Fueled by emotional testimony from several lawmakers, a proposal to let women in prison have their babies with them has received initial approval in the Missouri House.
Representative Bruce DeGroot pauses to collect himself during emotional comments while presenting his HB 1897. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 1897 would let incarcerated women in Missouri live with their infants for up to 18 months if they meet certain criteria.
House members have heard that in other states such programs have been beneficial to mothers, children, and those states. Recidivism among participants has been minimal and children have benefitted from bonding with their mothers and being less likely to enter foster care. States, meanwhile, have saved money due to reduced recidivism and need for foster care, among other factors.
Aldridge encouraged other members to add their names to the list of the bill’s co-sponsors to send a strong message of support to the Senate if and when the measure is sent there. By Friday afternoon the list of co-sponsors had grown to 27 House members.
If HB 1897 becomes law it would be up to the Department of Corrections to administer the nursery program and determine which women could participate. Potential participants would be screened for mental health issues and could have no record of violent offenses or child abuse.
Another favorable vote would send the proposal to the Senate.
The Missouri House voted Wednesday to override Governor Mike Parson’s (R) vetoes of several spending proposals in the state budget, including one aimed at stemming the sexual abuse of children in Lincoln County.
Representative Randy Pietzman (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The Senate did not concur on those overrides and allowed the governor’s actions to stand, and those proposals to fail.
House members including Lincoln County representative Randy Pietzman (R-Troy) took to the floor expressing anger and frustration that Parson rejected $300,000 to fund a 3-year pilot program that would’ve hired investigators, a prosecutor, and staff to address an increase in sex offenders in the region.
Pietzman directed his criticism squarely at the governor, saying this was a plan he and others in the county worked for years to develop. The governor has said that a federal grant program can be used to address this issue but Pietzman says that will not work.
The chamber also voted 151-3 to reverse the governor on a $2-million item that included 3-percent pay raises for caseworkers and supervisors in the Children’s Division. These employees deal with abuse, neglect, and other issues facing children in the custody of the state.
Representative Raychel Proudie (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
On another vote, the House voted to restore funding for court costs to the owners of certain wedding venues. St. Louis Republican Jim Murphy said these owners were years ago told by the Department of Revenue they did not need to pay sales tax, but years later the Department sent them bills for tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Eventually everything was paid back to those owners but the court costs.
The Missouri House has again voted to renounce the 1852 decision by the Missouri Supreme Court that denied Scott and his family their freedom.
Representative Raychel Proudie is moved to tears after the House votes unanimously to renounce to the 1852 Dred Scott Decision by the Missouri Supreme Court. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Scott had argued that he, his wife, and his two children were free because they had lived in the state of Illinois, where slavery was not legal. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling and said they were still slaves. The case preceded another suit in which the U.S. Supreme Court also found against Scott and his family.
Proudie has often spoken about how for many reasons it is significant for her to be a state representative, including that she is an African American woman and the ancestor of enslaved people.
Representative Dottie Bailey (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Bailey said she had followed versions of this measure in previous years, including in 2018 when House Concurrent Resolution 86 was passed by the House.
The bust of Dred Scott in the Hall of Famous Missourians, in the Capitol. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Representative Rasheen Aldridge Jr. (D-St. Louis) said the amendment in the House and its counterpart in the Senate have moved forward on the strength of lawmakers from different parties and ethnic backgrounds coming together.
House members from both parties are not happy that Missourians are being asked to pay back unemployment assistance they received in error through no fault of their own.
Department of Labor Director Anna Hui told the Special Committee on Government Oversight overpayments are “kind of built into” the unemployment system. The Department is expected to make an eligibility determination and get a payment out to an applicant within 14 days, generally based solely on information provided by the applicant. As additional information comes in, often from the applicant’s current or past employers, it could prove he or she was not eligible.
Missouri Department of Labor Director Anna Hui (photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
She said for 2020 that amounted to about $150-million in benefits that the Department paid out and now wants back.
Hui told the committee Governor Mike Parson (R) has made clear that he wants the Department to seek collection of those overpayments, viewing them as taxpayer dollars that went to ineligible individuals.
Several legislators said they have heard from constituents who have been asked to pay back thousands of dollars in state or federal relief, sometimes months after they received it. One constituent was asked to repay about $23,000.
St. Ann representative Doug Clemens (D) said for Missouri to ask people already struggling financially due to covid to pay back thousands of dollars is wrong.
Representatives, including Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), said the reasons given to individuals for their ineligibility were not always clear. She read a letter the Department sent to one of her constituents telling them they had to repay for a “miscellaneous reason.” Proudie called that “unacceptable.”
Members of the House Committee on Government Oversight, including (front row, from left) Reps. Tony Lovasco, Scott Cupps, Doug Clemens, (next row, from left) Richard Brown, Mark Ellebracht, and Raychel Proudie (photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Federal directives have given states the option not to require repayment of assistance from the federal government, which makes up the majority of the $150-million the Department overpaid. Hui explained that Missouri is choosing to seek repayment of federal relief.
Proudie thinks the state shouldn’t be expending its resources to pull money from Missouri’s economy just to send it back to the federal government, and Representative Scott Cupps (R-Shell Knob) agrees.
The Department is required by state statute to collect overpayments out of the state fund.
Dan Thacker represents a union including about 500 school bus drivers and monitors. He said many of them make salaries that would put them near the poverty level, yet roughly 400 are being asked to pay back thousands of dollars.
St. Joseph Republican Bill Falkner said any legislative action will have to balance the waiving of repayment by Missourians with protecting businesses, as some of these overpayments are charged to them.
Committee members also spoke directly to Missourians during the hearing. Cupps said the repayment situation is adding to already heightened stress for struggling Missourians. He wants them to know he and other legislators are paying attention, and are looking for a solution.
Hui told the committee that Missouri is on pace to need a loan to support the state’s unemployment trust, likely by around June. She did not offer a projection of how great that loan might be. She said this could cause employers to have to pay more, as that loan is repaid.
Witnesses and lawmakers alike suggested that repayment decisions have seemed arbitrary and inconsistent, with some people being ordered to pay back only federal funds, some to pay back only state funds, and some told to pay everything or nothing.
When a person is trying to get out of a domestic violence situation one of their needs is a place to live, sometimes for children as well as their self. If that person is under a lease agreement, property owners are under no legal obligation to release that person. This could have lasting repercussions both financially and in finding another place to live.
Representative Jean Evans (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Those bills would prevent anyone at risk of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking from being evicted, being denied tenancy, or violating a lease agreement as a result of that risk. A person who was a victim or in imminent danger of being victimized would be able to use that as a defense if a landlord takes them to court. The bills would establish what evidence a landlord must accept as proof of such situations.
Heinen said individuals attempting to escape domestic violence often find it difficult to find a new place to live after facing problems getting out of a former residence.
Representative Proudie’s legislative assistant, Holly Bickmeyer, told the committee she was 14 when she lost her mother due to domestic violence. She thinks legislation like these bills could have made a difference in her life.
Representative Jim Neely (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The committee held hearings on HBs 243 and 544 on Tuesday morning. There was no opposition voiced. Daryl Dewe, a registered lobbyist for the St. Louis Apartment Association, joined those testifying in support.
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