance, food, and health care away from poor and working class Americans. Washingtonians stand to lose the largest share of their federal Medicaid dollars of any state in the union - to the tune of over $35 billion over the course of the next decade. This is unconscionable.”

The letter committed to “measures to meet this moment.” On the state level, the letter appears to covertly call for a special session — demanding State lawmakers “urgently act to prepare for the harm done by the authoritarianism of the federal government,” which they can only reasonably do if they return to Olympia. One of the letter’s signatories, Rep. Shaun Scott (D-Seattle), has called in posts on social media for lawmakers to head back to the Capitol Campus for a special session.  

“To address the socioeconomic crisis this will plunge many communities into, Washington State lawmakers should call a special session this year,” Scott wrote on Twitter. “The scale of these cuts are too great to meet with a short 60-day legislative session that in any case won’t begin until January 2026.”

Lawmakers can initiate a special session with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate or at the direction of the Governor. On the last day of session earlier this year, many lawmakers expressed to The Burner that they anticipated some kind of shenanigans from the Trump White House would bring them back. So far, there’s not a great public push from lawmakers or the Governor to return to work. 

The letter suggested that local government leaders pass new, progressive revenue, including Seattle City Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck's Seattle Shield Initiative. As many public commenters noted at public comment earlier this week, the Seattle Shield Initiative will raise just $90 million, which is not enough to fill the City’s current deficit, let alone make up for the devastation of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” Perhaps its passage will inspire an even bolder Seattle Shield Initiative proposal or other streams. 

The letter ended with a promise: 

"The undersigned elected officials represent all levels of government including state,  local, and special district governments. We commit to working together in the immediate term to develop meaningful solutions to protect residents. The time is urgently prudent  for local leaders across Washington state to live up to the progressive values which have long made us a target of the Trump regime and their corporate cronies.

On this Independence Day, we make a solemn promise to the people of Washington state: we will not let this betrayal of American values and principles stand unchallenged. We call upon you the People  to demand every elected official in Washington state remember  what this nation is truly about - fighting for the tired, poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”