Last week, the Missouri Legislature returned to the Capitol for our annual veto session. With more than 29 bills vetoed by the governor this year, including a handful of extremely high-profile measures, it was by far the most anticipated veto session in years.
The General Assembly was successful in overriding the governor’s veto of 10 bills, a historic number for the modern Legislature. One of the bills which received the necessary two-thirds majority votes in both chambers was legislation I carried, House Bill 278. The measure enshrines in law Missourians’ right to celebrate federal holidays how they deem fit.
We also overrode the vetoes of Senate Bill 9, which increases the penalties for livestock theft, a particularly bad problem for rural areas; Senate Bill 129, which creates the Volunteer Health Services Act to allow more medical professionals to donate their time to sponsoring organizations; House Bill 339, which enacts a “No pay, No play” law preventing uninsured motorists from receiving noneconomic damages from insured drivers in lawsuits resulting from a motor vehicle crash; and House Bill 650, which protects the lead mining industry in our state and the more than 1,600 jobs those businesses support.
Some will point to the veto session as an overwhelming success, with 10 measures overridden, the most in the modern history of the Legislature. And while I was glad to see these bills become law, I can’t help but feel the Legislature missed an opportunity with the veto session to send a clear message that Missourians will no longer tolerate a government that infringes on its rights while at the same time howling for more and more of our tax dollars. Had enough of my colleagues mustered the courage, we could have made apparent that we will push back against government overreach and unnecessary spending.
The tax relief bill, House Bill 253, was ultimately about more than fiscal policy. It was an attempt to reduce spending and right-size a government that is quickly growing out of control. Our democratic institutions were created to serve the people; anymore, these agencies do little but serve themselves and whatever agenda they, not the public, believe appropriate. Even more galling is that these goals are pursued without oversight using our tax dollars.
Just this year we got the latest example with the illegal actions of the Department of Revenue, and on the national stage, American’s citizens are regaled almost weekly with new revelations of a National Security Agency that seems to be under the jurisdiction and authority of no one but itself.
House Bill 253 not only would have let citizens and businesses keep more of their hard-earned money, it was an important step in starving the uncontrollable beast that is big government from its addiction to the American people’s money.
Similarly, House Bill 436, which would have reinforced protections for Missourians’ right to bear arms, was another attempt to check Beltway bureaucrats seemingly obsessed with dismantling piecemeal our constitutional rights. What we are seeing is a federal government opportunistically exploiting national tragedies to push for a radical anti-Second Amendment agenda that has long been a priority for a select group in Washington.
It’s appalling that these horrific events are reduced to political ammunition to push for a deterioration of our right to bear arms. It also distracts us from discovering the true reasons for these horrific occurrences, which go far beyond the weapons used, and instead are rooted in cultural and societal issues, from the prevalence of violence in the media to the ongoing stigma attached to mental health disorders.
The failure to override the vetoes of Senate Bill 265 and Senate Bill 267 provide more examples of missed opportunities. Senate Bill 265 was an important measure that would have protected the property rights of Missourians throughout the state. Senate Bill 267 would have guaranteed our judicial proceedings follow only the rule of U.S. law, and not that of other countries. Both bills fell victim to a campaign of misinformation, tying them to extreme views instead of explaining them as the simple, common-sense measures they were.
These issues are not dead, however. They will be brought back up in the next legislative session in 2014. I will continue using my elected position as a state senator to fight back against a government that continually seeks to squash us under its thumb and take away our unalienable rights that were acknowledged by our Founding Fathers.
I appreciate you reading this legislative report. Please don’t hesitate to contact my Capitol office at (573)751-2108 if you have any questions. Thank you and God bless! |
