VIDEO House proposals would address HIV spread and stigma, abuse of IV and prescription drugs
The Missouri House again will weigh bills aimed at fighting intravenous and prescription drug abuse, as well as a bipartisan effort to fight a stigma against those infected with HIV.
Representative Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) has prefiled legislation to legalize programs that give drug abusers clean needles, and for the seventh consecutive year has filed legislation to make statewide a monitoring program for drug prescriptions. She and Representative Tracy McCreery (D-St. Louis) have also filed bills to change Missouri law that criminalizes exposing someone to HIV.
Supporters say needle exchange programs have been operating in the state for years, and don’t entice people to start abusing intravenous drugs. Rather, they say, they ensure abusers aren’t transmitting diseases through dirty needles and it puts them in contact with medical providers who can facilitate getting them into treatment.
Several such programs already operate in Missouri, though they are doing so against the letter of the law. House Bill 1486 would exempt those programs from the crime of “unlawful delivery of drug paraphernalia.”
House Bill 1693, dubbed the “Narcotics Control Act,” would make statewide a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) like that maintained by the St. Louis County Health Department. That program covers about 87-percent of Missouri’s population, in just over half its counties. Rehder said that program has had great results but the whole state must be covered.
A PDMP is a database that physicians and pharmacists could use to track pill purchases and pharmacy visits, in an effort to find those who are potentially filling multiple prescriptions to support abuse. Such proposals have met stiff opposition in past years, generally from those who say creating such a database would put sensitive medical information in danger of being breached.
House Bills 1691 (Rehder) and 1692 (McCreery) would reduce or eliminate the penalties for knowingly exposing someone with HIV. Backers say the current penalties are too steep – the punishment for knowingly exposing to HIV someone who contracts the disease is on par with those for murder, rape, and forcible kidnapping.
Supporters say the harsh penalties are actually helping the spread of HIV by discouraging people from getting tested.
Both bills have been filed for the session that begins January 8.
Reps. Rehder and McCreery and advocates discuss the legislation in the video below:
House to consider restrictions on student restraint/seclusion in Missouri public schools
The Missouri House will consider limitations on when the state’s public schools can restrain students or put them in seclusion.
Two bills were prefiled for the session that begins next month, one by Representative Dottie Bailey (R-Eureka) and one by Representative Ian Mackey (D-St. Louis). Missouri is one of 11 states that has no protective laws for students with disabilities. It also has no law protecting against seclusion or restraint.
Bailey, who will be the vice-chair of the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education, said she was disturbed by the stories she heard when Mackey presented his legislation during the 2019 session.
Bailey said she was surprised to learn how restraint and seclusion were being applied.
“It’s very archaic or medieval, whatever words you want to use,” said Bailey.
Mackey said advocates brought the issue to him and when he researched it, the stories he read were alarming, and many of them come from Missouri.
“I began to research it and quickly found story after story after story of children who had been locked in these rooms, these closets, without their parents knowing, for extended periods of time, for multiple days, in every part of our state,” said Mackey. “It immediately became clear to me that it was an urgent issue and that it was an issue that we should address right away.”
House Bills 1568 (Bailey) and 1569 (Mackey) would ban the use of seclusion and restraint except when there are health or safety concerns for students, teachers, or staff; require that when restraint or seclusion are used that all parties involved except students write a report on the incident; and require the notification of parents or guardians of the incident within 24 hours. It would allow parents or guardians access to all reports on the incident and the right to a meeting to review it, and allow them to file a complaint with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Bailey said just as important is that the legislation would put into state law a definition of seclusion and restraint.
Both lawmakers say there could be times when seclusion or restraint is necessary, so their bills don’t aim to bar it altogether.
“I think that there are a few stories that exist of children who can at some points be particularly violent, and obviously if a child is being violent and posing a direct, serious physical safety threat to others around them, then that’s an instance where that child needs to be removed and that’s what our bill allows for,” said Mackey. “What we see happening … is kids are just doing kid things … they’re not exhibiting a threat to the extent that would require them to be locked away, and again without their parents even being notified.”
