WHY ARE SO MANY REPUBLICANS VOTING AGAINST AN ABOLISH ABORTION BILL IN MISSOURI?
In this video you will see in committee, a vote to move Justin Spark’s bill to the floor for debate.
HB 1072 is Justin Spark’s bill to abolish abortion in Missouri.
Here are the Republicans who voted against the Abolish Abortion Bill. You will know them by their votes: Many of these Reps. voted “present” rather than record a NO vote. The “present” vote is the same as a NO vote. Cathy Jo Loy left the room for the vote and the hurried back in to make her votes on other bills that needed votes after this one.
We see you, Cathy Jo. We see you.
When asked who voted how, this was sent to us:
APRIL 28, 2025
House General Session
Representative Darin Chappell opened in Prayer. The journal was approved 146-0.
Points of Personal Priviledge. Rep Costlow of St Charles ask for a moment of silence, and in his reading on the death of the pope, mentioned that he was the first Jesuit Catholic to be pope.
Representative Eric Woods spoke of a firefighter in his district who was stabbed to death by a patient in an ambulance on the way to the hospital with a patient.
Representative Tonya Rush spoke about an 18 year old that died of an accident when she fell off the SUV that she was dancing on the roof of and fell off and was run over by a fire truck that was on its way to an emergency call.
Representative Marla Smith wished her oldest son a Happy Birthday and Representative Tanya Rush a happy anniversary.
Representatives Tim Taylor recognized his family and encouraged the House members to say hi as his family frequently listens and knows people’s voices and has learned their personalities.
3rd Read
SB67 Tax Credits
$10 Million for distressed Communities, tax credits for individuals, and tax credits for beginning farmers for sale or lease of farms. Also lining up the Missouri filing deadline to that of the federal deadline. Federal says April 15 or the next business day if the 15th falls on the weekend. Missouri’s deadline will now be the same. This also includes the provision that if a tax credit for a charitable contribution has run out, and a deficiency notice is received from the IRS, that a person has 60 days to pay the taxes without penalty.
Amendment 1 Chad Perkins on capital gains and circuit breakers. The hope is the Senate will be able to pass this as is with the addition of this particular language that has been negotiated between the House and Senate. Representative from Pike county inquired which version of the circuit breaker language, as this version does not include CPI, thought it should help some low income seniors. This issue is being covered by the media and the real cost of capital gains. $110 mil fiscal not for individuals . Corporate should kick in this year with $250 million to $320 million, though the media believes it might be higher. Individual are getting down to 4.5 so it may be a couple of years for it to kick in.
Matthiesen spoke on the amendment, that he filed similar legislation for the last 3 years, and that the circuit breaker had not been adjusted in 17 years.
Representative Boykin spoke against the amendment. He said that Missourians are learning less, earning less, and dying sooner. 4:31
This was negotiated with the senate, HB594 that passed int he senate and has a much reduced circuit breaker.
Representative Butts cautioned that before we cut taxes we make sure we can continue to balance the budget, as our tax revenue is off from last year. Also watching the federal income and between 38and 50% of the state budget comes from the fed and we need to wait to see what is coming.
Amendment 1 passed by voice vote.
Amendment 2 Hardwick, HB1259 Trusts in state and out of state Amendment passed.
Amendment 3. Jeff Farnan S Corps, C Corps, but we forget the trusts. Rep Weber spoke in favor of the amendment.
SB67 passed 92-58-1
Messages from the Senate
Senate refuses to grant the differences to HB595 &343 and grants a conference.
The House Adjourned at 4:50pm.
APRIL 29, 2025
The Senate General Law’s Committee that was supposed to start at 8am started at approximately 8:15am. As Senator Justin Brown took the stand and Senator Carter was chairing the committee, Senator carter joked, that it’s just you and me. SB743 carried by Senator Justin Brown is about Statewide building codes. During the very brief summary, the senator said in essence, there are people here to testify that know more about this issue than I do. During the course of the committee. It was mentioned a couple of times that this was the beginning of the conversation.
