The state House has again voted for a measure aimed at increasing women’s access to birth control while saving the state money.
Representative Shamed Dogan (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)
House Bill 1499 would let health care providers use a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) for a patient other than the one to whom it was initially prescribed.
When a woman in Missouri chooses to have a LARC implanted her doctor must order that device and the woman must return for another office visit to have it implanted. If the woman changes her mind before the second visit and doesn’t want the device, Missouri law doesn’t allow it to be used for another patient. It must be returned to its manufacturer and often it is destroyed.
The sponsor of HB 1499, Representative Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin), said because Medicaid pays for those devices, the passage of his bill would save the state money.
Dogan said in Fiscal Year 2017 about 1,800 LARCs were “abandoned” by patients in Missouri. About 1,000 of those could have been used for other patients and that would’ve saved Missouri about $220-thousand.
The proposal has been sent to the Senate 133-10. Last year it was passed as an amendment to other legislation, but was not passed in the Senate.
The House this week voted to set a minimum age at which people in Missouri can get a marriage license, but the bill met more resistance than last year.
Representative Jean Evans (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Marriage licenses can now be issued to persons younger than 15 under certain conditions. House Bill 1630 would increase that age to 17 and require a court hearing on whether the marriage is advisable. No licenses would be issued when either party is younger than 15, or when one party is 21 or older and the other party is younger than 17.
Bill sponsor Jean Evans (R-Manchester) began offering the legislation last year as a way to fight human trafficking; particularly cases in which abusers bring young trafficking victims to Missouri to marry them.
The bill had bipartisan support, including from St. Louis Democrat Michael Butler, who said it’s appropriate for the legislature to set a minimum age for things like marriage.
Similar legislation passed out of the House last year 139-1, but this year many Republicans opposed the bill. Some, including Lincoln Republican Wanda Brown, don’t like the requirement that a court hearing decide whether a marriage license should be issued for someone between the ages of 15 and 17.
Representative Wanda Brown (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Regarding concerns like those of Wood, Evans said her bill is very similar to one in place in Pennsylvania where there are significant, similar religious populations.
Evans also said the bill does nothing to prevent a religious wedding ceremony.
Despite increased opposition over last year, a bipartisan 95-50 vote sent the bill to the Senate. Last year Evans’ similar legislation was approved by a Senate committee but advanced no further.
The Missouri House has defeated a bill to increase penalties for assaulting or killing a law enforcement animal amid emotional debate led by black Democrats, who emphasized what they say those dogs represent to their communities.
Representative Robert Cornejo (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 1649 would increase those penalties as high as a class-C felony, which carries up to ten years in prison, for killing a police dog or injuring it to the extent it cannot continue to be used as a police dog.
Some Republicans also talked about issues they had with the legislation. Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin) said under HB 1649 the penalties for killing or disabling a police dog would be greater than those for second degree rape or assaulting a person in a nursing home. He also said the bill leaves no room for self-defense against a police dog and does not account for incidents in which a dog might be used improperly by police.
Some Republicans said the issues that were raised caused them to change from favoring the bill in last week’s vote to opposing it. Rolla Republican Keith Frederick told Beatty the legislation needs to be reconsidered.
Representative Shamed Dogan (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications
The vote on the bill was 73-68, short of the 82 needed to send it to the Senate. Cornejo noted that there were 14 members absent for that vote and said the bill could be brought up again for consideration, or that the issue should still receive attention.
Proponents say a bill in the Missouri House would expand access to birth control and save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Representative Shamed Dogan (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 1499 would allow health care providers to use a long-acting contraceptive device for a patient other than the one for whom it was initially prescribed.
In Missouri when a woman goes to a health care provider and elects to use a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC), her provider must order that device and implant it on a subsequent office visit. Often women don’t return to have the device implanted, and Missouri law doesn’t allow that device to be used by another patient – it must be returned to its manufacturer and is often destroyed.
In Fiscal Year 2017 approximately 1,800 LARCs were so “abandoned” in Missouri. About 1,100 of those could have been used in other patients, saving the state approximately $220-thousand dollars.
The proposal was passed out of the House in 2017 as an amendment to other legislation but did not become law. No one testified in opposition to it in the Committee’s hearing.
Two state representatives have asked Missourians to remember the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah, the day Israel commemorates the six million Jews killed in that event.