Two House committees passed Mackey’s legislation in 2019. He and Bailey are optimistic their bipartisan effort can get a bill through the legislative process in 2020.
The new session begins January 8.
Texting while driving ban for all drivers proposed for 2020 legislative session
The House of Representatives will consider extending Missouri’s ban on texting while driving to drivers of all ages in the legislative session that begins January 8.
Missouri law only bans texting while driving for those 21 and younger. House Bill 1290 would extend that ban to all drivers. It would also allow local jurisdictions to enact their own laws and ordinances on the use of hand-held electronic communications devices.
Representative David Evans (R-West Plains) filed HB 1290. He said it simply doesn’t make sense to ban only younger drivers from texting while driving.
Evans said he wanted to propose what would be the “least intrusive” expansion of the texting while driving law. After reviewing past legislation on the matter he chose to offer the same language as 2019’s House Bill 896, filed by Representative Rory Rowland (D-Independence).
“It’s really a safety issue. It’s important to me as a parent, it’s important to me as a grandfather. As a former judge, you see so many of these cases these days of folks that are distracted by driving. One of the most time-consuming and distracting things you can do is look away and type,” said Evans. “It’s an activity we need to regulate in some fashion. I’m not going overboard here but simply saying hey, that extreme activity of texting and driving is something you’ve got to be more careful about and [the bill would] save lives and save accidents.”
The Department of Transportation backs extending the texting while driving ban to all drivers. Nicole Hood, State Highway Safety and Traffic Engineer, said that would make roads safer for drivers and MoDOT workers. The Department reports that since 2014, cell phone-related crashes in Missouri have increased by 31-percent, reaching nearly 2,500 last year.
“We continue to have record numbers of traffic fatalities. For the past three years Missouri alone has had over 900 people that have been killed in traffic crashes and every one of those deaths affects a family and a community,” said Hood. “Distracted driving, it can be a leading cause of some of these crashes, and using those cell phones and texting can definitely be a contributing factor.”
Similar legislation has received little or no attention from the legislature in recent years. Evans said he will talk to House leaders soon in hopes of getting this bill some traction.
Violations of Missouri’s texting while driving ban result in two-point violations against a driver’s license. Accumulation of points can result in a license being suspended or revoked.
Prefiled bill aims to make domestic violence victims’ escape from abusers easier
A bill prefiled for the 2020 session of the Missouri General Assembly aims to make it easier for victims of domestic violence to escape abusive environments.
House Bill 1300 would allow individuals, with the assistance of domestic violence shelter staff, to get free copies of birth certificates.
“Individuals who flee the abusive situation often times don’t have the opportunity to grab important documents that they may need later on. A lot of times they just leave with the clothes on their backs,” said Representative Chris Dinkins (R-Annapolis), the sponsor of House Bill 1300.
“In order to help them get back on their feet the [resource centers] have to try to help them get jobs and get their kids in school, and all these things require a birth certificate,” said Dinkins. “If you don’t have your driver’s license you need a birth certificate to get your driver’s license. If you don’t have a bank account, you need some form of identification to set up a bank account … nowadays businesses do direct deposits for paychecks, so you need a bank account in order to receive your payment.”
The Missouri Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence’s Public Policy Director, Jennifer Carter Dochler, said such vital documents provide abusers with another way to control their victims. Withholding them can make it more difficult for a victim to leave.
“Other times we see an abusive partner intentionally destroying those materials. They know it’s going to be a difficulty for an individual so they intentionally destroy them,” said Carter Dochler.
Having access to birth certificates would be key to ensuring that victims escaping abusive situations don’t have to return to them.
Domestic violence shelters in Missouri have been covering the cost of birth certificates for clients who need them but those shelters have limited resources and the cost is becoming an issue for them.
Dinkins offered similar legislation in the 2019 session and it nearly passed, despite being introduced on the last day for filing bills. Lawmakers heard then that the $15 cost for a new copy of a birth certificate can be prohibitive to victims, who often have little or no money and need that very document in order to get a job. It is a further burden when they must pay that $15 for each child under their care.
Dinkins said what slowed the bill’s progress in 2019 its estimated cost to the state, which she said was grossly overestimated.