Testimony that this bill would only address those areas that already have a building codes in place and this would implement a state-wide standard building code, instead of the 40 different building codes that have been implemented in various municipalities across the state. The gentleman brought up the Lake of the Ozarks area and the need for dock permits. He continued that this would not affect different municipalities from implementing additional building codes. This testimony appears to conflict with itself.
Only 6 states, including Missouri, have not adopted a statewide set of building codes.
3rd and 4th class counties can only put codes in place by putting it on the ballot. There are no agriculture or farming codes.
Ryan King AI Missouri, licensed architects in Missouri and deal with building codes and a burden of the architects because of 40 different builders codes statewide. Some buildings can be built in 1 municipality and just 1 mile away in a different municipality that same building is not allowed. The 2018 code is used if no code is in place. Trying to bring this up to a standard as building code updates going forward. We have learned from the Joplin Tornado that were 2018 standards and 2024 standards have been updated to include what we have learned from the tornado damage. There were also things learned about fires during the MGM Grand fire in Los Vegas.
Senator inquired, is there already a collatition? ICC publishes international building code update the code every 3 years.
Luke Reid from the Missouri Chamber spoke in favor of streamlining the building codes and hope to continue this conversation.
David Klarich representing mechanical, electrical, and sheet metal contractors also spoke in favor of the legislation.
Brian Grace of the MO Growth Association was also in favor.
Richard Sheets of the MO Municipalities Leagues was opposed. Said that 300 cities adopted codes, they use uniform codes and cities do modify codes. Codes are updates. Not sure this legislation will correct that, but appears to hamper the ability of our codes if newer issues or individualized. For instance, the City of Lebanon, for their specific code they have amended would have to come to Jefferson City and come before the commission and ask for the ability to amend their own building code.
Carter- not in opposition to the need of standardization, asked of Mr Sheets and his response was the change in codes would have to be brought to JC. He went on to say that cities don’t create their own codes. Cities use a national code. There are currently 3 companies that publish building codes, but they all use a uniform code now. His fear is that this would politicize the process by requiring Jefferson City to get involved.
Shannon Hank of the Municipal League of St Louis also shares concerns of state codes on this bill.
____________________________
Education Committee, chaired by Senator Rick Brattin
HB331 Ann Kelly’s bill, mirrors SB150 carried by Senator Jill Carter
The committee was scheduled to start at 9am and a roll call was taken at 9:06 establishing a quorum.
Kade of the Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor, stating that he believes this will strengthen public workforce existing programs
The NEA Lobbyist spoke in favor, it brings more options for A+ $$ for associates and trade certifications.
Jamie Murphy of MO hospitals associations also spoke in support.
There was no opposition
SB 693 Senator Carla May would prevent new charter schools from being formed in St Louis City. It also requires that the effects of charter schools on public schools be studied. This bill would not affect current charter schools, it would also protect the renewal and change of ownership of current charter schools. This would be a step towards unity and transparency. There have been a number of charter schools close in the last 5 years, over 100 have closed since 1991 and 90 have opened in the same time frame. Charter school commission only has 1 member from St Louis City, with members from all over the state of Missouri, and only 1 member on the committee is black.
Another female senator brought up the issue of possibly requiring a certificate of need that could help with this issue, and mentioned equity in education.
In the past 10 years approximately 20 charter schools have closed and students that attended those now closed schools can’t get their transcripts as well as they are frequently reabsorbed into the public schools, this causes instability with students, which changing schools. St Louis has numerous school buildings that are sitting empty or large schools have a fraction of of the students attending of the capacity of the building.
Senator Brattin made the comment to Senator May that charter schools are not performing better than public schools.
Steve Carroll, lobbyist for St Louis Public Schools testified thaat we don’t need more schools, we need more students. We need to address losing population in the city. Charter schools have less than 50% occupancy.
