Senator Holmquist earns award

OLYMPIA, Wash. In May, the state’s largest small-business association gave its coveted Guardian of Small Business award to 69 legislators. Today, it singled out Sen. Janéa Holmquist as one of only two lawmakers to receive its Outstanding Legislator honor for the 63rd Washington State Legislature.

Holmquist is the first lawmaker in at least a decade to be named National Federation of Independent Business’s Outstanding Legislator a second time.

“While we are always eager to recognize those who stand with small business on tough votes, we do not bestow our Outstanding Legislator award lightly,” said Patrick Connor, Washington state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, America’s Voice of Small Business. “For one lawmaker to achieve this honor twice is unprecedented, but no one has done more to promote and defend small business in the state Legislature than Sen. Janéa Holmquist. She has earned this distinction for her unwavering support of Main Street and her leadership on numerous bills and amendments these past two years.”

Of particular note, Sen. Holmquist directed the planning, drafting, testimony-scheduling and vote-getting on the most recent workers’ compensation reform package, as well as bills on teen-training wages, and small-business business and occupation tax-fairness amendments to last November’s special session Boeing bills.

“While others equivocate and try to cut deals, Sen. Holmquist is not afraid to say ‘no’ to bad legislation that would harm small business and stifle free enterprise,” Connor added. “Main Street can always count on Janéa to stand with us, and advance real solutions that would free entrepreneurs to create more jobs and grow our economy.”

Connor also cited Holmquist’s family farm, small-business roots as the foundation of her near perfect, 99 percent career National Federation of Independent Business voting record while serving in the state Legislature.

The criterion used for selecting Holmquist and state Rep. J.T. Wilcox as the two Outstanding Legislators of the 63rd Legislature include achieving Guardian of Small Business status; being the principal player and/or sponsor of an National Federation of Independent Business priority bill; taking a leadership role in getting a bill out of committee or defeating a bill in committee; and for lining up votes for or against a bill on the chamber floor.

Holmquist represents all or parts of Grant, Kittitas, Lincoln, and Yakima counties. The National Federation of Independent Business has 340,000 small-business members nationwide, including 8,250 in Washington state.

For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the voice of small business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. National Federation of Independent Business annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America's economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. The National Federation of Independent Business’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.