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WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 01/29/2024

Jan 29, 2024

The Mood at the Capitol

Drama continues in the Missouri Senate as the Senate leadership that was elected last January starts taking steps to punish the Senators that have been preventing the Senate from conducting regular business. The four Senators targeted were removed as committee chairs, which means their office budget was reduced and they were bumped down in the parking seniority list. Senator Eigel also reportedly had the furniture that is owned by the Senate removed from his office. Regardless of whether or not you want the Senate to be able to conduct regular business and pass legislation this is a reason for concern over the state of politics in Missouri. While the Senate drama has taken up a lot of the oxygen in the room, the House has been quietly going about their regular business in a new way. Speaker Dean Plocher has put several control mechanisms in place to prevent the House from working on anything other than what he deems to be caucus priorities. Committee chairs are limited to two bills from each committee without sign off from Speaker Plocher. Additionally, the number of bills referred is relatively low as Speaker Plocher picks and chooses which priorities he wants the House to work on.The difference in structure and leadership style between the two Chambers is by design, but is also exacerbated by the current political mood in the capitol. It will be interesting to see how long this level of animosity can continue. As recently observed by a long-time capitol denizen, “It takes a lot of energy to be this outraged. It’s hard to keep it up week after week.”

discrimination and cultural competency in education

This week we expect the House and possibly even the Senate to start taking up education legislation. The only thing on the House calendar is the public school open enrollment bill. The bill started as non-controversial, but changes in committee have caused concern over the intentional re-segregation of schools. The Senate has two bills on its calendar - the FRA Authorization and a bill that expands private school tax credits and charter school authorizations. The FRA Authorization is the only bill, other than the budget, that must be passed this year. Without the FRA Authorization, hospitals will lose out on Federal money that makes up approximately 50% of their operating budgets. The debate over the language is expected to be long and unpleasant. The Senate bill is focused on diverting public school dollars into the pockets of parents who send their children to private schools and to charter school companies. The NAACP is currently opposed to all of the bills that deal with “school choice” or “parents’ bill of rights.” If you have interest in testifying against any of these bills, please reach out to Sharon Geuea Jones at sharon@jonesadvocacy.com.

voting rights issues

Tuesday is the MO Voter Protection Coalition lobby day. Several NAACP members are planning to attend. The focus of the lobby day is to oppose initiative petition restrictions, support restoration of voting rights to people on probation or parole, and support election worker protections. Today and tomorrow there are hearings on initiative petition restrictions in both the House and Senate. Denise Lieberman will be there along with several other coalition members to testify against the IP Restriction bills.

criminal justice reform

We are still working with the Department of Corrections to correct the good time credit language. Further research and discussions with criminal defense attorneys brought to light the current policy in place with the Department of Corrections relating to good time credit. The current policy can be read to be much more generous than what is being offered to be put in statute. It is incredibly important to make sure that we get this language right. Missouri is already unusual in that we combine good time and earned time credits into a single category. In other states some number of days off a sentence are available simply by not getting into trouble while you are incarcerated, and another set of days off a sentence are available for engaging in programs. In Missouri, you have to both not get into trouble and participate in programs in order to get a single day of credit applied to your sentence. There is also the problem that the Department of Corrections has fewer and fewer programs available for people to participate in that would lead to them getting time off their sentence. 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.

The House held a hearing on a bill to restore voting rights to individuals who have been released from incarceration. Currently, voting rights are not restored until the individual is completely off paper - meaning all probation and or parole terms have been completed. This becomes a problem given the tendency for long terms of probation or parole issues in Missouri. There are many people who have served their prison term and been released by the parole board, but have terms of probation or parole that last decades or even the remainder of their life. This means that some people never stop being punished for a crime and find themselves in the impossible situation of having to participate in society while living under a massive social disability. While restoring voting rights doesn't fix the underlying problem of excessive probation or parole, it does allow a person to regain some of their feelings of social responsibility and dignity.

upcoming hearings

NO HEARINGS OF INTEREST SCHEDULED YET.

calls to action

Attend the MOVPC Lobby Day on Jan 30th 9am - 2pm https://www.movpc.org/movpc-latest-news
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.

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

January 30 - MOVPC Lobby Day - Support Free and Fair Elections
February 6 - MO Education Equity Partnership Lobby Day - Oppose Efforts to Ban Black History Curriculum
March 6 - Day of Empathy - Support Criminal Justice Reform
March 12 - MO to Abolish the Death Penalty Lobby Day - Support Proposals to Reduce and Eliminate State Murder

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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