RIGHT TO REPAIR NEEDS YOU AGAIN!

The Right to Repair bill did not get out of our State House of Representatives last session. It would give us the right to have our computers and electronics repaired by independent service people or repair them ourselves. It speaks directly to our environmental stewardship and simplicity testimonies.  Thank you all for doing your part and showing up to vote yes at the public hearings.

Today, together with our lobbyist, members from the ESWG met with the amazing Representative Gregerson who was the sponsor of the bill to discuss what happened. The public support was immense and the bill was heading toward a vote. The public schools lobbied hard for this bill because it would make it easier for them and their students to get their computers repaired and keep costs down. Then national lobbyists for Amazon, Google and the other big tech companies scared off the state reps in swing districts. They said that independent repair contractors could steal data from schools and personal computers or plant malware etc.  Microsoft stayed neutral both statewide and nationally.

So, please put the pressure on these companies  to support Right to Repair nationally. Then keep up with the issue statewide. We’ll send out specific actions soon. Please let me know if you would like to be involved in this movement.

Patricia Boiko, clerk Environmental Stewardship Working Group