Senator Sandy Crawford Applauds Governor’s Signing of Two Priorities

JEFFERSON CITY — State Sen. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo, announces several of her legislative priorities have been signed into law. The governor signed Senate Bill 1359 and Senate Bill 912 in his office on Thursday, July 11.

“Senate Bill 1359 contains seven bills that I filed during this year’s regular legislative session,” Sen. Crawford said. “It was truly a team effort to get all of these ideas across the finish line.”

Included in the bill are provisions that standardize the procedure for selecting a municipal depository for all classes of municipalities. It also removes inconsistent, outdated and ambiguous statutory requirements, and updates municipal depository laws to conform to current practices and standards. These came from Senate Bill 1292.

Senate Bill 1359 also creates the Money Transmission Modernization Act, which updates the Missouri Sale of Checks Law that has been largely unchanged since its 1984 enactment, when paper money orders were the primary way to transmit funds. In the past, companies like Western Union and MoneyGram were used to transmit funds, unlike today — with most people using companies like Venmo and PayPal. This was included in Senate Bill 737.

Senate Bill 1359 also allows self-storage insurance producers to offer $15,000 worth of insurance coverage to their customers. The previous limit was $5,000. This comes from Senate Bill 927.

In addition, this bill moves Missouri Family Trust accounts from the Secretary of State’s office to the Missouri Division of Finance. This language comes from Senate Bill 1482.

Several other banking and insurance bills Sen. Crawford filed are also included in SB 1359: Senate Bill 1348, Senate Bill 834 and Senate Bill 835. Senate Bill 1348 adds some commonsense protections and guardrails around the providing of insurance documents to the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance. Senate Bill 834 clarifies the handling of life and health reinsurance contracts if a Missouri insurance company becomes insolvent. Senate Bill 835 modifies provisions relating to financial instruments.

Senate Bill 912 includes language from Senate Bill 1322, which Sen. Crawford sponsored. This new law provides educational assistance to members of the Missouri National Guard.

“Thank you to both my colleagues for sending this proposal over the legislative finish line and the governor for signing it into law,” Sen. Crawford said.

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