Olympia fence isn’t Berlin Wall, but closing state Capitol sadly necessary - for now
Facing a potential threat of extremist violence coupled with the sure threat of COVID-19, Washington state leaders marked the first day of the 2021 Legislature under closed-off conditions they hadn’t experienced before and should want never to repeat.
The grim symbols of Monday’s fraught mood in Olympia: an 8-foot-tall chain-link fence that blocked rain-soaked protesters from entering the Legislative Building, reinforced by a phalanx of state troopers and National Guard members.
When sizing up security measures for this year’s session, it’s important to recognize them for what they are, and for what they aren’t.
What the fence is: an unfortunate but necessary — and temporary — response to the storming of the US Capitol building last week, which killed five people and sent members of Congress scurrying for cover.
What the fence is not: an affront to freedom akin to some of history’s most formidable barriers, including the Berlin Wall, which one Republican lawmaker would have you believe.
State governments had little choice but to take defensive measures after last Wednesday’s Capitol attack, when a delirious mob tried to stop the Electoral College results and deliver President Trump a second term by force.
Protesters had already vowed to occupy the Legislative Building, so Wednesday’s riots in Washington D.C. only amplified the risk. Magnifying it further are FBI reports that armed demonstrations are planned in all 50 state capitals ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Now comes the inevitable backlash, with accusations that the fence and enhanced law enforcement presence are an overreaction.
One Washington lawmaker resorted to over-the-top melodrama Monday.
“I say today: Gov. Inslee, tear down this wall!” thundered Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, mimicking what President Ronald Reagan told Soviet leader Mikail Gorbachev in his famous 1987 Berlin Wall speech.
Padden’s theatrics were a weak moment in an otherwise strong show of unity by Republicans on Day One.
It was appropriate for them to question a raft of new rules that will bar the public — and most of the state’s 147 elected lawmakers — from the Legislative Building during the 105-day session. Public access to democratic institutions is a core American value, and somebody should give voice to it.
That job usually falls to the political party that’s not in power; in our state, Republicans are quite accustomed to the role.
Ultimately, however, majority Democrats did what had to be done by limiting people from assembling inside the Capitol until the coronavirus contagion is under control.
The goal should be to enforce the rules for as short a time as possible, perhaps even easing them before the end of the session this spring, if Thurston County can advance under Inslee’s new region-based phased reopening model.
At the same time, legislators doubled down on open-government opportunities that we hope will endure long after this pandemic ends. Expanded remote testimony will let people be heard in all 39 counties without having to take a day off work, gas up the car or cross mountain passes.
Some of the closed-session rules give us pause, such as Senate Rule 49, which allows committee members to scrap a public hearing if a companion bill has already been heard. This is the kind of corner cutting that we urge legislators to avoid.
Even in normal times, caucus leaders have been known to ram through bills when few people are watching — most infamously in 2018, when they exempted the Legislature from the Public Records Act in 48 hours with no public hearings or floor debate.
Those in power also like the convenience of title-only bills and other shortcuts. They must resist the temptation to reach into their bag of tricks this year, when it’s easier to get away with it. And they should refrain from cutting rank-and-file members out of the process, such as by blocking floor amendments.
The 2001 Legislature will be weakened by not having all 98 representatives and 49 senators physically present. The energy will be further sapped without citizens gathered in House and Senate galleries, committee rooms and marble corridors.
The saving grace is that these measures are only temporary. So is the sight of chain-link fencing and National Guardsmen on the Capitol campus this week, disquieting as they are.
For now Washington lawmakers are working under fortress-like conditions, but they absolutely must not adopt a fortress mentality.