By Senators Padden, Baumgartner, Short, Frockt, Schoesler, Billig, Braun, Ericksen, and Wagoner

WHEREAS, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) is a one hundred percent employee-owned producer of products and services that protect electric power systems around the world, and has been headquartered in Pullman since 1984; and

WHEREAS, SEL's worldwide workforce recently surpassed five thousand two hundred employees, and the company has expanded its Pullman campus, which will add eight hundred fifty jobs, and expanded into a twenty-eight thousand square-foot facility in Spokane Valley that has the capacity to accommodate one hundred twenty employees; and

WHEREAS, SEL has established a positive reputation as an employer, being an early adopter of on-site, no copay employee health clinics, and offering a childcare center, Little Edison's School, which is celebrating its third anniversary, and providing career growth through apprenticeships and continuing education support; and

WHEREAS, The combination of SEL's expertise and reputation have earned the company extensive recognition that includes numerous best-employer awards and more recently the United States Energy Association award for 2016 Project of the Year, and in 2017 the Employer of the Year Award from the Association of Washington Business, in honor of the innovation, creativity and community spirit SEL embodies; and

WHEREAS, SEL has also benefited the lives of people well beyond Washington's borders, through such actions as donating to disaster-relief efforts in the United States and around the world, including contributions to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in 2017, a generous donation to the Red Cross, and offering a disaster discount for products necessary to restore power systems after natural disasters; and

WHEREAS, SEL along with their President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer, III and his wife Beatriz are known for their philanthropy, including a contribution to Washington State University towards the Endowed Chair in Power Apparatus and Systems in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, and significant support for infrastructure improvements at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Edmund and Beatriz Schweitzer also have a long personal history of civic service and community support, as evidenced recently by their strong backing for construction of the new Trinity Catholic School in Spokane, the first school built in nearly fifty years by the Diocese of Spokane; and as recognized with the Outstanding Philanthropists Award from the United Way of Spokane County;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State Senate honor and recognize the numerous and admirable achievements of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, as a leading employer in the state of Washington and a worldwide leader in engineering and technology that consistently exemplifies the values of integrity, creativity, and community service; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Washington State Senate honor and recognize the numerous and admirable achievements of Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer, III and Beatriz Schweitzer for their strong sense of community and desire to better the lives of SEL employees and their families and countless other people and families in Whitman and Spokane counties and the nation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to Edmund and Beatriz Schweitzer and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories.