U.S. Rep. Emily Randall visits Harbor
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 7, 2026
U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (D-6th District) spent her Good Friday visiting Grays Harbor County, most notably Harbor Regional Health (HRH) in Aberdeen and the city of Hoquiam.
After stopping by the Ocean Shores Food Bank, Randall held a town hall at the Ocean Shores Convention Center with approximately 100 people in attendance.
Harbor Regional Health
Randall’s first stop was Harbor Regional Health in Aberdeen. She was instrumental in helping secure $1 million to replace the hospital’s outdated records system with a modern, cloud-based electronic medical records platform. This new system, MEDITECH Expanse, promises to improve patient safety and coordination between inpatient and outpatient care, as well as between partner hospitals and VA systems.
Chris Majors, director of marketing and public relations for Harbor Regional Health presented Randall with a “Harbor Healthcare Hero” award for her efforts to bring MEDITECH Expanse to HRH.
“Delightful and surprising honor. I’m just proud to be on the team. You all are serving the community so incredibly in really difficult circumstances, both from a federal funding perspective, but also from the challenges that the community is facing,” Randall said as she accepted the award. “You’re making it work and you’re trying to keep our communities as healthy as possible and anything that we can do to support that work, to make sure that folks have access to healthcare right here, not hours away, is good work for us to be doing.”
Randall toured select areas of the hospital and spoke with nurses and clinicians and visited The Healing Gallery, which features artwork created by local artists. She also took part in a roundtable discussion covering topics such as medical funding, coastal resiliency and recent positive news about the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program.
Hospital Commissioners Christopher Thomas, John Shaw and David Quigg, U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Xander Bullock, Chief Nursing Officer Shannon Johnson and Lisha Schnoor, MSN RNC-OB, sat in on the discussion.
Randall, along with a coalition of state attorneys general led by Washington’s Nick Brown, has spent more than a year trying to get $84 million in BRIC grant funds for the Aberdeen and Hoquiam levee projects unfrozen. It was announced last month that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would restart the program.
Early last year, the city of Ocean Shores constructed a cobble berm along the north shore of Oyhut Bay. Randall recently helped secure close to $1.2 million to help protect the city’s stormwater drainage system against threats of erosion. The original system was installed nearly 70 years ago. Sewer lines could be affected if saltwater were to overtop the berm and pose threats to the pump station and one of the freshwater tanks. The proposed project will build a bigger, stronger and more resilient berm.
Bullock, a consultant with the Westport Golf Links project and coastal resilience expert, explained the financial disparity in federal spending to protect important investments in key coastal areas.
“Our coastline in Washington is the most economically depressed and environmentally difficult coasts in America. We gave a lot of the coast to the tribes and the federal government stopped investing in this coastline,” Bullock said. “This is the least federally supported coast in America. The result is a retreating coastline. What you really want to do is encourage public-private partnerships.”
On the topic of health care, Randall said, “What am I hearing? A lot of understanding from my caucus is that depending on what happens in November, we have to act really quickly to reverse some of the dangerous policies that passed in HR 1. Not a lot of discussion from the majority caucus on taking action on health care and a lack of action from the Senate Republicans to move the ACA tax credit policy that we passed off the House floor. I hear a lot from health care advocates and facilities … we are at greater and greater risk.”
Levee Street in Hoquiam
After the hospital visit, Randall visited Levee Street in Hoquiam and met with Hoquiam Mayor Ben Winkelman, Aberdeen Mayor Douglas Orr, Aberdeen City Council President Sydney Swor, Aberdeen City Administrator Ruth Clemens, Aberdeen City Engineer Nick Bird and the owner of Spivey Realty Group, Kevin Spivey.
The group discussed the ramifications and restrictions involved with FEMA flood zone designations and the constraints on economic development, as well as the path forward for the projects.
“When it goes out to bid, and in Hoquiam we are doing that very shortly in the next couple of weeks, we’ll put out to bid the west extension of the levee project, and [along Levee Street] will be the first place getting to see some of that work,” Winkelman said. “The endless hours and many years of attention are finally for us and the community starting to show fruition. … What are we going to do when they’re certified and we’re done? There’s gotta be a parade. So many of our constituents and your constituents will be rewarded for generations by completing the levee.”
“We’re going to be advancing a portion of the construction this year as well, we’re going to be breaking ground in both Aberdeen and Hoquiam this summer, both projects are going to be breaking ground,” Bird said.
“For people who are buying, flood insurance for the average home is $100 to $150 a month, $1,200 to $2,000 a year for an average home in the 100-year flood zone. If you back that down to $150 a month, that’s about $25,000 in mortgage affordability, and the debt-to-income ratio is affected,” Spivey said. “As property owners, you’re going to save that $150 a month, so that’s equity, that’s affordability, you have more for gas or groceries. We invest or develop real estate, we steer clear of the flood zone. … It’s going to be very fortunate for me and a lot of people we work with when you no longer have to do a special flood zone SFHA [Special Flood Hazard Area]. It will spur new construction, it will spur saving old buildings, it will help people who own homes in the flood zone, and it will help the buyers who need that jump start the most.”
Clemens said the completion of the levee projects will help jumpstart economic development in the region.
“Downtown [Aberdeen] is located in the flood zone. We have a plan to revitalize downtown but it’s hard to implement that plan because of the cost associated with it. Right now a lot of our economic development strategies are focused around the south side because they already have a levee,” Clemens said. “It would be nice to be able to refocus downtown, downtown has taken quite the hit. It has resulted in a lot of vacant buildings, a lot of dilapidated vacant buildings because property owners don’t want to invest in the buildings, it’s just too much.”
Ocean Shores Town Hall
Randall made a stop at the Ocean Shores Food Bank and proceeded to host a town hall at the Ocean Shores Convention Center.
After opening remarks from Ocean Shores Mayor Frank Elduen and Quinault Indian Nation Tribal Councilor John Bryson, Jr., Randall spoke to approximately 100 people and answered questions about several topics including coastal resilience, the current Congress in Washington, D.C., holding the current administration accountable, the proposed fire break along the beach, threats to funding for rural hospitals and Medicaid and Medicare, cuts to the forest service and NOAA, and more.
Before taking questions, Randall said, “Every time I get to be out in our community, in our Washington, especially out on the peninsula, it’s good for my soul. It helps me find some strength for when I get back on the plane and go to D.C. where things are a little more contentious. It’s really inspiring to me to see the work that all of you, our neighbors, do to take care of each other.”
After the Q&A session, Randall concluded: “I couldn’t be prouder to work alongside all of you to make sure we have representation, that we are able to fight for our particular and unique needs here on the coast, to join alongside our neighbors and fellow Americans across the country to ensure that we are protecting this incredible experiment of democracy long into the future.”
The entire town hall can be viewed on North Beach TV’s YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqxNcfaw0UU
