Shown above, Sen. Walsh discusses legislation on the Senate floor during the 2014 session.

The Second Regular Session of the 97th General Assembly officially adjourned on Friday, May 16. By the time the gavel fell at 6 p.m., almost 200 measures were sent to the governor, with a great bulk of these approved in the final week. This was also my second session as your state senator, and it continues to be an honor to represent your interests in the Missouri Capitol.

One of the Legislature’s greatest priorities this year was addressing unaccredited school districts and the school transfer law. Before session even began, I joined a bipartisan group of local lawmakers in crafting a legislative solution to what is one of the most pressing problems facing our state.

Those bills were eventually combined, along with other provisions, into Senate Bill 493. The legislation provides students with more opportunities for a great education while also protecting accredited districts from accepting class sizes that would jeopardize their ability to teach students.

We worked on this issue throughout the session. It took a lot of compromise and an incredible amount of effort, but in the end, we were able to pass Senate Bill 493. Unfortunately, the governor has since vowed to veto the measure. I hope he reconsiders. This legislation was crafted by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, and is heavily supported by both caucuses. However, if he does choose to veto the bill, the Legislature will have the chance to override it come September during the annual veto session.

Ultimately, my concern is for our state’s students. The student transfer law and unaccredited districts have had a negative impact on our children’s futures for far too long. They needed action, and that’s what the Legislature did this year. I sincerely hope this balanced bill eventually becomes law.

One of our other main goals this year was reforming Missouri’s outdated criminal code, a task not tackled since 1979. For the last eight years, a group of legislators and legal experts worked together to create a massive proposal that modernizes the criminal statutes in the state.

The result of those efforts culminated this year with the passage of Senate Bill 491. The measure completely overhauls our state’s criminal code, giving law enforcement officers and prosecutors the tools they need to keep our state safe.

The law won’t go into effect until 2017, which will give us ample time to address any errors or unintended consequences of the bill. Even after that, we’ll always have the ability to change or reform statutes in state law. I was happy to see the governor allow this measure to become law.

In addition, the General Assembly approved a number of measures relating to providing more treatment options for Missourians. Recent scientific breakthroughs have offered a measure of relief to cancer patients in the form of oral chemotherapy. Instead of being hooked to a machine for hours with the intravenous method, they can take a pill. The side effects are sometimes less severe, and it allows patients to take the drug at home.

Yet for many people, oral chemotherapy isn’t an option, and it all comes down to cost. Many insurance companies require different out-of-pocket costs for oral chemotherapy. It’s an incredibly expensive option that few people can afford.

This year, the Senate made it a priority to address this problem. Senate Bill 668 would require health benefit plans to establish equal out-of-pocket costs for covered oral and intravenously administered chemotherapy medications. The legislation was one of the first bills enacted into law this year.

In addition, we passed House Bill 2238, which allows patients with intractable epilepsy—individuals, including many children, who suffer from severe seizures that don’t respond to current forms of treatment—to take an oil extracted from hemp plants.

CBD oil, as it’s known, has shown to be incredibly effective in treating the systems of this form of epilepsy. Passage of this bill would change the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of families in Missouri who currently deal with a debilitating and heartbreaking disorder.

Finally, we approved legislation that expands the cap on the Food Pantry tax credit given to those individuals who donate to a food pantry. Since Congress cut funding for food stamps, countless families throughout the state are struggling to keep food on the table. Food pantries play a huge role in helping these families. Increasing the credit will bolster support for these organizations and encourage citizens to support their local communities.

Click on the link above to visit Sen. Walsh's Health Care Resources website, where you can learn about the Affordable Care Act and how it benefits you.

Despite the well-documented benefits of expanding our state’s Medicaid program, certain members in both chambers of the Missouri Legislature remain intractable on the issue. As is well known by now, expanding Medicaid would give nearly 300,000 Missourians access to healthcare. And this isn’t a giveaway to those who don’t want to work, as some opponents have tried to frame the argument. Medicaid expansion is squarely aimed at hard-working families that are employed but who are unable to afford insurance or work jobs that don’t offer it.

We could have done something about that this session. Under the ACA, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost of expansion for the first three years and would never pay less than 10 percent of the cost.  A University of Missouri study found expanding Medicaid would create 24,000 new jobs in the first year alone, creating enough new tax revenue for the state to cover its share of the cost of expansion.

Missouri now stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funding and nearly 300,000 working Missourians will continue to go without needed health care services as a result of lawmakers’ failure to expand Medicaid. It’s a tragedy that members of the General Assembly continue to put politics before the health of our citizens.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that expansion opponents' main argument against growing the program is fiscal responsibility. They claim we can’t afford it as a state. Yet these very same members approved, and then voted for a veto override, of a bill that will gut state revenues and impact our ability to fund basic functions of state government, like education. Then, in a move tinged with hypocrisy, these legislators passed a bill asking all Missourians to support a tax increase to pay for transportation, which, by the way, will fall heaviest on low-income individuals.

I’m all for strengthening our state infrastructure—it needs to be done. I also believe we need strong economic development efforts. But you can’t deny people health care because it “costs too much,” and then slash our budget by hundreds of millions of dollars. You can’t claim to be cutting taxes, only to ask people to spend more on every purchase they make. We need a focused, thought-out approach to fiscal spending in this state. That’s not what we have right now, and it’s hurting our citizens.