Maury Scott opposes this legislation and said that Bill 177’s testimony address issues. 37 charter schools, 11368 students, fueled by choice, right priviledge and honor. Charter schools have listened to students and parents, have specialized in teaching. The system is not broke, not perfect, but close. Genesis 50:20 "As for you, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to bring about the present result, to preserve many people alive.". Continued by stating we need to allow schools and students to exist in peace.
Opposition, Brandy Chin. Opportunity Trust, every child in St Louis has opportunity to high quality public education. Annually public schools lose approximately 1000 students. Charter schools help families stay in the city. 693 treats education like a monopoly. Families are not leaving SLPS because of too many options.
The committee then went into executive session on HB706. Brattin gave the members ofthe committee a chart of the chambers and said that he had asked for input of only non-controversial amendments.
Amendment 1 offered by senator Henderson, school safety piece that would include suspended students in the daily attendance so the suspensions would not hurt their funding. It is believed that schools don’t suspend students that she’s should suspend, leaving dangerous kids in classrooms, just to receive the $$’s attached to their attendance.
The bill passed out of committee 6-0
HB232 changes school protection office to school safety so more staff can be part of the safety program, not just teachers and administrators.
Amendment 1 Henderson master key boxes so firefighters and cops can gain entry into schools during an emergency through locked doors. It was asked if the language was may and not shall.
HB232 passed out of committee 6-0
HB1363 the substitute was pulled and they are adopting the original House Bill that passed out of committee 5-1
The committee left executive session and resumed the public hearing of SB693
An educator opposed SB693 saying more kids in private, charter and parochial schools currently than in public schools
Felicia, mother of girl in an Academy in St Louis says her daughter is now doing math at grade level.
Courtney Wheeler said her child’s life has been transformed by charter schools. He daughter has epilepsy and other challenges and the transformation has been remarkable at Atlas private school, where there is education diversity.
Colby Heckendorn the founder and leader of Atlas Charter School says Academy currently has. 430 students preschool through 4th grade and expanding to 5th grade next year. Current wait lists for all grade levels. 85% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and 80% are students of color.
Believe academy is a 9th and 10th grade facility with 125 students which received 233 applications, with dual credit classes, with a savings of over $50,000 in tuition to community college or university.
Steve Greenly of St Louis, education fellow and musician said we need more innovation and choice in arts integrated learning. This is school choice.
Holly Russell West, charter school founder, product of St Louis public schools and her children also attended public schools, but not her grandchildren. They have chosen Atlas Academy for her grandson
Kay of St Louis said there is no plan to expand St Louis charter schools, but also don’t want to shut the door behind us.
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APRIL 29, 2025
House General Session
10am
Journal Approved
Representative Keith Elliott asked for a moment of silence for former Representatives Steve Cookson of District 153 that died last night.
Storm and Lance Dillenshneider were introduced, they have had 2 sons die of fentanyl overdoses and were in the Capitol to represent Missouri Moms against Fentanyl.
Willard Haley introduced Ozark Christian School in Morgan county in Highway C. It appeared the school was mostly Mennonite.
Representative from St Louis a group from NERAB, housing democracy.
Tara Peters introduced the Greater Springfield Leadership Class
Representative from Clay introduced an administrator from North Kansas City Public School.
Representative from St Francis, introduction of his intern, his 2nd time as an intern in the capitol, Carter Murray, and next is going to DC to intern.
Ben Keathly introduced Vidvath and father, Vidvath will be his intern.
Representatives from Warren, introduced a group from the Holy Rosary School
Representative from Jacksonn, WW1 Museum president, and hosting a would cup event.
Representative Rush Janell Stowards introduced leader in Real Estate industry, opened first black real estate school in St Louis. Recently elected the NAREB president.
SB’s 3rd read informal
SB7 Carried by Christ. Heath care bill 3 year process made up of low hanging fruit. Including ambulance districts, Good Samaritan, HB943, 95% of the bill is bi-partisan.
