Rep. Chrissy Sommer's Weekly Capitol Connection March 17, 2016

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Missouri House Enters Annual Spring Break with Impressive List of Legislative Accomplishments

The members of the Missouri House of Representatives finished up the first half of the legislative session with a substantive list of legislative accomplishments. As the House takes a week off to prepare for the final push to the end of session in May, it does so with one legislative priority already on the governor’s desk, and many more out of the House and now under consideration in the Senate.

Ethics Reform – House leadership began the session with a commitment to passing substantive ethics reform into law during the 2016 session. In the first weeks of session, the House sent several bills to the Senate that are designed to improve the culture at the State Capitol.

• HB 1452 would require elected officials to file a personal financial disclosure twice each year. Current law requires only a single disclosure each year.
• HB 1575 would require elected officials to report lodging and travel expenses in a timely fashion. The bill requires the expenses to be filed within 30 days of the reportable event.
• HB 1979 would require elected officials to have a one-year “cooling off” period after leaving office before they could become lobbyists. The sponsor of the bill called it an effort to “remove the distractions, remove the barriers to good governance.”
• HB 1983 would make it clear that no statewide official or member of the General Assembly can serve as a paid political consultant while in office. The bill’s sponsor called the measure a necessary conflict of interest provision to prevent public offices from being used to gain personal wealth.
• HB 2166 would ban gifts and meals provided by lobbyists to elected officials. Under current law, no limit exists on the amount of gifts a lobbyist can provide to a legislator or other state elected official.
• HB 2203 would limit how long campaign funds can be invested and how they can be used.
• HB 2226 would prohibit task force and commission appointees from profiting from the recommendations they make.

Other Legislation:

• Labor Reform HB 1891 - Public Employee Paycheck Transparency – requires public unions to make the union’s financial records available to its members yearly, so the members will be able to see where their union is spending the dues of the members. It also gives public sector workers the authority to annually renew paycheck deductions for union fees via electronic means. This legislation is sometimes referred to as “paycheck protection”.
• Welfare Reform HB 1795 - Ensuring Welfare Recipients are Properly Verified – would allow the state to more efficiently and proficiently verify applicants and recipients of welfare services by contracting with outside vendors.
• Voter Identification - HB 1631 and HJR 53 - would require voters to show a photo ID at the polling place, which proponents believe would help prevent voter fraud. One piece of legislation is a constitutional amendment that would allow Missourians to decide whether voters should have to show a form of photo identification in order to vote. The second bill would put a voter ID system in place in the event voters approve the change to the state constitution.
• Taxes HCR 58 Stopping the Tax Increase on Agricultural Land – Disapproves the State Tax Commission's proposed increase in property taxes on horticulture property.
• Economic Development HB 1870 - Big Government Get Off My Back Act – Extends the sunset on the Big Government Get Off My Back Act, which allows a tax deduction for job creation and limits regulation on small business.
• Heathcare HB 1366 & 1878 - Increasing Access to Lifesaving Medications – is designed to give Missourians better, more affordable access to interchangeable biological products that are similar in nature to the generic versions of traditional medications.
• Public Safety HB 1562 - Continuing the Fight against Human Traffickers – helps stop the multi-billion dollar criminal industry of human trafficking by expanding the crime of sexual trafficking of a child to include the advertisement of a child participating in a commercial sexual act.
• Education: HB 1451 – Streamlines charter school regulations and allows easier expansion of high performing charter schools.
• Budget: The House passed a balanced budget that spent over $200m in General Revenue less than the Governor.
• Securing Funding for a New Veterans Home – allows voters to decide if the state should issue bonds to provide funding for a new veterans home. The proposed constitutional amendment would generate $50 million in funds through bond sales.
• Prescription Drug Monitoring – enacts a prescription drug monitoring program in Missouri, which is currently the only state in the nation without such a program in place. Known as the Narcotics Control Act, the bill would allow physicians and pharmacists to monitor patients’ medication lists in order to catch those who try to obtain multiple prescriptions for addictive pain killers from different medical professionals.

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