This week, Detective Liz Grant from the Kennewick Police Department received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing.

This award recognizes 21 state, local, territorial, and Tribal police officers, deputies, and troopers for their outstanding efforts in innovative community policing strategies, criminal investigations, and field operations.

Detective Grant was awarded this prestigious honor for her work in reopening a string of prior rape cases that ended with a 26-year prison sentence for the guilty suspect.

I am so thankful for outstanding officers like Detective Grant in our community, our office was proud to present her with a flag for her service during the ceremony.

Great work, Detective Grant!

This week, I met with the Association of Washington Business for their annual fly-in to talk about priorities for the next Congress and the ways we can work together to protect our area's businesses and infrastructure.

We discussed the future of energy development in Central Washington, the importance of the Lower Snake River Dams, and countering the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) influence for the good of our region.

On Tuesday, I met with representatives from the Port of Moses Lake to discuss improvements that can be made on our region's aviation sector.

We discussed concerns regarding Air Traffic Control changes and TSA badge program changes, as well as improvements to our fuel infrastructure.

Grant County is a hub for flight tests, military activities, and training for student pilots, and I remain committed to working with the Port of Moses Lake to ensure it remains a destination for aviation excellence.

I met with representatives from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) on Tuesday.

We spoke about the importance of improved transmission lines, as well as my legislation, the Reliability to Ratepayers Act.

This bill provides BPA with the flexibility to offer competitive compensation, address hiring and retention challenges, and tackle the backlog of critical projects that impact families and businesses across the Pacific Northwest. 

On Wednesday, I met with the members of the National Association of Wheat Growers and North American Millers' Association to discuss food security.

In Central Washington, our farmers produce some of the highest quality wheat in the nation, and we take our role as an "international supermarket" seriously.

We spoke about how critical wheat is as a nutritious component of international food aid, and I look forward to our continued conversations on the issue.

I also met with the Washington Association for Community Health on Wednesday.

We discussed the importance of expanding telehealth access, supporting our primary care workforce, and resources available for health center programs.

In rural communities like Central Washington, lack of accessible healthcare is a major issue, and it is a priority of mine to expand our options so residents are not forced to drive hours to receive the care they deserve.

Today, I met with SILA Nanotechnologies to discuss our energy generation future and receive updates on their lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Moses Lake.

For far too long, the United States has relied on foreign adversaries, like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for our battery manufacturing needs. SILA's new technology will not only allow us to decouple from unfriendly nations—it will also bring back domestic manufacturing of a key component of cellphones, laptops, appliances, and more.

This week as Chairman of the Western Caucus, I joined Senate Western Caucus Chair Cynthia Lummis in sending a letter to Bureau of Land Management's Director Tracey Stone-Manning calling on her to cease work on the agency's Greater Sage-Grouse Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment and Final Environmental Impact Statement.

BLM’s sage-grouse proposal implements an unworkable one-size-fits-all approach to population management that will fail landowners across the west.

This is clearly a last-ditch effort by a lame duck administration to inflict further harm on the American West, and I look forward to supporting the repeal of this regulation in the new Congress.