Jessica Fortescue | WMBA Lobbyist
As an attorney and member of the Washington State Bar, Jessica Fortescue is the principal of JF Consulting Services which has offered public policy advocacy and governmental affairs consulting since 2003. Jessica provides services on a broad array of policy areas, including lending issues, complicated tax issues, affordable housing, K-12 education, higher education, health care, and environmental issues. Jessica is capable of providing a wide range of services for clients, including policy and legal analyses, advocacy, governmental affairs consulting, and fiscal analyses with an emphasis on tax issues.
Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Washington, and a Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law.
Summary of Activities (2025):
- Successfully advocated for a Governor veto of legislation (SB 5794 that would have removed the first mortgage interest deduction for community bank lenders.
- Successfully amended legislation relating to limitations of investor-owner properties (SB 5496) to ensure banks and lenders would not be excluded as investment entities.
- Active participant and negotiator in the Foreclosure Fairness Act working group, working to ensure the program continues to work effectively while not adding additional costs to lenders.
- Active in all proposals relating to consumer data privacy, including acknowledgment of the broad protections for data held by financial institutions subject to Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Successfully ensured comprehensive data privacy legislation did not pass with a problematic private right of action.
- Engaged in Artificial Intelligence (AI) discussions with the ongoing AI Task Force run by the Attorney General.
- Actively worked with agencies and legislators to ensure successful implementation of recently passed middle housing legislation (HB 1110) relating to appraisals.
- Actively worked with the Department of Financial Institutions to pass a bill allowing mortgage loan originators to work from home. Worked with the Department to implement broad interpretations moving forward.
- Actively negotiated with the Attorney General’s Office legislation relating to robocalls to ensure lender communications with direct customers were not unintentionally impacted.
- Successfully supported legislation to expand the multifamily tax exemption to incentivize urban development and affordable housing.
- Active stakeholder and negotiator in legislation that passed relating to condominium liability reform.
