2018 Legislative Session Begins
On Wednesday, Jan. 3, state lawmakers will gather in Jefferson City for the official start of the Missouri General Assembly’s 2018 legislative session. As with every other year of our part-time Legislature, this regular session will run until May. In those five months, your elected officials will discuss, debate and perfect new bills and resolutions. Though lawmakers might disagree on particular policies, all of us arrive in the Capitol with the aim of making our state a better place to live for all Missourians. As always, I look forward to the new session and the opportunity to tackle the challenges Missouri faces.
I invite you to engage in that process. The two chambers of the General Assembly, the House of Representatives and the Senate, have public galleries from which curious citizens can observe the making and debating of new state laws. Additionally, each chamber holds periodic committee hearings open to the public. These committees represent subsets of legislators tasked with examining bills on a certain topic, normally before the proposals are open for debate in their respective chambers. For example, I serve as chairman of the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee. The committee is tasked with examining bills and issues that affect counties, cities, towns and our elections processes on all levels.
The House and Senate websites, house.mo.gov and senate.mo.gov, are excellent resources for keeping track of legislation in progress. From these sites, you can listen to live streams of floor action in both chambers. You can also check the schedules of any committees you might be interested in. Many representatives and senators, including myself, post their press releases and legislative columns to these sites. All in all, it’s a great way to stay informed on some of our state’s most important issues.
As always, please feel free to call, email or write with your ideas or concerns. My Capitol office number is (573) 751-1415, my email is dan.hegeman@senate.mo.gov and my mailing address is Room 332, State Capitol Building, Jefferson City, MO 65101.