I was also disappointed to see the broad push for ethics reform, pegged as a priority at the beginning of session, evaporate as members instead focused on half-baked tax cut proposals or unnecessary gun rights bills. We have to get the influence of money out of the Capitol. Until we do, every legislative effort we make will be tainted with doubt by the public. That’s unacceptable. I will continue to push for strong ethics reform, not as the fad issue of the day, but as the pressing and urgent problem it is.

The Missouri Legislature sent the 13 bills that make up our state’s $26 billion budget to the governor a day before the constitutional deadline. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a participant in the budget conference committees, I played an integral part in crafting our budget for the next fiscal year.

There will always be differences between legislators on how and what we should fund in state government. It’s the nature of politics. The important thing, though, is we compromise and do what’s best for our state, which is what I saw throughout the budget process. It is an incredible responsibility and an overwhelming task. My colleagues handled it with grace and patience, and I was honored to be a part of the process.

The final state spending plan includes a $115 million increase to the already $3.1 billion provided in state aid to public schools. We included a $43 million increase to higher education institutions for performance-based funding, a model more and more states are moving toward. We also added $6 million in equity funding to Missouri community colleges, which play a valuable, but sometimes underappreciated role, in educating our students and preparing them for future careers.

Other notable items include $8.5 million increase in First Steps; $1 million increase in the Parents as Teachers program; $6.7 million for the A+ Schools program; $15 million for the MO Access Scholarship program; and a 1 percent raise for state employees. 

For more detailed information on Missouri's FY 2015 budget, visit www.senate.mo.gov.

Shown above, Sen. Walsh speaks on behalf of workers' rights during debate in the Senate chamber.

For years, members of the Majority Caucus have blamed organized labor for hindering economic growth in the state. Session after session, we’ve seen numerous bills filed to all but destroy the presence of organized labor in Missouri, from so-called “right to work” to “paycheck deception.” Supporters say this would make our region more appealing to companies wishing to relocate. Organized workers, they believe, are stifling our ability to attract new businesses.

Once again, it fell to members of the Minority Caucus, to pushback against the latest attempts to harm middle class families in Missouri. There was a concerted effort this year to enact into law “paycheck deception,” which is really just the precursor to making Missouri a “Right to Work” state, a move that experts predict would slash wages and severely hurt Missouri’s middle-class. The legislation passed the House, but upon reaching the Senate, was met with opposition from those who support working families in the state.

Meningitis is a terrible disease that affects the lining of the brain and spinal cord. It starts with flu-like symptoms and escalates rapidly, sometimes leaving survivors with permanent damage to their nervous system, including hearing loss, epilepsy, limb loss and cognitive impairment. If not caught early, it can possibly lead to death.

Because of communal living arrangements, such as dorms, college students have an increased risk of contracting meningitis, a contagious and potentially fatal disease.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1,000 to 2,600 Americans contract meningitis every year. One in 10 dies. Anyone can get the disease, but it’s most common in infants less than one year of age and young adults, around 16 to 21 years old. College students are particularly susceptible to it because of communal living.

Thankfully, modern medicine has provided us with a vaccine. Last year, I sponsored legislation that required colleges and universities to hand out informational brochures on meningitis to explain the risk associated with the disease. However, we can do more to prevent the spread of what is a preventable illness.

This year, the Missouri Senate passed legislation containing a provision identical to my legislation (Senate Bill 748). The bill requires each student attending a public institution of higher education who lives in on-campus housing to receive the meningococcal vaccine unless he or she has a medical or religious exemption.

The Department of Higher Education must oversee, supervise, and enforce this requirement and may promulgate rules. The Department of Higher Education may consult with the Department of Health and Senior Services. This act contains a delayed effective date of July 1, 2015. Elementary schools already require immunization shots before attendance. My legislation is no different. It’s about protecting the public and the students in our state.

The legislation was ultimately approved by the General Assembly. It awaits the governor's signature to become law.

This year the Senate unanimously gave its approval to legislation that will increase safety standards for children in our state. One of the main provisions behind Senate Bill 869 creates new requirements for child care providers who receive state or federal funds for providing fee assistance.

The USDA is partnering with states to provide free lunches to children from low-income families during the summer break. To learn more information, visit www.dhss.mo.gov.

During the school year, government assistance provides students from low-income families with free or reduced-priced meals at school. Thousands of children depend on this support. For many, these are the only hot, nutritious meals they’ll get all day.

Education experts claim the program helps kids learn and is important to promote quality education. While I agree with that, I think the main reason we provide these meals as a state and nation should be much simpler:  in a modern 21st Century nation, with more accumulated wealth than any other country on the planet, no child should go hungry.

Unfortunately, many face just this issue when school releases for summer break. In an effort to ensure these students continue to have access to food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funds summer nutrition programs to supplement the free meals students receive during the school year. This summer, the USDA is expanding the program.

The state recruits organizations to host the meals, and volunteers to serve them. There are 980 meal sites statewide. Many of the meals are provided at libraries, which also offer children free educational activities. It’s estimated that 25,000 to 30,000 meals will be served at the Weber Road, Rock Road and Florissant Valley library branches alone this year.

To find a summer food site near you, click here or call (888) 435-1464. For more information, visit www.dhss.mo.gov.