Dinkins said helping people escaping abuse get back into the work force would further offset any cost the bill could create for the state.
The 2019 bill passed out of the House and out of a Senate committee but was not voted on by the full Senate. Dinkins is optimistic that this year’s earlier start means the legislation has a better chance of reaching Governor Mike Parson (R).
The legislative session begins January 8.
Panel wants Missouri to apply for first Hyperloop certification track (VIDEO)
Missouri should be first state to apply for to have a high-speed Hyperloop system built within its borders. That’s the recommendation released today from the Special Blue Ribbon Panel on Hyperloop formed by Missouri House Speaker Elijah Haahr (R-Springfield).
The Panel wants Missouri to be first in building a national certification track. It would be the first step toward seeing a Hyperloop connection between Kansas City and St. Louis, offering passengers a trip between the two in less than 30 minutes.
Haahr said the Hyperloop would keep Missouri at the forefront of transportation technology developments and revolutionize the movement of passengers and freight across the state, while opening up the possibility for ultra-fast travel to other locations in the country in the future. It is also projected that it would reduce fatalities in I-70 as well as carbon emissions.
The test track would cost between $300-million and $500-million.
Learn more about the Panel’s proposal by watching the conference presented today on the University of Missouri campus:
Missouri law now includes expanded therapy coverage for children with disabilities
More Missouri children and teenagers with specific developmental or physical disabilities will have insurance coverage for therapeutic care under a House proposal that became law this year.
The language, included in Senate Bill 514, expands Missouri law that mandates coverage for therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder. It includes physical, speech, and occupational therapies. It will apply to plans renewed or enacted beginning January 1.
It was sponsored by Rocheport representative Chuck Basye (R), who said estimates placed the number of children this would impact at between 5,000 and 6,000.
“It was the last thing I ever thought I would get behind because I do not have anybody in my family that has a developmental disability,” said Basye. “My brother-in-law is blind … that’s not really a developmental disability but that played a role in it.”
Basye said when he met Robyn Schelp, President of Missouri Disability Empowerment, and her 11 year-old son Nathan, who has a genetic disorder, he heard their plight and thinking about his brother-in-law put it into context.
Basye also developed a special bond with Nathan, which we wrote about in March.
Schelp worked in the Capitol for three years, often with Nathan at her side, pushing for this legislation. She said the law will now help children who have a broad array of conditions.
“The ones you’re familiar with; Downs syndrome, CP, MS, but it’s also going to apply to kids like my son, whose diagnoses are so rare that you’ve never even heard of them. It’s any developmental disability,” said Schelp, “Which is really one of our goals, is that we start thinking of disabilities inclusively; that we don’t pick and choose who gets funding, who gets the services, but that we make sure that every child with a disability gets what they need to be successful.”
Legislators heard that making therapies more available to children when they are young makes those therapies more effective, and the benefits are seen in other aspects of their lives.
“Just speech alone, speech and language, the ability to communicate your needs is so important for day-to-day functioning, so it gives them that ability just to be independent and to function in day-to-day life, and it gives them confidence to go up and engage with people, so that’s huge, but it also helps them academically,” said Schelp. “This is a big picture thing. We’re not talking just, ‘Oh, great, now he can say the S sound.’ We are talking, he can now go and engage in his daily life with other people, and the same can be said for occupational therapy and physical therapy.”
Making such therapies available to children earlier in life can also lead to cost savings for families and the state.
“For example, speech, some children need help swallowing. They will aspirate. If they get that therapy then great, they’re going to be able to swallow properly, and if they don’t they might end up with pneumonia and end up in the hospital,” said Schelp. “There are a lot of health consequences that come when kids aren’t getting the therapies that they need. Even just the ability to communicate your needs can keep you healthier and safer.”
Schelp said it is difficult for her to think about how different Nathan’s life might have been if this law had been in place when he was growing up. He was limited to one session of each type of therapy a week, early in his life.
