OLYMPIA - On a 48-1 margin, the Washington State Senate approved Senate Bill 5809, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, which would increase worker retraining efforts across Washington. The retraining efforts will be funded by existing sources, including the Employment Security Department and the Federal Workforce Investment Act.

“I’ve been through this one time before,” Hargrove said on the Senate floor. “Back in the early 90s we had the spotted owl crisis in our rural timber dependent areas. A whole bunch of people lost their jobs in a very short period of time and needed to have some way to move forward with their future.”

Ensuring businesses have the tools they need to thrive will in turn allow them to hire on the retrained workers needed to help adapt and grow as the recovery efforts continue.

“It’s a great idea to retrain instead of having people just sit around on unemployment with nothing to do. That also is a very depressing thing for people. We saw back in the early 90s that domestic violence went up, child abuse went up and suicides went up. We had all sorts of social maladies that increased in these areas that were hit so hard by an economic problem,” Hargrove said.

“I fear that it is worse this time, because one thing that we had last time that we don’t have this time is that people in Grays’s Harbor could move to Seattle and get a job. They didn’t want to, but at least there was some place else to go that had a fairly healthy economy.

“Well we’re all in the dumps now folks, and so this is even more crucial to give people hope and ability to make themselves competitive so they can continue to support themselves and their families in the future.”

Following today’s passage, SB 5809 now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.

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For more information: Chase Gallagher, 360-786-7326

For interviews: Sen. Jim Hargrove, 360-786-7646