From staff reports:

District 30 State Sen. Tracey Eide (D) was elected co-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee for the 2013 Legislative session.

Eide has served on the transportation committee for more than 16 years and will be working with Republican co-chair Sen. Curtis King of Yakima.

“Transportation has historically been a bipartisan issue area,” said Eide in a news release. “As a small business owner I know first-hand the ways in which our economy and businesses depend on a first-class transportation system.”

Eide was first elected to the state Senate in 1998 and is the majority floor leader. During her tenure in Olympia, Eide has helped secure more than $100 million in state funds for the intersection of Interstate 5, State Route 161 and State Route 18 in Federal Way, also known as the “Triangle Project.”

In Feb. 2012, Eide joined King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer to propose an amendment to Sound Transit’s 2012 budget that put $24 million toward making light rail “shovel ready” in Federal Way. The amendment was approved later that month. The money will help fund the necessary studies, such as environmental impacts and engineering reviews, to prepare Federal Way for receiving federal or state grant money to build light rail.

Recently, Eide participated in public discussions regarding Federal Way’s legislative agenda in 2013. Click here to read more.