Washington Rep. Rick Larsen on where common ground can be found in Congress

WASHINGTON — With millions of new jobs created over the last two years and unemployment dipping to its lowest level in decades, Washington Congressman Rick Larsen says there are plenty of signs that the U.S. economy is getting stronger.

"We don’t want to end that momentum. But instead, the first 2-3 weeks of Congress has been focused on some legislation that’s going absolutely nowhere. And that’s a frustration of mine," said Larsen, who represents Washington's 2nd Congressional District. It stretches from Snohomish County, up to Whatcom County, and includes all of Island and San Juan counties.

As the leading Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Larsen thinks the two issues are areas where the two major political parties can find common ground in a divided Congress.

"We look at recently the roll that transportation and infrastructure investment can play in loosening up supply chains. So, what we heard from truckers and from ports, and railroads, from labor unions is that although we have not loosened every supply chain bottleneck in the transportation system, we’ve certainly come a long way since the throws of the pandemic in loosening up the supply chains. The investments that we’ve made and will continue to make as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Law are helping to do that," Larsen said.

Larsen said he's also pushing for answers about on-going issues with the U.S. Postal Service that have especially impacted rural areas.

And under the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that President Biden signed into law in late December, money is headed to our region to help the Whatcom Transportation Authority transition its fleet over the long term to electric buses, Larsen said. Money is also being allocated to help build a commercial kitchen inside a new longhouse to honor the Coast Salish peoples in the north Puget Sound, he added.

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"The basic premise here is that they’re building a gathering place in the longhouse, but gathering places are gathering places because usually there’s food to go along with it. And so this will be an opportunity as well to highlight some traditional meals that the Coast Salish peoples have used to sustain themselves over time," Larsen said.

KOMO News also asked Larsen about the new Corvus Energy facility that recently opened in Bellingham to help expand the production of batteries for maritime uses.

"This hopefully continues a process of Bellingham and Whatcom County maybe being a bit of a hub of clean energy companies," he said.