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The Week of Feb. 26, 2024

On the Floor

This week, we began floor debate on several bills this week:

Additionally, the Senate gave first round approval to the following bills:

Bills and Committees

Judiciary Committee:

Senate Bill 869 would allow a court to have jurisdiction at the time of sentencing to enter a lifetime protection order restraining or enjoining the defendant from contacting the victim if the defendant has been found guilty of a dangerous felony.

Senate Bill 1007 establishes the "Missouri Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act" which applies to trusts or estates in which this state is the principal place of administration and life estates or other term interest in which the interest of one or more persons will be succeeded by the interest of another and in which the place where the property is located.

Senate Bill 1220 modifies juror compensation. This bill changes the mileage rate of jurors to match the mileage rate of state employees, which is currently provided at sixty-five and half cents per mile. It also allows a circuit court to adopt a system of juror compensation for each county and the City of St. Louis that provides grand or petit jurors to receive no compensation on the first two days of actual service, but receive fifty dollars with the state employee mileage rate for the third and any subsequent days of actual service.

Senate Bill 1370 would establish a mental health court within a treatment court to provide an alternative court for cases that stem from mental health or co-occurring disorders of criminal defendants.

Commerce Committee:

Senate Bill 934 increases the number of members on the Public Service Commission from five to seven and requires that no more than one member is appointed from each congressional district. Additionally, at least two members must be actively engaged in agriculture production. 

Senate Bill 936 creates provisions relating to a post-consumer paint recycling program. 

Senate Bill 947 modifies the definition of “video service” to include video programming by a video service provider provided through wireline facilities located in a public right-of-way without regard to the delivery technology. Additionally, "video service" would not include any video programming accessed via a service that enables users to access content over the internet, including streaming content. This provision is meant to protect consumers of streaming services from incurring extra costs due to increased franchise fees for those services.

Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics Committee:

Senate Bill 1310 creates procedures for the appointment of commissioners to a convention called under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. The bill also creates a joint legislative committee to submit names to the General Assembly to be considered for appointment, and the commissioners will ultimately be appointed by the General Assembly.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 21 establishes every fourth Wednesday of February as "Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Awareness Day" in Missouri. 

Senate Concurrent Resolution 27 establishes Feb. 24 of each year as "SCN2A Awareness Day" in Missouri.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 30 recognizes and celebrates the special relationship between the United States and Ireland.

Appropriations Committee:

The following departments and offices shared their funding requests for the Fiscal Year 2025 state operating budget in this week’s hearing:

Other News

Scholarship Opportunity

The Women Legislators of Missouri Caucus is offering sixteen one-time $1,000 college scholarships to young women across the state who wish to continue their academic career in college. Applicants must be a female, Missouri resident and 2024 graduating senior; demonstrate excellence in leadership, academics and community service; and submit a 500 word essay. The deadline is March 22, 2024. The application can be found on the My Scholarship Central website. 

Presidential Primaries Coming Up

With the passage of House Bill 1878 in 2022, the state no longer holds presidential preference primary elections. Each party has chosen their selection process, which will take place across the state at which its members can vote to select which presidential nominee they want to be on the ballot in the general election. 

The Democratic party has chosen to hold an in-person presidential preference primary on Saturday, March 23 in each county across the state. Votes can be cast in person at a polling place in the voter’s county of residence from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m., with additional polling places in St. Louis and Kansas City. Voters may also request a mail-in ballot from the party’s website until March 12. The ballots will be distributed beginning Feb. 17 and must be returned to the party by 10 a.m. on March 23. 

The Missouri Republican Caucus will hold caucuses in all counties at 10 a.m. on March 2. You must be a registered voter in the county you wish to caucus in. You will need to show a valid, unexpired government-issued photo ID at the door before entering the caucus. The full list of caucus locations can be found on the GOP's website.

To check your voter registration or register to vote, visit sos.mo.gov/elections/goVoteMissouri/register.

Treasurer pulls slot machine ads after legislative grilling

Throughout a blistering, two-hour bipartisan interrogation on Feb. 27, the state treasurer remained defiantly committed to his decision to advertise on unlicensed gambling devices deemed illegal slot machines by the Missouri Gaming Commission and State Highway Patrol.  Later that day, however, he suddenly backed down and said he has asked for the ads’ removal.

At issue are decals featuring the state treasurer’s name under a variant of the official state seal that promote the treasurer’s unclaimed property program. The decals have been placed on hundreds of video lottery terminals, which operate like slot machines and have proliferated throughout the state in recent years in gas stations, bars and other locations. The highway patrol has seized and destroyed VLTs in jurisdictions where prosecutors have been willing to file charges, but some prosecutors claim the machines fall into a legal gray area and refuse to pursue cases.

