JEFFERSON CITY - Only four weeks remain in this legislative session. That means four short weeks to get key legislation passed, including priorities the General Assembly and each lawmaker established early in the session. While those priorities do not always align, even within our own parties, there are typically at least a few large issues that we can agree need to be addressed. This year one of those was the student transfer issue.

It is widely agreed that House Bill 42, the legislative fix to the state's student transfer law, is a priority for everyone. During Monday night’s Senate debate, there were seven amendments added, including one that would provide incentives for receiving districts that charge no more than 70 percent of a sending district’s tuition and take at least 25 transfer students. That amendment also states that during the first two years, receiving districts which “meet or exceed targets established by a state accountability system ... shall earn additional credit in academic achievements on its annual performance report."

After more than 90 minutes of debate, the measure was sent back to the Senate's Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee. This committee often reviews legislation to determine the potential financial impact of bills and amendments.

Once the Senate third reads and finally passes HB 42, it will head back to the House, which can accept the Senate changes and send the bill to the governor, or reject them and request a conference committee. Conference committees are how the two chambers hammer out their differences on bills and create the final version of the legislation.

We also spent quite a bit of time talking about and debating House Bill 150, a measure that would tie unemployment insurance to the state's unemployment rate. The idea is to give qualifying employees a higher number of weeks of unemployment payments when the economy is poor but fewer when the economy is doing well and jobs are plentiful. This change will make the funds that pay out unemployment insurance much more stable and ensure that there is enough insurance for all workers.

Currently, Missourians who are out of work are eligible for up to 20 weeks of unemployment compensation. House Bill 150 would modify current law so the unemployment rate would have to be 9 percent or higher for someone to get 20 weeks of benefits, and it would drop to 13 weeks if the jobless rate drops below 6 percent.

In HB 150, the amount of time Missourians could receive state unemployment benefits would be structured into an eight-tier system:

• 20 weeks of unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is nine percent or higher;
• 19 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate from 8.5 percent and 9 percent;
• 18 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is 8 percent up to and including 8.5 percent;
• 17 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is 7.5 percent and 8 percent;
• 16 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is 7 percent up to and including 7.5 percent;
• 15 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is 6.5 percent and 7 percent;
• 14 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is 6 percent up to and including 6.5 percent; and
• 13 weeks unemployment compensation if Missouri's average unemployment rate is below 6 percent.

After more than two hours of debate, the bill was sent to the Senate's Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee.

This year's bill has no major changes from a piece of legislation that was passed by the General Assembly and then vetoed by the governor in 2014, but we believe there are enough votes to override a potential veto this year.

Thank you for reading this weekly column. You can contact my office at (573) 751-3678 if you have any questions.