Northwest Asian Weekly | Rep. Marilyn Strickland talks housing, immigration challenges, and solutions at Rotary Club meeting
By: Carolyn Bick
Even though she disagrees with many aspects of the current federal administration, Washington Representative Marilyn Strickland told members of the Rotary Club of Seattle at the club’s March 19 meeting that “it is incredibly important for those of us who serve in Congress to actually spend time here at home with people outside of our political bubble.”
“As we look at what is happening right now in the country, it is incredibly important for us to do a couple of things,” Strickland said. “To find common ground where it still exists, but also to make sure that we do not lose sight of the people who sent us to Congress and who we have to serve.”
Strickland told Rotary Club members that constituents have come to her with a variety of questions, all hinged on the central theme of, “Why won’t the Democrats do anything?”
While Strickland didn’t unwind the issues surrounding such things, except to say that the Democrats, as the minority party, can’t muster enough support to impeach President Donald Trump, she did discuss some challenges the United States is currently facing, and took a couple questions from attendees.
Before beginning, Strickland also noted that some in the room may have voted for Trump, or not voted at all.
“I’m not here to judge you and criticize you for the choice that you made in 2024. You chose what you did based on what you thought was best for this country and your own interests. We respect that,” Strickland said. “But as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I have a responsibility to let you know how some of these actions may hurt you. And as we look at some of the challenges we’re facing right now, we know the government is very, very divided. And at the same time, there are places when we are actually working together.”
A daughter of a veteran, Strickland sits on the House Armed Services Committee. In an effort to highlight bipartisan cooperation, she told attendees about a bill she and Republican Congressman Blake Moore, from Utah, are co-sponsoring.
Strickland said that part of the reason housing costs in Washington state are so high is because there is a housing shortage, and that many people who are on active duty find it nearly impossible to live near where they are posted. In an effort to combat that, she and Moore are co-sponsoring a bill that incentivizes developers in their respective states to build within a 15-mile radius of military bases.
For instance, she said, around Joint Base Lewis McChord, private developer Liberty Housing is building 200 housing units for military families.
Strickland answered a number of questions, both from audience members and from host and Rotary President Jon Bridge.
In response to a question about how to revitalize Seattle’s struggling downtown, Strickland said that one of the issues facing downtown is that many people still work from home, and that has an impact on business owners in the downtown core.
“We know that there is an economic ecosystem. When people come to work, they are going out for lunch,” Strickland said. “They may be staying for happy hour. They may be buying something at the store. They may be doing their dry cleaning.”
“So,” she continued, “there is definitely an economic ecosystem that depends on people coming to work, walking around on a beautiful day, and just being part of a downtown core.”
Strickland, as former mayor of Tacoma, also “put on [her] mayor hat” and linked Seattle’s homelessness issue to the downtown core’s struggle. She said that the city’s homelessness problem stems in part from West Coast cities’ fear “to be accused of being mean.”
“It is far more cruel to let people languish on the streets and use drugs and live in their own filth than it is to actually try to find a way to get them help, to get them housed, and sometimes, sadly, involuntarily,” Strickland said. “And this is not like hooray for cruelty. It’s hooray for kindness and actually giving people the help that they need.”
She also said that there is a major federal element at play in the homelessness crisis: the lack of federal funding for mental and behavioral health services.
“We said the state can handle it, the county can handle it, you all handle it here locally. State and local governments [do] not have the resources on the scale needed to address this in a meaningful way,” Strickland said. “So, we nibble around the edges, we launch a program, and we don’t really make meaningful progress.”
Strickland said that, if it were up to her, she personally would look to “make massive investments in mental and behavioral health” at the federal level, and support a bill that had been part of former President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Plan, called the Build Back Better Act—“Horrible name, but good intentions,” Strickland joked.
The social and climate legislation—which passed the House, but ultimately failed in the Senate in late 2021, thanks to Sen. Joe Manchin—would have put $150 billion into affordable housing investments to begin to address unmet housing needs in the U.S.
But not all of Strickland’s time in the role of representative has been difficult. She said that one of her proudest moments came during her swearing-in on Jan. 3, 2021. Her mother was still alive at the time, she said, but could not travel to see Strickland sworn in due to COVID and her health.
“I wanted to make sure she was able to see her daughter on the house floor during this mask swearing in,” Strickland recalled. “So I wore a traditional Korean dress called hanbok. It’s a very beautiful, elegant gown that is for special occasions, and I wore it. I was the first person in the history of Congress to ever wear that on the house floor and it went viral.”
“I had no idea that it was going to take a trip around the world,” she continued, detailing the many international news outlets that covered her outfit. “I just had no idea that that one small gesture to show respect for my mother and to show cultural pride as being one of the first Korean American women was going to do that.”
Strickland also said that, in an effort to bridge the divide, she and many of her colleagues see in government and throughout the country, she and other electeds would hold a Town Hall on March 20 in Yelm, Washington. Despite winning the overall election, Strickland lost against her opponent in Yelm.
“I’m doing that very intentionally because I need to show up where people don’t expect to see me,” she said.
She also addressed a question from an audience member that regarded how to balance immigration policy and enforcement with ensuring employers have enough employees. That’s tricky, she said, because almost every discussion about immigration immediately focuses or eventually comes to U.S.-Mexico border enforcement.
Moreover, there are people from around the world who are living and working in the United States as undocumented immigrants, and the country’s economy depends on both documented and undocumented immigrant labor.
“This economy depends on immigrant talent, whether it’s technology, health care, agriculture—you name it. And if we don’t have a smart way to get people to citizenship, or at least let them feel safe here, they’re not going to show up for work,” Strickland pointed out. “Let’s be smart about it and ask ourselves: If this economy is going to hum the way it should, if farmers are going to have the talent that they need, we have to find a way to get people a path to citizenship or some way where they can come to work and not be afraid.”