Representatives Shamed Dogan (left) and Stacey Newman speak in the Missouri House about Holocaust remembrance. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communication)
St. Louis Democrat Stacey Newman and Ballwin Republican Shamed Dogan spoke on the House Floor on Monday, as Yom HaShoah was being observed. In Israel, the day is marked by ceremonies, the closing by law of entertainment facilities, and a two-minute moment of silence during which most people stop what they’re doing for solemn reflection. This includes motorists stopping and standing by their vehicles in the roadway.
Newman’s husband’s father, aunts, uncle, and grandmother are Holocaust survivors who escaped Nazi Germany in 1938. Many of his grandmother’s sisters, brothers-in-law, and other family members, were never accounted for.
She and Dogan, whose wife is Jewish, say they will spend the next year working together to revive the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission Act of 2006.
Missouri House members observe a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims, survivors, and heroes of the Holocaust. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Dogan said he and Newman would work with the St. Louis Holocaust Museum & Learning Center and the state’s universities and public schools to keep the Act alive.
The state House is close to passing another ethics reform proposal – this one aimed at the influence lobbyists have on local elected officials.
Representative Shamed Dogan has proposed banning lobbyist gifts to local government officials since 2015. In 2016 it was added to a proposed ban on gifts to legislators and statewide elected officials. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 229 would bar gifts from lobbyists to local government officials, superintendents, school board members, members of charter school boards, and the staff and family members of such people.
The proposal is described as extending to local elected officials the same ethical reforms the House has proposed for members of the legislature and statewide elected officials, most recently in House Bill 60 which was sent to the Senate in January.
The bill originally extended its prohibitions only to governments and school districts with annual operating budgets of more than $10-million. It was amended to remove that cap.
Representative Deb Lavender offers an amendment removing a provision that extended the gift ban only to officials in local governments and school districts with annual operating budgets of $10-million or more. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Odessa Republican Glen Kolkmeyer said he is glad the proposal would extend to superintendents, after an incident he said happened in the Wellington-Napoleon School District.
Dogan said he’s seen similar situations unfold in St. Louis-area school districts.
Dogan has also cited, in promoting his bill, an experience he had while a Ballwin Alderman. He learned the city administrator had accepted World Series tickets from a trash company that had a no-bid contract up for approval with the city.
Just as HB 60 would allow lobbyists to contribute money to events to which all state elected officials and legislators are invited, HB 229 would allow lobbyists to pay for events to which all members of a political subdivision or all members of the General Assembly are invited.
HB 229 has broad bipartisan support. One more favorable vote will send it to the Senate.
He said House Bill 233 could help reduce Missouri’s unplanned pregnancy rate by as much as 25-percent.
HB 233 would let pharmacists prescribe oral contraceptives to those 18 or older regardless of whether that person has a previous prescription. Those younger than 18 who have evidence of a previous prescription could also be prescribed the pill by a pharmacist.
The legislation is projected to save Missouri money, and Dogan said it would save women money and time by negating the need for some visits to their doctor.
Dogan said he favors making birth control over-the-counter, but noted such proposals have not been adopted in states that are more politically progressive than Missouri, and he doesn’t feel such a bill would be likely to pass in the Missouri legislature.
Shannon Cooper testified against HB 233 on behalf of Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the Missouri Coalition. He said their primary concern was that without the need for a prescription, women would make fewer visits to their doctors.
Others expressed concern that allowing a 12-month supply could lead to wasted pills, such as in cases in which a woman only uses them for a while and then stops for some reason.
Representative Mike Stephens (R-Bolivar), himself a pharmacist, said he hopes the proposal represents a larger effort to expand the availability of medical services.
A House Republican is again proposing that independent investigators be required whenever a law enforcement officer in Missouri is involved in someone’s death.
Representative Shamed Dogan (right) listens as Michael Bell testifies in favor of a bill that would require independent investigations of all deaths involving law enforcement officers. Bell’s son was fatally shot by police in Kenosha, WI, in 2004. Bell later won a lawsuit against police in that case. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 232 would require all law enforcement agencies in Missouri to have written policies on how officer-involved deaths would be handled. Those policies would have to utilize at least two investigators, with neither of them being employed by the same agency as the officer involved in the death. In the case of traffic-related deaths, the bill would require that an outside crash reconstruction team participate in the investigation.
The bill would also require the investigators issue a report to the local prosecutor. If that prosecutor decides no prosecution will follow, the investigators would make that report public.
The bill is modeled after legislation that has become law in Wisconsin. It was backed by Michael Bell, whose son Michael was shot and killed by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2004. Bell later won a lawsuit against police over the incident.