Amendment 1. Cook. HB352 local governments cant tell professionals what they can and cannot do. Interfering with course of practice, can’t ban covid shots nor require doctors to administer covid shots. Dem disagreed with the bill and wants DACA recipients to be included in who can receive a professional license.
2025 Legislative Session - Day Sixty One - Tuesday, April 29
Here is an interesting exchange between Representatives Gregg Bush and Jim Murphy. Democrat Representative Bush was inquiring about the constitutionality of the amendment and Representative Murphy appeared annoyed by the inquiry. Representative Bush does not believe this follows the single subject rule, Rule 72.
Floor leader Alex Riley PQ’d the amendment immediately after this inquiry.
During the vote for the PQ Representative Ben Baker introduced his wife, daughters, son in law and other family who were in the side gallery as well as Ozark Christian Academy.
House Amendment 2 by Representative Phelps which is a merger of his 2 bills HB991 and HB1213 dealing with Air Ambulance memberships as well as signage in hospitals concerning assaults of healthcare workers.
House Amendment 3. Melanie Stinett on prior authorization gold card. This passed previously on the House floor. Currently prior authorization can take 2 business days, leaving patients in limbo and doctors unable to treat while waiting for authorization to treat, made even worse on the weekends. Another representative who has worked in health care said that frequently health care professionals spend more time on the phone with insurance companies than they do on patient care.
HA4 Tara Peters HB784 concerning 340b for contract pricing of pharmaceuticals. Pick pocketing this bill had unanimous consent in both the house and senate committees.
HA5. VanSchoiak HB815 on the posting of infractions of health care facilities. If there is an infraction it must be posted on the website, but if it is corrected in 12-24 hours it will not be required to be posted physically in the facility. AARP is opposed to this infraction. There was a call for a roll call vote after it was pointed out that this will benefit the poorest of the long term facilities and will help cover up mistakes. There were a large number of representatives that were absent during the roll call vote, and the clerk was asked to call the absentees, the bill failed 49-97-1
HB6 Don Mayhew County and Regional hospitals, board members attending meetings, compromised members and not abusing patient records.
Representative Tara Peters inquired about transparency and will this strengthen patient privacy and strengthens requirement of reporting to County Commissioner.
Representative Rene Reuter inquired about hospital board members having a conflict of interest. Nothing currently presents them from voting on the issues legally. Representatives spoke on nepotism law, sharing patient lists. Currently the lists are likely avaiable, just not the service.
The amendment was PQ’d.
HA7. Shields, advanced macro social worker and clinical social worker
HA8 Jeff Farnan optometry, injecting substances for treatment. Dr Hruza believes the bill needs more work. This would allow sedation and removal of tissue by optometrists. Says this has public safety concerns. Dem spoke in favor of the amendment, as these practices are already used in practice. Currently being used in other states, and continued saying this would not include cataracts or removing of malignancies, but would allow laser treatment in their office.
Representative Chappell asked what the outcomes were in other states.
Representatives Knight said I he believed that the language should be specific on what was allowed with this amendment.
Another rep said that the training of some of these more advanced procedures had less than 4 hours of weekend training on pig eyes and grapes and is against this as a level of training.
The amendment passed with a voice vote.
HA9 Sasseman’s bill on disciplining massage therapists and chiropractors.
HA10 Hinman creates an ambulance service administrator that is required to have some administrative training.
HA11. Representative Murray would create infertility awareness week. This is the same language as his HCR with more than 30 cosponsors. The HCR was heard the same morning in children and families.
Representative Keathly attempted to get HA12 passed. This is the same language that Governor Parson refused to sign into law in 2024, saying there were no guardrails in the bill that would prove that 340b provisions of savings on pharmaceuticals were passed along to the patient and not the pharmacy or health care facility getting increased profit margins by charging the patient the same as if no reduced pricing. The bill was not referred to committee by the Speaker in 2025 so the bill has not been heard. There was pushback on the increased paperwork and reporting that this bill would cause. Representative Keathly pulled this amendment.
