On Wednesday April 23, the republicans on the house appropriations committee walked out of their committee meeting after a bill that would close the Rainier school and the Yakima Valley School was voted onto the chamber floor. Yakima Representative Chris Corry, who was one of the republicans who was one of the people who walked out after the bill that would close the Yakima valley school and rainier school was voted to the house floor, spoke to a KIMA reporter on Friday. He said that the walkout was not planned, but it came after an hour of discussion and attempts by republicans to keep the schools open through amendments to the bill.

“We couldn’t be there anymore, it was such a callous, cold-hearted, reckless decision that we weren’t going to participate in the rest of that meeting, just as a way of showing our disdain for what a reckless decision had been made," Corry said. The bill is currently on the house floor, and it will need to be passed before Monday to get to the governor’s desk. In other state legislation news, republican Representative Jeremie Dufault out of Selah has been banned from the legislative floor for the remainder of the session after an outburst, where he broke decorum and yelled at a representative presiding over house during the lively debate surrounding the parents bill of rights.

He can still vote on bills, he just has to do so remotely.