Sen. John Lamping's Capitol Update

On Monday afternoon, the Senate jumped right into perfecting bills on the Senate Calendar. As many of you may already know, once a bill has been voted out of committee, the next step is to debate the bill on the Senate floor. This step is known as the perfection process and is the step that occurs before a final vote on the bill. Senators spent much of Monday evening and Tuesday morning working on a variety of bills that were eventually perfected and finally voted on during Thursday's session. Among those bills was Senate Bill 208, which would allow children who have exited the foster care system before age 18 to petition to re-enter the system until age 21, if a court finds it is in the child’s best interests. We also perfected Senate Bill 73, which prohibits law enforcement officers from establishing a roadside checkpoint that targets a particular type of vehicle, such as motorcycles.

Also on Monday, members of my staff had the opportunity to visit with students from Hoech Middle School in the Ritenour School District in St. Louis. The students visited the Capitol as part of the K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Week, and more specifically the Project Lead the Way program, which began at a St. Louis-area high school in 2000. Students who participate are enrolled in classes with a rigorous curriculum in areas of technology, engineering and biomedical sciences. The students visiting this year were: Max Armstrong, Diana Castellanos, Rance Drexler and Kiley Markham. The students were accompanied by PLTW GTT Master Teacher Brian Nikodym. It was nice to see the number of students showing an interest in this program and the larger field of engineering as students from across the state were represented.

On Tuesday morning, the Senate Seniors, Families and Pensions Committee began working in-depth on pension issues. My plan over the coming weeks is to hear informational testimony from each of the pension plans that are the subject of legislation this session, and thereafter hear testimony on the corresponding legislation. This week the committee heard Senate Bill 215, which would modify provisions relating to the Kansas City Police Retirement System. I found the testimony from the system to be very helpful in understanding the funding issues faced by its members. I am very much looking forward to learning more about each of our retirement systems at the upcoming hearings.

Following the hearing on SB 215, the Seniors, Families and Pensions Committee also heard testimony on Senate Bill 256, a bill sponsored by Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City. The bill modifies provisions relating to the "Safe Place for Newborns Act." Current law provides that a parent will not be prosecuted for the abandonment of a child up to five days old if he or she leaves the child in the custody of a medical facility staff member, provider or volunteer, a firefighter or emergency medical technician or with a law enforcement officer. This legislation would increase that time period from five days to 45 days after the child’s birth. The bill states that a parent who voluntarily relinquishes a child will not be required to release identifying information about either the child or parent. This bill touches on a very delicate issue and is one that the committee will be seriously considering in order to find the best way to prevent future child abandonment.

Wednesday was another very productive and busy day. I started the morning by attending the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Following that hearing, the Senate reconvened to continue work on the perfection calendar. While the Senate was on the floor, I had the chance to introduce Sean Donegan who is working as in intern in my office this session. Sean is currently in his third year of law school at the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia. He graduated from St. Louis University in 2010, with a degree in Economics and English. In addition to working as an intern in my office, Sean is also currently working as a legal intern at the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) and as a Teaching Assistant in the Legal Research and Writing Department at Mizzou Law. I am grateful to have Sean as an intern. I know his background and experience will be very helpful to many of our discussions in the Legislature this session.

On Wednesday afternoon, I had the opportunity to present Senate Bill 210, a bill that relates to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, to the Senate Committee on Education. I greatly appreciate all of the people who came to testify on the bill, some of whom traveled from across the country. I believe the issue is one that deserves a lot of time and attention, and I am hopeful it will get just that over the coming weeks.

Wednesday evening the Senate met again to work on Senate Bill 26, sponsored by Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Sumit. Senate Bill 26 contains provisions that would reduce the personal and business income tax rates and create an individual income tax deduction for business income, while also increasing the state sales tax by one-half of one percent over five years. The bill would also require the state to enter into the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, which provides a mechanism for simplifying the collection of taxes remitted from sellers that are not located within the state. Although many senators came to the floor with various amendments and ideas, we eventually worked to an agreement and perfected the bill. Once SB 26 is third read in the Senate, it will head over to the House for similar consideration.

Before wrapping up the day on Thursday, I had the great honor of visiting with Michelle Tang, a constituent of St. Louis County and a current student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Michelle visited the Capitol as part of the University of Missouri's Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol where she was one of 21 students from across the state to showcase their research projects. Michelle, a Biological Sciences major, spent last summer interning at the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center in the 24th District. Michelle's research focused on the use of genome sequencing to understand plant evolution and photosynthesis. After graduation, she hopes to pursue graduate school and work toward a PhD in plant biology. I really enjoyed meeting Michelle. She is a bright young woman whose career I look forward to following.

These were just a few of the many highlights and activities keeping us busy in Jefferson City this week. I look forward to returning next week to what I hope will be another very productive week as it is our final before the legislative spring break. As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office should you have questions about the work we are doing and/or to get more information. We are always happy to assist.

Best wishes for a relaxing weekend.