HA13 by Melanie Stinett is language about ambulance districts and where patients could be taken for trauma. This amendment includes HB594 language. This amendment was pq’d with a vote of 99-49 and adopted by a voice vote.
PQ’d the bill at 12:04. Bill has a request for a roll call vote. Representative Christ said that he is 110% sure this will go to conference committee. The bill passed 116-37.
Senate Bills for 3rd read.
SB98
Oehlerking is the bill handler
HA1 change the title of the bill.
HA2. Mirrors HA754 Concerning payment processing of credit card’s and wire transfers and stored valued transactions.
HA3. Certified funds/certified checks. Electronic fund transfers can now have the designation of certified, just like certified checks. This will be helpful for real estate transactions to have the certified protections.
HA4. Casteel’s crypto kiosk bill
HA5. Hardwick Trusts in and out of Missouri have the same tax provisions
HA6. Murray provisions for electronic payments
HA7. Thompson governmental banking provisions
HA8. Clemens electronic payments received for campaign purposes
HA9 Owen’s trusted contact language
The bill was 3rd read and passed with a vote of 145-2
During Points of Priviledge
Kathy Jo Loy spoke of her special needs sister during the March for life and introduced Stephanie Jacobson from Bulletproof.
Intro of special guests
Dave Griffith introduced special needs children from Special Learning Center and executive Director Stephanie Johnson.
Willard Haley, mennonites visiting from Crawford Mennonites schools in Morgan County, Tim Good, organizer of the group, and schools from 2 other counties as well.
Representative Wellenkamp wished his wife a 15th anniversary.
Representative Weber 1st day of Asian American Pacific Islander Month. And paid tribute to the speaker of the House being the first Asian American to Serve as Speaker of the House. She also introduced a number of leaders from different Asian organizations.
Scott County. Liam Draper was introduced as his intern and thanked for his work as an intern in the building on his last day.
Mason Burkowski, communications major at Mizzou, another intern’s last day.
Bills carrying request messages.
SB68. Representative BIll Allen made the motion that the House refuse to recede from its position and grant the Senate a conference from there on. When he spoke on the motion he said that the House is spent a lot of time on the floor on this bill and lots of amendments and in conference needs to make sure it’s the best bill it can be. This statement says that the final steps on the bill will happen in the conference committee, which meets behind closed doors. Not audio or visual recordings, no minutes. After the bill is finished in conference it will go back to each chamber for an up or down vote.
This education omnibus bill was sent to the conference committee with a voice vote.
HJR23 & 3 House bills with Senate Amendments. Carolyn Caton is asking that the House concur with the Senate Amendment 1 on HJR23 and 3. County Assessor in Jackson County be an elected position instead of an appointed position. Representatives Caton is a freshman carrying this legislation. Jackson County has had a HUGE increase in property tax assessed valuation which has been done by AI to evaluate the valuation of the property. Multiple Representatives, from both sides of the aisle from Jackson County spoke in support of this Constitution Amendment to go to the ballot. Representative Caton said that this will allow taxation with representative. The amendment was passed by 130-0-17. HJR23&3 was 3rd read and passed with a vote 129-0- with 18 present. The Speaker immediately announced that all business of the House was suspended to allow the Speaker to sign the amendment and asked for any objections be sent forward in writing.
St Clair HB’s 296&438. recommends that the House Concur to Senate Amendments 1&2. The bill to raise the age for school bus drivers to raise the edge for retaking the test from age to age 75. The amendments were concerning the ease of accessing the Highway Patrol database for fingerprints for renewals of contracted bus drivers and the 2nd amendment was concerning allowing retired teachers to return to teaching as substitutes without affecting their teachers retirement.