The House General Administration Appropriations Subcommittee summoned the state treasurer to testify about the ads, the existence of which became widely known a week earlier. Committee members repeatedly expressed concerns that the ads are designed to create the impression that machines are licensed and sanctioned by the state.

During his testimony, the state treasurer conceded the legality of VLTs is disputed but said that unless the Missouri Supreme Court definitively rules the machines are illegal he would continue allowing the ads. He repeatedly refused to back down after lawmakers of both parties grilled him about the questionable ethics of his position. Hours after the hearing ended, however, he abruptly reversed course.

“I have today revoked permission for Torch Electronics to display Unclaimed Property messages on their devices, and I have asked Torch Electronics to immediately begin the process of removing any reference to the Unclaimed Property Program from Torch’s devices,” the state treasurer said in a letter to the subcommittee’s chairman, as reported by various news outlets.

Torch Electronics is a main VLT supplier in Missouri and client of influential lobbyist Steve Tilley, a former House speaker. During his testimony, the state treasurer said he authorized Torch to use decals bearing his name and seal of office during an August meeting with Tilley and Torch’s president at a Chesterfield airplane hangar Tilley owns. The state treasurer said Torch, not taxpayers, paid for the decals. Committee members countered that while the deal might not have cost the state money, it severely damaged the state’s image and reputation. 

The governor appointed the state treasurer in January 2023 to fill a vacancy. The state treasurer, who had never previously held elected office, is seeking election to a full term this year but is running in a crowded primary.

House again attempts to defund Planned Parenthood

The House of Representatives on Feb. 28 granted first-round approval to legislation seeking to block women’s health care provider Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements from the state’s Medicaid program. A second vote is required to the send the bill to the Senate.

Because abortion is illegal in Missouri in nearly all circumstances, none of Planned Parenthood’s Missouri clinics perform them and instead focus on other women’s health care services, including general care, cancer screenings and contraception. However, majority members in the legislature for years have unsuccessfully sought to defund the Missouri clinics since Planned Parenthood still offers abortion in states where it remains legal. Federal law has long prohibited Medicaid funds from paying for abortion services.

The Missouri Supreme Court twice in recent years has ruled the legislature’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood through the budget process are unconstitutional. The court in both cases cited longstanding precedent that appropriations bills must be limited to appropriating funding and cannot also set policy without violating the Missouri Constitution’s prohibition against bills containing multiple subjects.

House Bill 2634 attempts to get around that constitutional impediment by creating a general statute purporting to prohibit Medicaid reimbursements to health care facilities affiliated with out-of-state abortion providers. However, the bill could violate a federal requirement that states must allow willing providers of Medicaid-eligible services to participate in the program.

Budget panel advances funding to send MO troops to Texas

The House Budget Committee on Feb. 28 approved a $2.2 million emergency supplementary appropriations bill to provide funding for the governor’s plan to send 200 Missouri National Guard soldiers and 22 State Highway Patrol troopers to the Mexican border to assist with the Texas governor’s effort to block migrants from entering the country.

Since some members of Congress have blocked passage of bipartisan federal legislation to address the border crisis, which I believe is in an effort to keep the immigration issue alive during a presidential election year, some lawmakers questioned the wisdom spending Missouri taxpayer dollars on what is seen as more of a political show than an effort to address the problem. Opponents noted that about 250 Missouri Guard troops are already at the border under the command of the federal government and expressed concern about the possibility of the missions of the two Missouri forces coming into conflict.

The funding provided by House Bill 2016 would be for the remainder of the 2024 fiscal year, which runs through June 30. Some lawmakers questioned the need for an emergency appropriation since there is an existing and untapped $4 million appropriation in the regular FY 2024 state operation budget that the Guard could use for this purpose. The committee ultimately approved HB 2016 on a vote of 25-4, with one member voting present. It can now advance to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

House panel votes to legally define gender identification

Transgender people would legally cease to exist under legislation the House Emerging Issues Committee approved Feb. 28 on a 9-4 party-line vote, with members of the majority party in support and those in the minority party opposed. The bill can now advance to the full House of Representatives for debate.

House Bill 2309 would statutorily define people as “male” or “female” based on their reproductive system at birth. It also would define terms such as “man,” “woman,” “girl,” “boy,” “mother” and “father” in ways that would exclude legal recognition of transgender people.

The committee on Jan. 17 held a nine-hour public hearing on HB 2309 and six other bills targeting transgender rights. Testimony at the hearing was mostly comprised of Missourians opposed to the bill, with only a relative handful of witnesses in support.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Thank you for your interest in the legislative process. I look forward to hearing from you on the issues that are important to you this legislative session. If there is anything my office can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact my office at 573-751-3599.