Inside Olympia: Sustainable Farms & Fields bill needs your help to pass the House

The momentum for the Sustainable Farms and Fields Grants bill (SB 5947) continues to grow!SB 5947 sailed through the state Senate on March 6th with bipartisan support and CarbonWA's strong grassroots mobilization.SB 5947, which provides “...financial assistance to farmers and ranchers that adopt changes in management practices that reduce fossil fuel inputs and increase the quantity of carbon stored on their land,” passed by a two-to-one margin (32-15), indicating the widespread support it generated and the effectiveness of the Carbon Washington supporters who urged their senators to vote yes."We were surprised at how fast the vote came up, but the outpouring of grassroots support for the bill was probably one of the reasons it moved so quickly,” said Greg Rock, Carbon Washington’s policy chair. Particularly encouraging was the bipartisan vote, with four Republicans joining every Democrat in voting yes.With the success in the senate, Carbon Washington will focus its efforts on passing the bill in the House. First up is pushing for a hearing from the Rural Development, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Committee. To secure a hearing and an eventual vote, pressure from constituents will be as vital as it was in the Senate. To learn more about the status of other CarbonWA-backed bills, check out our latest Carboncast podcast.Sustainable Farms Needs Your Help to Pass the House! Call your representative to ask them to support SB5947. You can use this call sheet which includes talking points.Email your representative to ask them to support SB5947. Legislators listen to their constituents and it's important to ask them to take action! Use this webform to quickly and easily send a message to your lawmaker.Phonebank other CarbonWA supporters to ask them to call their lawmaker. You can help even more by calling other CarbonWA supporters to let them know about this bill. Please contact our Advocacy Coordinator, Katsi, at katsi@carbonwa.org to get started.More details on the bill can be found on our website and in the op-ed we authored in the Washington Wire. Email katsi@carbonwa.org to let us know how your calls and emails went or with any questions.To support our advocacy and research, consider donating here.P.S. Please join CarbonWA leaders on March 17 for mingling and a jazz performance of the Alaska Suite! Learn more and get your tickets here.