Puyallup High School student serves as House page, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Chambers

Sriram Iyer, a 16-year-old student at Puyallup High School, served as a page this week in the Washington State House of Representatives. He was sponsored by Rep. Kelly Chambers, R-Puyallup.

Since 1891, young people have come to Olympia from all corners of the state to help during the busy legislative sessions as pages. Under the program, students from the ages of 14 through 16 may be sponsored by their legislator to work and study for one week in the state Legislature.

Page duties vary from ceremonial tasks, such as the presentation of the flags, or they may assist by handing out amendments, bills, notes and memos on the floors of the House or Senate. In addition, for two hours each day, pages are schooled about how legislation is crafted. At the end of the week, they hold mock legislative hearings on the bills they've written. Pages work directly with elected lawmakers and witness bills being proposed, debated and passed.

“It was fun to see how excited Sriram was to serve as a page this week. I couldn't help but to give him a little bit of a hard time and asked if he was down here on his own accord or someone was putting him up to it,” said Chambers. “He did say that he is here on his own and really excited to do it. I could tell because he was beaming.”

In his spare time, Sriram enjoys hiking, camping, cooking, wrestling and jiu-jitsu martial arts. He is also a member of the Boy Scouts of America.

Sriram is the son of Mahalakshmi Hariharan and Ramdas Vaidyanathan, both of Puyallup.

The 2023 legislative session is scheduled through April 23.

For more information about the House Page Program, go to: leg.wa.gov/House/Pages/HousePageProgram.aspx

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Washington State House Republican Communications
houserepublicans.wa.gov