JEFFERSON CITY — This past week was the deadline for the governor to take action on bills passed during the legislative session. After session ends, the governor has 45 days to either sign a bill and it becomes law, veto a bill, or not sign a bill — in this case, the bill also becomes law. If a bill is vetoed, it is returned to the General Assembly, where a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and the House is required to override the veto. Vetoes are considered at the annual veto session in September.

One of my bills was vetoed during the legislative session but we passed it early enough that the governor was forced to act on it before the close of session. He ended up vetoing that bill and we overrode that veto before the session ended as I have highlighted in past releases and reports. However, two of my other bills passed later in session and fell into the 45-day time period for the governor to take action.

The first bill, Senate Bill 354, I filed and passed to help young children with severe food allergies. There are more than 23,000 children in Missouri with food allergies and 2.5 percent of those children have a milk allergy. Some children have such a severe allergy that they are unable to digest natural milk proteins and, therefore, can’t have breast milk or traditional alternative formulas. The allergy is so bad in some cases that it can result in death. It is estimated that there are only about 80 children in Missouri with this type of milk allergy, but because of the severity of the allergy, they need a special amino-acid based formula that they can safely digest. The problem is this special formula is extremely expensive, costing families up to $5,000 a year. Currently, health insurance only covers the cost of the formula if it is administered through tube feeding for the most at-risk children, but it isn’t always the best treatment option both medically and financially, especially if a special formula can avoid tube feeding all together. Senate Bill 354 helps qualifying families by allowing the state to pick up the cost of the formula. I wrote the bill so that it will not cost the state any money. It is subject to state and federal appropriations, and I have worked with the chairs of the both the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House Budget Committee to use funding from a designated PKU fund to cover the cost. This formula is essential for many children to get the nutrition they need to grow up healthy and can do so more cost effectively and less invasively.

The other bill of mine the governor recently signed is Senate Bill 107. I filed this bill to address a problem that came out of a Missouri Supreme Court decision in 2011 that prohibited our state licensing boards from giving opinions or position statements to medical professionals without formally creating a rule. For example, the Board of Nursing couldn’t answer questions from nurses on simple licensing issues, disciplinary questions, or any other issue a nurse may have without promulgating a rule which is not what the administrative rule process was designed to do. This is another example of bloated bureaucracy and unnecessary government red tape. My bill simply allows these licensing boards to give medical professionals non-binding opinions in response to their questions. This allows the professional to get a timely answer to their question without creating another government rule that does nothing but slow the process down and make it more expensive for the taxpayer. I am glad we were able to pass this bill as I always believe it is important to work towards smaller and more efficient government.

I also want to take the opportunity to ask for prayers for our fellow citizens dealing with flooding in our area. I am communicating with local and state officials and emergency responders as they continue to assess the damage. The governor and I toured Roaring River State Park and areas around Cassville last week and he has formally asked the president to issue a disaster declaration for a number of counties in Missouri. There has been significant property damage in Barry, Stone and Taney County and, unfortunately, some have even lost their homes and businesses. I will continue working to make sure all necessary and available resources are provided to aid in recovery efforts. 

The people of southwest Missouri are strong and we come together to aid each other in difficult times. I am grateful to our emergency responders and those helping with damage assessment and clean up efforts. Because of the hard work of some of these folks, we are just talking about property damage instead of lives lost.