{"id":2147281,"date":"2024-01-12T08:21:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T13:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-senate-bills-target-washington-agos-use-of-lawsuit-settlement-money\/"},"modified":"2024-01-12T08:23:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T13:23:41","slug":"two-senate-bills-target-washington-agos-use-of-lawsuit-settlement-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-senate-bills-target-washington-agos-use-of-lawsuit-settlement-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Two bills aim to limit Washington AGO&#8217;s use of lawsuit settlement funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftwo-senate-bills-target-washington-agos-use-of-lawsuit-settlement-money%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2147281&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Washington State Legislature Takes Aim at Attorney General&#8217;s Use of Lawsuit \u2062Settlement Money<\/h2>\n<p>Two bills \u2063have been filed\u200b in the Washington State Legislature to\u2064 address concerns\u2063 over Attorney General Bob Ferguson&#8217;s distribution of \u2062lawsuit settlement money. Last month, Ferguson sent out $40 million worth of checks to state \u200cresidents, \u2063but many of them were sent to the wrong people or those who are \u200cnot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liheap-payment-get-up-to-600-to-help-pay-for-utility-costs\/\" title=\"LIHEAP payment: Get up to 0 to help pay for utility costs\">considered low-income<\/a>. Critics argue that this \u2064use of public \u200cmoney is inappropriate,\u2064 especially as Ferguson campaigns to become the state&#8217;s next governor.<\/p>\n<h3>Preventing Future Issues<\/h3>\n<p>One of the bills, Senate Bill 6176, aims to prevent\u2063 similar situations from occurring in the\u2062 future.\u200c Sponsored by Sen.\u200c Keith Wagoner, the bill would prohibit elected officials from including\u200c their names on settlement checks or letters sent to residents. While the State Auditor&#8217;s Office found no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hollywood-foreign-press-association-accused-of-ethical-violations-ahead-of-golden-globes\/\" title=\"Hollywood Foreign Press Association Accused Of Ethical Violations Ahead Of Golden Globes\">ethical violations<\/a>, Wagoner believes that the inclusion of Ferguson&#8217;s name on the checks raises ethical questions and causes confusion among recipients.<\/p>\n<h3>Ensuring Proper\u2063 Appropriation<\/h3>\n<p>Another bill, Senate \u200cBill \u20646078, introduced by Sen. Mark Mullet, seeks\u200d to restrict the use of settlement money by the Attorney General&#8217;s Office. \u200bThe bill states that settlement funds can \u200donly be used with a proper appropriation by law. Mullet argues that while it is important for the Attorney General to pursue price gougers, the distribution of settlement money should be subject to oversight and not left to the \u200cdiscretion of a state agency.<\/p>\n<p>Both bills have been \u2064referred to the State Government &#038; Elections Committee for\u2063 further consideration.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> What concerns have \u2063been raised about Attorney General Bob Ferguson&#8217;s use \u2063of lawsuit settlement money in Washington State?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  The Washington State Legislature \u2062is taking action against Attorney \u2062General Bob Ferguson&#8217;s\u2063 use of lawsuit settlement money. Two bills have been filed in response to concerns over Ferguson&#8217;s distribution of funds, particularly\u200c regarding the recent\u200c incident where $40 million worth of \u2063checks \u2062were sent to the \u200dwrong recipients.<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue that the Attorney General&#8217;s\u2064 use of public funds in this manner is inappropriate, especially given his current \u2063campaign to become the state&#8217;s next governor. In response to these \u2063concerns, \u200cthe Washington State Legislature has introduced two bills \u2062aimed at addressing these issues.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Bill 6176, sponsored by Sen.\u2063 Keith Wagoner, aims to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/acting-capitol-police-chief-says-protocols-were-not-followed-on-jan-6\/\" title=\"Acting Capitol Police Chief says protocols were not followed on Jan. 6\">prevent similar situations<\/a> from happening in the future. The bill proposes prohibiting elected officials, including Ferguson, from including their names on settlement checks or letters sent to residents. While \u2063the \u200dState Auditor&#8217;s Office \u200cfound no ethical violations, Wagoner believes that the inclusion\u2063 of Ferguson&#8217;s name on the checks raises ethical questions and causes confusion among \u2062recipients.<\/p>\n<p>The second\u2063 bill, Senate Bill 6078, introduced by Sen. Mark Mullet, seeks to restrict the use of settlement money by the Attorney General&#8217;s Office. According to \u2063this\u2062 bill, settlement funds can\u2064 only be used with proper appropriation by law.\u200b Mullet argues that while it is important for the Attorney General to pursue price gougers\u2063 and other wrongdoers, the\u200d distribution of \u2062settlement\u2062 money should be subject to oversight and not left solely to the discretion\u2063 of a state agency.<\/p>\n<p>Both bills have been\u200b referred to the State Government &#038; Elections Committee for further consideration. It remains to be seen whether these bills will ultimately pass and become law, but their introduction indicates a growing concern \u200bamong state legislators regarding the Attorney General&#8217;s use of settlement funds. As \u200bthe debate continues, it will be important to strike a balance \u2063between enforcing justice and ensuring transparent and appropriate use \u2064of public funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two bills in Washington State Legislature target Attorney General Bob Ferguson&#8217;s distribution of lawsuit settlement funds. Recently, he sent out checks worth $40 million to state residents, ranging from $50 to $120. The bills aim to address this practice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2147282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2147281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2147281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2147282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2147281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2147281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2147281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}