washington business
In Their Words
Jaime Herrera Beutler served as the U . S . representative for Washington ’ s 3rd congressional district from 2011 until this January , following a close primary election loss in August . She previously served three years in the state Legislature and worked as a staff member for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers . Washington Business Executive Editor Jason Hagey spoke with her late last year as she was preparing to wrap up her time in Congress .
Before you were elected to the U . S . House of Representatives , you served three years in the state Legislature . How did that experience help prepare you for Congress ?
I got appointed and then the next day was my birthday . I want to say I was 29 years old . The day I got sworn in , we were in a special session . I stepped out onto the house floor and took my first vote right away . And honestly , what I think prepared me for that was having worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill . I understood policy and I understood that you just could dive right in .
I was elected one of the assistant floor leaders for the minority . At the time , I was the youngest member of leadership . I was young , but I think I heard the comments that , you get put in this position it ’ s not about you , it ’ s about the people you ’ re representing . No question is a bad question . If you see something that ’ s wrong that needs to be fixed , you do it .
Fast-forward to Congress . What were your first impressions after you arrived ? How did you learn to navigate in that environment , which is very different than Olympia ?
Having worked by then as a staffer and then working for Cathy McMorris Rodgers , I watched her feel things out . You ’ re figuring out where the levers are and what to do and how to respond and how to advance your constituents ’ interests . And so when I got there , I actually felt really ready … At the time the Great Recession was happening and people in my area had really , really high unemployment and there was palpable fear . When I got there , I remember thinking , we ’ re not going to be able to fix everything . It was a divided government . But at the same time , I knew enough to know that the job is what you make of it . And if you really want to be effective you don ’ t look back , you just start . If you couple that with an attitude that you ’ re going to learn from colleagues and build relationships and take a humble approach you can get a lot done quickly .
What are you most proud of accomplishing ?
There are so many things . We did a good job for this district . Everybody assumes that this job is all legislative — passing bills , making speeches — and that ’ s a big part of it . But the thing that impacts people ’ s lives daily is whether you get stuff done . Whether it is some little lady who lives in a rural area and Social Security just won ’ t respond to her and she ’ s owed her husband ’ s disability benefits , whether or not you take her just as seriously as the business owner who lives in Vancouver and who ’ s starting a new restaurant and he needs your help to have conversations with whoever the permitting person is .
jaime herrera beutler
If you take them both as just as serious , the amount of things you can get done for people is amazing . We ’ ve returned over $ 10 million to people here in southwest Washington . That ’ s veterans who ’ ve been owed benefits . Those are spouses who haven ’ t gotten through to Social Security . That ’ s someone who the IRS took taxes from when they shouldn ’ t have and they couldn ’ t get it back . I ’ m very , very proud to say over $ 10 million worth of money that was really the citizens ’ got returned to them . And I love that .
On the legislative side , we ’ ve had some pretty amazing pieces of legislation that were both specific nationally or to the Pacific Northwest . The Sea Lion Bill is the one I think I ’ ll forever be known for . Nobody in the region supported us because there was controversy to it . But by the time we were done , every member of Oregon in Washington voted in support of it . And that ’ s from very conservative to very liberal members .
And certainly my work on healthcare — both children ’ s health and women ’ s health . I think being a mom with three little kids has really helped inform my work in these areas , especially one of them being medically complex . One of the ones that I think is really significant is the Preventing Maternal Death Act . And there ’ s nothing like that . Most people would be shocked to know that we had the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world , which means you can go in to give birth and you may not come
18 association of washington business