Bell said the legislation has been put to the test in the four states where it has been passed and he believes it has worked well and has improved the public’s trust in law enforcement. He said that would also make police safer.
Dogan said after the House last week endorsed legislation that would increase penalties when certain crimes are committed against law enforcement, following up with his legislation makes sense.
The bill would allow the agency an officer involved in a death works for to conduct its own investigation as long as it would not interfere with the independent investigation that the bill requires.
House lawmakers continue to lay out a slate of proposed ethics reforms they believe would help restore the public’s trust in Missouri’s elected officials.
Representative Kip Kendrick (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Columbia Democrat Kip Kendrick presented to the House Committee on General Laws, House Bill 217, an omnibus bill encompassing a series of measures offered by other members of his caucus. He said each proposed reform is based on promises made by candidates during the recent campaign cycle – promises that he says were endorsed by voters based on which candidates made those promises and won.
Two key provisions would build on work already done by the House toward ethics reform that House Democrats say they want to take farther than earlier proposals. One aims to ban gifts and monetary donations from lobbyists to elected officials.
Kirkwood Democrat Deb Lavender is carrying the Democrats’ version of a proposed gift ban, House Bill 212. She told lawmakers her bill would be tougher than House Bill 60, passed two weeks ago by the House.
Kirkwood Democrat Deb Lavender is carrying the Democrats’ version of a proposed gift ban, House Bill 212. She told lawmakers under House Bill 60, passed two weeks ago by the House, organizations could exploit a provision that lets them provide meals for legislators at events as long as all members of the General Assembly and all state lawmakers are invited.
The other provision proposes extending the prohibition on elected or appointed officials or legislators becoming lobbyists from six months to five years after their term has ended, and would apply that to certain legislative staff. It is also found in House Bill 213, sponsored by Representative Joe Adams (D-University City).
Other provisions in HB 217 propose prohibiting any candidates’ committees from transferring their funds to their candidate’s family members; requiring former candidates to dissolve their candidate committees; and letting the Missouri Ethics Commission prosecute criminal cases and initiate civil cases if the state Attorney General declines to pursue either regarding an alleged ethics violation. Those provisions are found in House Bill 214 (Tracy McCreery), House Bill 215 (Mark Ellebracht), House Bill 216 (Crystal Quade), respectively.
Representative Shamed Dogan (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republicans have their own proposals to further reform Missouri ethics laws. Ballwin Representative Shamed Dogan wants to ban gifts from lobbyists to local government officials.
Dogan said such officials are held to a much lower standard than legislators.
Republican Tom Hurst (Meta) presented House Bill 150, which would exempt individuals not paid to lobby from having to register or report as a lobbyist.
Hurst said he wants members of the public to know that they can talk to elected officials about issues that concern them without having to file as a lobbyist, and without fear of being prosecuted for failing to file.
The committee has not voted on any of those bills.
House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) and other legislative leaders have said ethics reforms would continue to be a priority in the 2017 session.
The state House has advanced a right-to-work proposal but rejected Democrats’ attempt to have Missourians vote on it.
Representative Doug Beck offered an amendment that would have had a right-to-work proposal go to a vote of the people, if passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Eric Greitens. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Right-to-work is a priority for the Republican super majorities in both chambers and of Governor Eric Greitens (R). The plan the House voted on would bar union membership or the paying of union dues from being a condition of employment. It would make violators of that prohibition guilty of a Class “C” misdemeanor and would require county prosecutors and the state Attorney General to investigate complaints of violations.
Most Republican House members say the bill would make Missouri more competitive against neighboring states, would increase wages, and argue that requiring union membership violates employees’ rights.
Democrats say right-to-work will lower wages and would be a government overreach into contracts between unions and employers.
St. Louis Democrat Doug Beck proposed an amendment that would put right-to-work before voters if it is passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Greitens.
Representative Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) is sponsoring right-to-work legislation in the Missouri House. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republicans like Paul Curtman (R-Union) say voters spoke on the issue when they elected a Republican governor to go with Republican supermajorities.
He said Democrats are calling for a vote on the bill now that there is a Republican governor who won’t veto it, but years ago they opposed a Republican bill that would have put the issue to voters at a time when Democratic Governor Jay Nixon would have vetoed it.
Representative Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) said the argument that the election of a Republican governor means the people want right-to-work doesn’t hold up.
Republican-led opposition carried a vote defeating Beck’s amendment, and the House then voted to advance the right-to-work bill 101-58. Another vote for the bill would send it to the state Senate.