Bryant Wolfin inquired the bill carrier about the title of the bill and if the 2nd amendment to the bill applied to only school bus drivers or if it was all employees. The Senate changed the bill title to allow the amendment for retired teacher’s salaries. Representative Wolfin has been spotlighting bills that have their titles changed in order to allow additional amendments that would not have fit the original bill title. According to the Missouri constitution, this is unconstitutional.
There were a number of representatives on both sides of the aisle that gave their thanks to the bill carrier for this bill that has been around for 3 years.
HB296 & 438 are Truely Agreed and Finally Passed.133-8
The representatives or the conference committees on HB68’s and HB2-13 & 17 ’s were announced.
Senate Bills for 3rd Read Consent
SB396 Representative Brad Banderman moves for the 3rd read and passage of the bill. Library bill allows the board of trustees to set their own fiscal years. This only applies to consolidate library districts in Missouri. Unfortunately the KC public libraries will not be included based on a technicality. The desire to change their fiscal year is to match it with grants and donations. 151-0
Representative Brian Seitz introduction of Special Guest, friends Melinda Anderson and her daughter Serrei, a homeschool Mom and daughter who representative Seitz performed Melinda and her husbands wedding a few years ago.
Senate concurrent resolutions for 3rd read.
SCR3 Representative Kathy Jo Loy. The amending the Mission Statement of Missouri Southern University, adding health and life sciences and immersive learning experiences added to their mission statement. Joplin has added on 120 doctors out of the program and dental school added to MSSU. MSSU has become important to the medical community in Missouri. The bill passed with a vote of 153-0 and is headed to the ballot in Missouri.
SB’s for 3rd read informal.
SB71 Representative Hinman, Brad Christ has moved to change the title of the bill to public safety so they can add a few amendments.
St Charles County, Hinman, the underlying bill was a public safety recruitment act. Scholarships to public safety personnel to their service. There are a number of HB714, HB992, SB192, SB514, HB1514, 1525, 1527, SB`143 hb1218, SB669, HB205, HB981, HB117. Representative Hinman explains the bill and mentions all the bills that were attached to bill in this clip.
Amendment 1 includes any institution of higher learning to use this scholarship as well. The previous to the amendment it was only state schools, this allows those universities outside the state schools to also participate in the program.
Amendment 2 removes some things that no longer fit the title as well as things we have negotiated with the Senate. Representative Murphy spoke again the changes to his amendment, concerning the door handlers bill. He says the way the Senate has amended the bill it is watered down, and is shameful.
Representative Bryant Wolfin asked what the changes were to the bill in Representative Christ’s Amendment 2
The amendments continued on this bill to “line things up” with other pieces of legislation that were passing in the Senate, in the House, in committees and in conference committees as agreements have been made. This feels very rushed and definitely lack of transparency in the details with the large numbers of changes that were made in these amendments on the floor for SB71.
Representative Seitz spoke on the underlying bill. He said this is the biggest big brother bill. Please check out his statements made on the floor, pushing back on the underlying bill. Everyone and their brother is going to be fingerprinted and sent to a federal repository . This has to be stopped here in the House of the Representatives
Representative Jeff Myers tried to defend the collection of fingerprints in his statement on the House floor.
Another represenative who has a previous career in this field says that he seldom saw this information as a 1 way street and the feds could reach into the state database.
Amendments 1-6 attached to the bill with voice votes through the debate on the bill.
SB71 motion was made for a 3rd read and pass. SB112-33-5 was passed.
SB71 had an emergency clause for the bill on SB669 within the bill concerning line of duty death benefits, which is due to expire this year, and extends it to 2031. If someone dies, if the emergency clause is not adopted, then the family would not qualify for state or federal benefits. The emergency clause was adopted with a vote of 144-6.
Announcements were next and the House adjourned at Noon.
APRIL 30, 2025
House of Representatives
10am
Burt Whaley, Representative from Stone county opened the session for the day with prayer. Wow-what a prayer!
