House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox and Senate Republican Leader John Braun released a statement Tuesday calling on Gov. Jay Inslee to lift all COVID-19 restrictions and reopen the state.
Inslee has previously said restrictions will likely be lifted by June 30, if not sooner, depending on the ongoing spread of the virus. Braun and Wilcox said June 15 was a more appropriate timeline.
They said Tuesday that with increasing vaccination rates and loosened guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the governor should act.
“Washingtonians want to return to a sense of normalcy and businesses need more certainty as they attempt to recover,” they wrote. “It is also time for the governor to end the state of emergency he declared nearly 460 days ago — and with it, the executive-branch overreach and controversial mandates, like the recent proof-of-vaccination decision from Labor and Industries. Our families, employers and workers deserve better. Unfortunately, the failure of legislative Democrats to even consider emergency-powers reform has led us to where we are at today. The only solution left now is for the emergency to be over.”
