Senator Dan Brown’s Legislative Column

brownIn the coming weeks, the State Capitol will become a busy place as lawmakers gear up for the start of the 2018 legislative session. While session officially begins on Jan. 3, lawmakers were able to begin filing legislative proposals on Dec. 1 for the upcoming legislative session.

Once a senator has written and developed a legislative proposal, they submit it to the Secretary of the Senate’s office to be numbered. The proposal then moves to the Missouri Senate’s Enrolling and Engrossing office where it is formatted and proofread before it is printed. A physical copy of each pre-filed bill is currently available for the public to view on the Missouri Senate Website at www.senate.mo.gov.

Just one week after pre-filing started, 34 Missouri Senators had filed 245 bills and 14 joint resolutions. During the pre-filing period for the 2017 legislative session, 244 bills and 10 joint resolutions were filed.  Before the start of the 2016 legislative session, senators pre-filed 209 pieces of legislation.

On the other side of the State Capitol, our fellow lawmakers in the Missouri House have filed 331 proposals and 14 House Joint Resolutions.

To view a list of legislation pre-filed for the upcoming legislative session, please visit the Missouri Senate’s website at www.senate.mo.gov.

The 2018 legislative session begins at noon on Jan. 3 and ends on May 18.

As always, I encourage my constituents to contact me throughout the year with comments, questions or suggestions by calling my office at (573) 751-5713. To find more information about the bills I sponsor, visit www.senate.mo.gov/brown. Thank you for reading this and for your participation in state government.