The journal was approved within a vote of 105-0. There are currently 162 Representatives in the House with 1 vacancy. This his the first vote of the day and 57 representatives missed this vote. Without studying the votes of all the other bills for the day to determine who was absent the entire day, it is difficult to determine if Representatives are just arriving late to the chamber or missed the day. There are a number of reasons a Representative might miss a vote on the floor, such as meeting with a constituent, presenting a bill in a Senate hearing, etc.
There were a number of points of personal priviledge and introduction of special guests from the floor, but a few of note were Donna Barringer, former Representative and now St Louis City’s new comptroller, former representative Hannah Kelly, members of the St Louis County Central commmittee, introduced by Representatives Christ, and Representatives Travis Wilson invited everyone to attend the worship service in the rotunda at noon, lead by the Ershen day at the capitol.
Messages from the senate were read, where House Bills 2-13 and 17 were passed in the Senate, but with Senate amendments.
HB’s 2-13 and 17 were then procedurally refused by the House and requesting a conference with senate for the differences. This too several minutes as each bill had to be refused individually and the conference committee requested individually.
SB63, Ben Baker public school participation by alternatively educated students was next on the floor. Representative Baker said this is something they have been working on for 7 years, getting students in alternative education and equip opportunity public schools.
Representative Jeff Knight spoke on the bill. Interesting his take on homeschool. He spoke of his time working as a teacher in a juvenile detention center and that some parents would claim that they were homeschooling their children to keep from being thrown in jail.
Amendment 1 by Representative Ben Baker is language that clarifies the right to successful completion of tryout if applicable.
Representative Ed Lewis said it is likely that all of his grandkids will be homeschooled.
Lewis is the chair of the education committee in the House.
Democratic Representative Eric Woods asked how many students this program would affect.
Representative Baker said that he was himself a product of home school.
Representative Kathy Jo Loy, Coming into this building to education for education and it is an us verses them, homeschool vs public school and we unity.
Kathy Steinhoff spoke against the bill that she wants students in the classroom to participate in extra curricular activities.
Another rep spoke that there is a double standard, public school has attendance and academic requirements, but home school would have no requirements.
Baker pushed back, not saying home schoolers come from sub-par education-but if that was true this would be a good experience for them. He also doesn’t agree on the unfunded mandate
Cecilie Williams says this levels the playing field with the tryout requirement, that just because a kid is home schooled, they are not guaranteed a place on the team because they want to play. Parents want children to participate and they are also taxpayers to the public school system, but not utilizing these services
Representative Mike Steinmeyer spoke about how homeschool children in the 90’s were criticized that the kids are not socialized and pointed out that the budget chair and the floor leader were both home schooled. Here is Steinmeyer’s inquiry of Representatives Baker.
Democrat Representatives Rachel Proudie had concerns about the cost of home schooled kids participating. Here is the exchange between Representatives Baker and Proudie.
Representative John Simmons inquired of Representative Baker on the amendment to the bill. During the course of this inquiring Simmons says “lets get this passed and see how this works and we can make changes later at the 11:26:45 mark of this clip. He continued by using DEI saying that including home school students would actually bring diversity in students , equity and in learning and including of homeschoolers. This brought a point of order from the democrats, who said this bill has nothing to do with DEI, which Representative Simmons used DEI language to say this bill IS related to DEI. You can see the entire exchange between Representatives Baker and Simmons here
2025 Legislative Session - Day Sixty Two - Wednesday, April 30
Representative Chappel spoke on what the definition of an extracurricular activity is, that it is outside the classroom. That everyone agrees that these activities are important to the development of a child. Public schools are government, they are a political subdivision. Some citizens excluded even if they are taxpayers because their education isn’t in a raditional public school classroom, even if they are taxpayers. He continued saying his wife attended prom with him, even though she wasn’t from the same school, and his senior year wasn’t even in school, as she was older and at the time it was quite scandalous, and he married her. He continued ty saying we try to close up all the loopholes that we can, but we have never passed a perfect law. Some public schools are losing their ahteletic teams for a lack of participants to have a team.
