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WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 02/05/2024

Feb 05, 2024

The Mood at the Capitol

Groundhog Day started early this year as the Senate floor was once again prevented from accomplishing even their procedural orders of business by the members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus. They are demanding Senate leadership fast track bills that would restrict the citizen initiative process in Missouri. The Senate leadership is, in this veteran lobbyist’s opinion, doing a good job of navigating the delays. While no one has much hope of major legislation getting to the Governor, there are two necessary items for the Missouri State Legislature to accomplish in order to actually govern the State. Specifically, they are required to pass the state budget and must reauthorize the Federal Reimbursement Act (FRA) legislation. As a reminder, the FRA accounts for about half of hospital budgets statewide and must be reauthorized every 3 years or Missouri hospitals lose out on the Federal money permanently. Even as the well orchestrated chaos prevents the passage of harmful proposals, it is blocking the two obligations of the legislature.

This week the House continued down the path of getting as much done as possible given delays in the Senate. The House passed out an open enrollment bill by bipartisan vote of 86 to 73. This bill would allow public school students to transfer from one district to another and send the State portion of the school district’s per-student funding to the new district. The language was changed in the House Committee to remove some protections for majority free and reduced lunch districts and districts with a high percentage of black and brown students. Prior to the removal of that language the bill was considered relatively non-controversial.

The Senate also has education issues teed up to potentially be debated sometime this week. However, in the Senate the bill language would authorize increased use of charter schools and private school tax credits. It is unclear what orders of business the Senate will be able to get to this week, but the top three issues on the former calendar are, in order: FRA Authorization, Charter Schools and ESA Expansion, and Initiative Petition Restrictions. All this adds up to a very contentious week expected in the Senate, and a calm march down a list of issues in the House.

DEI in Higher education

This coming Monday, Feb. 5th, the House Special Committee on Government Accountability will be hearing HB 1518 by Rep. Brad Hudson (the same Rep. behind the anti-Trans legislation from earlier this year). This bill prohibits a college or university from “discriminating” against religious student groups who deny leadership or even membership in some cases to whomever they want. What this means is that a religious or ideological student group would be allowed to discriminate against anyone who might not be in-line with their beliefs. An example of this was in Iowa where a student was elected to a leadership position in a religious student group but was removed because the student happened to be gay. The aim of this type of legislation is to allow for open discriminatory practices among student groups. We will be there to testify against the bill and we are encouraging everyone to submit testimony in opposition to this bill. Please coordinate with Shira or Robert if you’d like to testify in person.

criminal justice reform

We have scheduled a meeting with the DOC and a representative from the MO Public Defenders’ Office to talk about the issues with the Good Time Credit language. The House Corrections Committee held a hearing on the bill, but the language will still need to be worked out before the bill gets voted on in Committee. We also expect it will be combined into a comprehensive corrections bill with proposals like a cap on phone fees and a prohibition on shackling pregnant women.

voting rights issues

Voting Rights Restoration

The Senate will hear a bill to restore voting rights to individuals who have been released from incarceration on Monday. The House has already had its hearing. We believe most people are in favor of this change, but there are some who are resistant. The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition is leading the work on this issue along with Secure Democracy. We have a plan to work around the few Senators that may try to block its passage. Although, it’s worth noting that because of all the reasons discussed in the intro, the chances of passage this year are low.

IP Restrictions

The chaos of the Senate has been to our benefit as any changes to the Initiative Petition process in the Senate has been held up by discussion about defunding planned parenthood and trying to pass a clean FRA. The House, meanwhile continues to chug along and will be voting out some of their versions of IP Restrictions including concurrent congressional districts (HJR 72), concurrent state senatorial districts (HJR 86), the vetting by general assembly bill (including an increase to 55% threshold to passage - HJR 119), and increasing the amount of signatures required to put a initiative on the ballot (HJR 67). We will monitor this hearing for any amendments and will continue to oppose them as they make their way to the House floor.

upcoming hearings

No Hearings Scheduled at this Time

calls to action

Save the Dates! Come to the Capitol to Support Our Legislative Issues

February 6 - MO Education Equity Partnership Lobby Day - Oppose Efforts to Ban Black History Curriculum
March 6 - Day of Empathy - Support Criminal Justice Reform
https://www.mobilize.us/dream/event/598957/
March 12 - MO to Abolish the Death Penalty Lobby Day - Support Proposals to Reduce and Eliminate State Murder
Training - bit.ly/MADPTraining2024
Lobby day- bit.ly/MADPLobbyDay2024
Let Olivia Pener or Sandy Jiles know if there is a week between now and May 17th you are willing to be on call to come to the Capitol on short notice.

If you have any questions about any of the legislation mentioned here or the legislative program generally, please contact President Chapel or Olivia Pener.

Tracking List

https://govwatch.net/report/M6q8o0GrzR

*This list is continually updated and improved. If you have questions, please contact Sharon Geuea Jones at sharon@jonesadvocacy.com.

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