The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce is giving members of the community an opportunity to engage directly with local Washington state lawmakers ahead of the upcoming legislative session, which is set to begin in January.
The chamber announced its Legislative Forum event earlier this week with all three legislators for the state’s 20th Legislative District set to attend.
Jeremy’s Farm to Table in Chehalis is hosting the hour-and-a-half-long event, which is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. The event is scheduled just two weeks after legislators from the state’s 19th and 20th Legislative Districts met with the Lewis County commissioners and other county officials to discuss legislative priorities.
Locally-based lawmakers state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, and State Reps. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, and Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, will be the focal point of the event and, according to the announcement from the chamber of commerce, will present updates and insights for the upcoming session.
The Washington state 2026 legislative session will be a shorter 60-day session, which the state holds on even years. Odd-year sessions are longer — 120 days to be exact — to give lawmakers time to develop the state’s two-year budget.
While the upcoming legislative session is a non-budget year, lawmakers will still be able to make changes to the budget, including supplemental budget requests in an attempt to balance a state budget that is facing increasing shortfalls.
The chamber of commerce has highlighted education funding, affordable housing, health care and public safety as key issues for the year’s legislative session. The event will also touch on changes to state taxes that are set to take effect in 2026. Finally, the event will provide a question-and-answer period for attendees to ask questions of the three state lawmakers.
The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce asks that people planning to attend RSVP. To do so, contact the chamber by sending an email to director@chamberway.com or calling 360-748-8885.
The chamber also hosts monthly virtual legislative updates over Zoom during legislative sessions.
