Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) secured $2,000,000 as part of the INVEST in America Act for the Tukwila International Boulevard Bus Rapid Transit Station Project.

“Sound Transit’s Stride bus rapid transit system will improve the speed, frequency and reliability of service and enable riders to move easily to and from Link light rail at locations including Tukwila International Boulevard Station,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and City of University Place Councilmember Kent Keel. “This important transit hub serves diverse communities, and the federal funding Congressman Smith is seeking will help us provide our riders with fast and seamless connections.” 

Project funding will be used for the construction of a new freeway Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) station that connects to the existing Tukwila International Boulevard light rail station via a new pedestrian bridge. This will provide an easy transfer for BRT riders looking to use light rail travel to Downtown Seattle, Lynnwood, and Federal Way.

The new BRT station is part of Sound Transit’s I-405 BRT project, called “Stride,” that will serve King and Snohomish counties. Sound Transit is currently implementing the most ambitious transit expansion in the nation: building clean energy mobility options for the future, delivering transit services for essential workers, and providing thousands of family-wage jobs.

Fast, frequent I-405 BRT service will increase access to jobs and other services and can reduce the burden of vehicle ownership. The TIB BRT Station can help improve health conditions for residents in surrounding communities by reducing air pollutant emissions, including diesel, through the reduced vehicle trips.

Click here for more information about member-designated transportation and infrastructure projects.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) secured $673,000 in the 2022 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill for World Relief Seattle’s Entrepreneurship Incubation Hub: Teaching & Commercial Kitchen located in Kent, Washington.

“World Relief Seattle has been welcoming our newest neighbors from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, for the past 40 years,” said Chitra Hanstad, World Relief Seattle Executive Director. “We have long wondered how we can support our communities beyond the first few months of the resettlement period. In conversations with our community and the help of Adam Smith's office, we hope to open a commercial/teaching kitchen. We will pair this with an Immigrant Entrepreneurship Academy which will give our community economic freedom and bolster the State's economy with new jobs!"

This funding will help World Relief Seattle develop a teaching and commercial kitchen that will be a 1,215 sq. ft. multi-impact community space serving Washington’s King County refugee and immigrant community. This space will be used as an entrepreneurship and small business incubation hub to launch and promote local businesses, particularly food-based businesses, and train refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs through an Entrepreneurship Academy hosted in the space.

The project will promote entrepreneurship and successful small business ownership within historically underserved communities; advance community based economic empowerment through promoting food related businesses and income-generating initiatives; and simultaneously increase food security and sovereignty for refugee and immigrant communities.

In April, Congressman Smith submitted World Relief Seattle’s project as one of his ten Community Project Funding requests to the House Appropriations Committee. The rest of the Community Project Funding requests will be announced in July.

Click here for more information about this project and here for information about other Community Project Funding requests submitted by Congressman Smith.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, today issued the following statement after Representatives Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio) introduced the Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act. 

“After trying, and failing, to address sexual assault in the military for years, the time has come to take the prosecution of sexual assault crimes out of the chain of command. There is broad support for this idea in Congress, the Department of Defense, and the Biden-Harris administration, and momentum continues to build. This bipartisan and bicameral consensus means the question before us is not whether to update the UCMJ, but how to update the UCMJ.

“Two solutions have been proposed: removing all felony-like crimes from the chain of command, or removing all crimes relating to sexual assault from the chain of command. There will be much debate about this differentiation, and I welcome that debate so that we can identify the best possible policy solution for our service members, but the bottom line remains the same: Significant action is required and the time to act is now.

“As Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, I intend to give this issue the attention it deserves – that means marking up pertinent legislation like the Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act. This issue is far too important to risk failure, which is why I will aggressively pursue every legislative option available.”

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SEATTLE, WA – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) released the following statement in honor of Juneteenth after speaking at the Northwest African American Museum’s (NAAM) Juneteenth Jamboree.

“On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger led Union soldiers led into Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and that the people held in slavery there were free – but it was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation legally abolishing slavery in the United States.

“156 years later, Congress has recognized the long-standing tradition among Black Americans to memorialize the end of slavery by establishing Juneteenth National Independence Day as a federal holiday. This day marks one of the most important moments in our country's history. It was the starting point on a path to equal justice under the law and equitable opportunity for all in America, that continues even today.

“This Juneteenth arrives at a time when the national conversation on police brutality, criminal justice, health care and social services access, infrastructure investment, and good governance acknowledges the reality of systemic racism, which disproportionately places the heaviest burdens and the harshest penalties on Black people. Change is long overdue. Commemoration alone is not enough to rid the country of the existing legacies of slavery especially in light of unprecedented attacks on the right to vote and recognition of our country’s history of slavery in state legislatures across the country.

“I am proud and grateful to join in celebrating Juneteenth with my friend LaNesha DeBardelaben, the Northwest African American Museum, Rec'N The Streets, and many others on a day that symbolizes the beginning of freedom for so many Black Americans. I recommit to the work still ahead of us – I remain committed to doing everything in my power to fight hate and racism and I will not stop until every American has equal opportunities to succeed."

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, today issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed H.R. 256, to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

“Today the House confirmed, in a bipartisan way, that the repeal of an authorization for use of military force that is no longer applicable does not impede our national security. Circumstances on the ground in Iraq have changed dramatically since passage of the 2002 AUMF. Significantly, we now count the democratic Iraqi government our partner in our counterterrorism mission – as such, it is time to repeal this authority.

“While today’s vote moves us one step closer to a full repeal of this outdated AUMF, there is more work to be done. I have said before that repeal of the 2002 AUMF is not enough. I continue to be encouraged by the Biden-Harris Administration’s willingness to address outdated authorities. I look forward to working with the Administration and with my colleagues in Congress in reviewing existing authorities.”

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