“Had we have had this he could’ve started getting speech therapy three times a week at the age of 2 or at the age of 3. We had to wait until Nathan was 9 before he could start getting those therapies. Just the progress he’s made in the last two years … I just think if he would’ve had that when he was 2 and 3, and early intervention when the development is so crucial, where might we be today?” said Schelp. “If we would’ve had just a solid foundation of speech and language therapies at the beginning to help him, I don’t even want to think about where we could be today, but he went until the age of 9 not able to get, fully, the therapy that he needed.”
Schelp went from being so, as she put it, “out of the loop” in state politics she had to look up who her state representative was. She encourages others to be willing to lobby for the changes they want or need in government.
“You really can do this, and if you don’t do it, it may not get done,” said Schelp. “People don’t know what they don’t know, and if you don’t share your story and let [legislators] know what’s happening, they’re not going to be able to change anything.”
All 50 states have an autism mandate. This legislation made Missouri the third state to expand that to cover all developmental and physical disabilities.
Basye’s legislation passed out of the House with broad support, 138-4. That bill, House Bill 399, was eventually vetoed by Governor Mike Parson (R) because of an issue with another measure that was amended to it, but the language became law as part of SB 514, which was signed into law July 11.
Schelp’s organization has other issues that it’s working on and Basye said he would be working with her on a least one of them.
House bill giving ‘Missouri Bourbon’ meaning becomes law
Now, when the words “Missouri Bourbon” appear on a bottle, it will mean something.
A House bill that became law in August requires that products labeled “Missouri Bourbon” or “Missouri Bourbon Whiskey” be produced in this state, using Missouri oak barrels. After January 1 it will also have to have been made with Missouri-grown corn.
The proposal was brought forward by Montgomery City Republican Jeff Porter. He said those who make bourbon in this state wanted an official acknowledgement that it was truly made here.
Gary Hinegardner with Wood Hat Spirits in New Florence said the origin of bourbon is important to people who buy it.
Former representative Don Gosen with Copper Mule Distillery said the label will tell buyers that they are getting a product that doesn’t cut corners.
“That they are getting the best barrels in the world, without question … even the French buy a lot of their wine barrels made with Missouri oak, so they’re getting the best barrel, they’re getting some of the best corn grown in the world, so they know that the product is being made with the best raw materials,” said Gosen. “I don’t think a Kentucky Bourbon means as much as a Missouri Bourbon just because ours defines the raw materials so well. The federal law defines more of the process but the Missouri Bourbon defines the raw materials.”
Porter said there is a growing bourbon industry in Missouri that supports an international market, and having a legal definition for the “Missouri Bourbon” label will support it.
“With those input costs beings so … easily supplied for by our corn and our white oak barrels to make the product, I just feel like there’s a lot more demand than I realized,” said Porter. “It’s just an increasing demand for our bourbon, and also to compete with Kentucky, our neighbor state, with the same product.”
This language was included in House Bill 266, which also has provisions to designate July 7 as “Sliced Bread Day,” and May 26 as the “Battle of St. Louis Memorial Day.”
It was signed into law by Governor Mike Parson on July 11.
Houses passes vehicle tax credit bill, answering call of special legislative session
The Missouri House has passed legislation aiming to allow people to keep getting multiple tax breaks when trading in more than one vehicle on a new one.
The chamber’s Republicans say the language of House Bill 1 will allow Missourians to keep doing what they’ve been doing and say it will help all consumers. Many House Democrats voted for the bill, though some in that caucus decried it as “corporate welfare” and said it was a topic unworthy of a special session.
The House voted today, 126-21, to send the bill to the Senate.
Governor Mike Parson (R) called a special session to coincide with today’s annual veto session to deal with the issue in response to a Missouri Supreme Court ruling in June. The Court said state law allows a tax break to be awarded only on one vehicle, when multiple vehicles are traded in toward a new one.
Sponsor Becky Ruth (R-Festus) said her bill will give much-needed tax relief to Missourians from all walks of life.
Shrewsbury Democrat Sarah Unsicker agreed the bill will affect some individuals, but said it will also let corporations keep from paying their “fair share.”
