On the night of Wednesday, February 25, 2026, while the House Appropriations Committee’s budget work was still under way, House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon was impaired. It was captured on TVW, the state’s public-affairs network, and reported by the West Seattle Blog the next day. Nothing on this page is characterization — it is his statement, his Speaker’s statement, and the public record.
“I deeply regret and apologize for the fact that I consumed alcohol before the work of the Appropriations Committee was completed on Wednesday, and the result was obvious. This was a serious mistake for many reasons. Being impaired in that situation was harmful to my work and to my co-workers. This was a painful and embarrassing lesson, one I won’t forget, and I will not put myself and others in this situation again in the future. Again, I apologize.”
“We expect professionalism in the workplace, and while Rep. Fitzgibbon did not meet that standard Wednesday night, he has acknowledged that behavior is unacceptable and has apologized.”
“I can pick myself up and learn my lessons from the mistakes I’ve made.”
This is not about one bad night, and it is not about anyone’s private life. It is about stewardship. In the same session that the majority wrote a 9.9% income tax and moved to rewrite the state’s redistricting rules, its floor leader admitted he was impaired while the budget committee was still doing the public’s business. Washington’s laws deserve a legislature that is fully present when it writes them.
Read the coverage and watch the record for yourself: the West Seattle Blog report, the White Center Blog report, and the committee video archived at TVW.org.
Every source on this site →