On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the upper chamber perfected Senate Bill 11, which contains several ethics reform provisions aimed at reining in lobbyist spending and creating greater transparency within expenditure reporting. When it comes to regulating ethics in our state government, it’s only to be expected that there will be very strong opinions from lawmakers about which reforms are best for Missouri’s future political landscape.

That expectation was certainly met this week during the two days we debated SB 11. Many on the Senate floor were calling for even greater reform measures and found themselves left feeling frustrated that more was not done, especially in terms of campaign contribution limits.  The good news, however, is that we did make some meaningful progress.

A few of the bill’s key provisions include:

• Imposing a two-year cooling off period for members of the General Assembly before being allowed to become a lobbyist;
• Modifying the definition of "public official" to include any school superintendent or school board member;
• Requiring lobbyists to report all entities they represent to the third degree, even if they are not directly compensated by such entities;
• Requiring lobbyists to report expenditures made on behalf of all public officials; and
• Banning expenditures for out-of-state food, beverage and entertainment, with the exception of non-profit organizations under certain circumstances.

As you can see, SB 11’s proposed measures will strengthen Missouri’s existing reporting requirements, limit certain types of expenditures altogether and cast a wider net over who is considered to be a public official.

In the course of debating SB 11, nine different amendments were offered that attempted to accomplish more extensive reform measures. One of those, which was ultimately defeated, was an amendment that would’ve effectively banned all members of the Legislature or such member’s staff, employee, spouse or dependent children from accepting, directly or indirectly, any travel or ticket to a sporting event or concert from a lobbyist. When the amendment came up for a vote, I didn’t think twice about voting for its adoption, since it’s already my personal policy, and has been for some time, not to accept lobbyist gifts—and I’m not alone.

In fact, there are many great men and women serving in office who work very hard to keep lobbyist gifts from influencing their decisions; who are there for the right reasons; and who do not need a law to be passed to understand that accepting gifts as a public official is an extremely slippery slope. I made a choice early on in my career, nearly a decade ago, to really think twice before accepting lobbyist gifts. That extra amount of caution and consideration has allowed me to proceed through the better part of my political career with a healthy amount of space between myself and the influence of lobbyists.

Yes, passing legislation banning all gifts would absolutely help clean up politics, and I welcome the day we see a measure of that significance passed here in Missouri. Until then, I’ll keep doing exactly what I’ve been doing, because it’s what has always seemed right to me— and to many of my colleagues. Senate Bill 11 may not be the perfect bill, but it’s certainly a start and that always counts for something.