The Final Push for 2019
“Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong.” ― William Ewart Gladstone, British statesman
The Missouri General Assembly convenes for just over four months each year, from January through mid-May, and it’s rare for many bills to pass during the early weeks. The hardest work tends to come toward the end of the session. We have now reached that point when omnibus bills are being composed in order to move related issues with a single vote. With just two weeks remaining, it is also time to address remaining controversial legislation.
We have “truly agreed and finally passed” just 14 pieces of legislation. If there was any question that crunch time has arrived, legislative activity this past week provided a wake-up call.
Monday afternoon, the Senate took up Senate Bill 391 and did not finish debate until 7:30 a.m. the following morning. Throughout the night, lawmakers weighed in on concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. The question before the body was whether regulation of large livestock and poultry facilities should remain the purview of the Department of Natural Resources and other state agencies, or whether local boards and commissions should be allowed to enact rules and standards that exceed state law. It’s a highly controversial issue that inspires strong opinions on both sides. Eventually, the Senate affirmed statewide regulation of agricultural facilities and voted to deny local bodies the authority to supersede DNR’s rules.
A Senate Committee took on another hot-button issue this past week as House Bill 1062 came before the Commerce Committee. This legislation prohibits the developer of a large electric transmission line from using eminent domain authority to take property against landowners’ wishes. At issue is the proposed Grain Belt Express power line that would carry as much as 4,000 megawatts of wind-generated power from Kansas, across Missouri, to eastern Illinois. The line would pass through eight Missouri counties and across land owned by more than 570 Missouri residents, including many who have no desire to see transmission towers on their property.
Ever since the Grain Belt Project was announced, a controversy has raged as to whether a private developer building a power line across Missouri in order to serve customers outside the state constitutes a public utility with the right to take private property for the public good. To secure a Certification of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) and classification as a public utility, the developers agreed to sell a portion of the electricity moving through the line to various municipal utilities around the state. As a public utility, the Grain Belt Project has the power of eminent domain, even though the developers have not used such powers in any of the other states in which they operate.
It was standing room only in the hearing room as HB 1062 was discussed, with an overflow crowd listening to testimony broadcast to the room next door. A vote on the legislation is expected this week. Absent the bills’ passage, the status quo will remain and the project can move forward, with the power of eminent domain in place. Ideally, the developer will reach voluntary agreements on fair market value with all landowners.
Another heavy lift happened this week as the Senate reached a compromise on Senate Bill 224, which limits the scope and frequency of discovery requests in lawsuits. The non-attorneys in the Senate were content to let the legal experts among our colleagues sort out the details during a lengthy negotiation that concluded after 2 a.m. The final bill is a reasonable compromise that should be a benefit to Missouri’s court procedures.
Time is running out for the 2019 legislative session and there’s a lot of work left to do. Some of the governor’s workforce development priorities still need action. A number of highly contentious issues remain, including school choice, abortion, an Internet sales tax, sports betting and final resolution of the transportation funding dilemma. The Senate will likely endure further lengthy overnight debates.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. Thank you and we welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.