“There are approximately 14-thousand vehicle sales estimated to be impacted by this bill. The Department of Revenue cannot estimate how much this tax credit costs the state or how many vehicles are commercial sales,” said Unsicker. “If we make this just about individuals like those the sponsor referenced I would support this bill. However, I believe this bill is, to a substantial extent, corporate welfare, and therefore I will be voting against it.”
An amendment that would have made the tax credit available only to individuals and businesses of 12 or fewer employees was voted down.
Democrats argued that the tax credit issue was not pressing and did not merit the calling of a special session.
“This Supreme Court Decision didn’t just help us figure out, this summer, that this was an issue. Since 2008 there have been 17 administrative hearings to ask this question of whether folks are allowed to trade in multiple cars to offset the car they buy. In all 17 administrative hearings they found they couldn’t,” said St. Louis representative Peter Merideth (D). “Regular people, regular folks were being told they couldn’t claim this credit, but we didn’t consider it an emergency.”
Ruth argued that the law needed to be clarified, and addressing it in a special session makes sure no eligible vehicle trades will happen without the award of tax credits, thanks to a window of 180 days before or after a new vehicle purchase in which to offset the owed sales tax.
“If you’re one of those people since the Supreme Court decision on June 25, 2019, that’s trying to figure this out … if we do this now, those folks are still going to be able to take advantage of that credit. If we wait and we do this next session they’re not going to be able to take advantage of that credit,” said Ruth. “The people that come before them, the people that come after them, will, and this could possibly set our state up for lawsuits.”
Ruth calls the legislation is a way to keep Missouri law consistent.
“The problem that I have with that is the ‘business as usual’ that we’ve been doing has been established by the Supreme Court to be against the law,” said Kansas City representative Ingrid Burnett (D). “Rather than take to task the [Department of Revenue], who has been breaking the law, we have decided to call a special session to come here to change the law.”
House Democrats said lawmakers’ time would have been better spent debating changes to gun laws, and several among them filed proposals to that end.
They also wanted to see attention given to Medicaid enrollment. House Minority Leader Crystal Quade (D-Springfield) said Missourians with life-threatening medical conditions are losing coverage.
House Speaker Elijah Haahr (R-Springfield) said any time a special session is called people will point to other issues it could have dealt with.
Haahr said he has asked members of his caucus to research what some other cities in the nation have done to reduce violent crime, with the aim of preparing a legislative proposal for the regular session that begins in January.
As for Medicaid enrollment, Haahr said decreases in enrollment are due to factors including an improved economy and changes in 2016 to the Affordable Care Act (ACA); and a review of Medicaid eligibility that has seen ineligible recipients being taken off the program’s rolls. He said if a need for hearings on the issue is presented to him, he will call for them.
New law will affect school start dates beginning next year
Some schools will be starting classes later under a bill signed into law last month by Governor Mike Parson (R).
Missouri law has allowed school districts to begin classes up to ten days before the first Monday in September, but an earlier start date could be set if a district’s board approves it in a public meeting. A provision in House Bill 604 repeals that provision, and allows districts to set start dates no earlier than 14 days before the first Monday in September.
The provision was proposed by Lebanon Republican Jeff Knight, who said earlier start dates hurt two of the state’s top industries: tourism and agriculture.
“The tourism dollars that are lost in August because these schools start earlier and earlier and earlier was becoming significant,” said Knight. “There was some opposition from a lot of school groups talking about local control, but at the same time, we need those revenues to help fund schools.”
Knight said at least one study found a 30-percent decrease in July and August lodging tax collections at the Lake of the Ozarks over the last decade. He compared that to changes in school start dates and saw that in that time, many districts that had been starting after Labor Day ten years ago were now starting around the second week of August.
Knight said agriculture is also affected as students who would be working on farms are pulled away for classes during potential harvest periods.
Knight said what can’t be measured in dollar amounts or percentages are the family vacations that might be altered by earlier start dates, and the memories and experiences families could be having together by being allowed more time in the summer months. He said for many families, taking vacation in the spring simply isn’t as appealing.
Knight, who is a former educator, said extending the start date cutoff from 10 to 14 days means districts can still start reasonably early.
The provision of HB 604 regarding schools’ start date doesn’t affect districts until the start of the 2020-21 school year.