Josh Hurlbert spoke on the bill next, saying 25 years ago he wanted to play soccer and got to play on aa homeschool team. Now he’s a homeschool dad and a soccer coach on a parks and req tea and 1/2 the team is homeschooled. He said if you are advocating for oversight, put kids on a team where a coach could report abuse or neglect.
Representative Boykin said he was speaking in favor of the bill that passed out of the Senate unanimously, but the bill has been changed in committee, excluding approximately a dozen students and he cannot support this now.
Democrats Michael Burton spoke next against the bill. He was recruited by a catholic school himself to come in participate in their arts program on stage, for plays, etc. He also asked about kids playing sports with unvaccinated kids.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Representative Mike Costlow spoke on how not allowing homeschooling kids to participate in at all in the public school system is reducing touch points.
Democrat Kari Ingle inquired of Representative Hurlbert. She said there are homeschoolers in her district that are opposed to the bill because it would bring government oversight into the home. She said that Homeschool homes were tricky when she was in their homes for social services visits. At the very end the inquiry, Ingle asked if there was anything in the bill that would preclude the school district from asking a family for the grades of those that want to participate, and Hurlbert answered, no, he doesn’t see anything in the bill that would preclude the district from asking.
Another democrat Rep spoke in favor of this bill, who sits on the rules committee and likes this bill.
Representative Dirk Deaton stated that this legislation was first introduced by Elijah Haarh and then Representatives Deaton carried the bill, until he was active on the budget committee and now Representatives Baker is carrying this bill.
During the debate there are those who have questioned the motives of those outside the building that are trying to kill this bill.
SB63 bill passed with a vote of 91-53 and headed back to the Senate. The Senate has refused the amendment and has requested a conference and is now on the schedule for a conference committee on Monday, May 5.
HB57 concerning peer to peer car rentals to address rideshare insurance and questions on who is responsible for damages passed 145-2-1. The bill originally included DoorDash as well as TOR, but is not just car rental.s
After a number of announcements concerning committee meetings in the next few days, the House adjourned for the day. Shortly after noon.
MAY 1, 2025
This summary is an observation of the actions that were taken on the bills in the Senate 5-1-25, but doesn’t get into the details of the underlying bills. May 1 was a Thursday and everyone in the chamber knows that the Senators and Representatives typically get to go home for the weekend at the conclusion of the general session of their chamber. That does mean that some bills get voted up or down with little or no discussion as the members of the 2 chambers are anxious to get home.
There were also activities inside the Capitol and outside as it was the Midwest March for Life as well as the National Day of Prayer.
Fiscal Oversight, Senate Lounge 9:35am
Senator Bernskoetter chair
HB225 with Senate Sub on Public Safety, Myers, 6-2
Coleman and Roberts no
HB262 Representative Brown, traumatic brain injury alternative treatment/hyperbaric chamber treatment 8-0
HB121 with Senate Committee Cub, Representatives Murphy, incubators
8-0
HB799 Baker Motor vehicles. 5-3. Black, Neuremburg Roberts no
HB1086. Representative Brown, short term rentals. 5-3 Beck Neuremberg, Roberts
HB1346 with committee sub, Representative Steinmeyer port authorities comnibus bill
Beck, Coleman, Neuremberg and Coleman voted no. The vote was 4-4 and then MEC asked to change her vote to yes. 5-3
HB147 Hovis Pensions 8-0
HB754 Oehlerking, fraud in financial institutions bill, with gold and silver as an amendment. That sub was adopted on Monday. Beck voted present 7-0-1
HB419 Mayhew Senate Substitute 2 in state tuition for Military 8-0
HB1175 Hardwick SAPA Beck, Neuremberg, and Roberts no 5-3
Senator Bernskoetter said the committee would notice up daily from now to the end of session and he would let the members know if they would not meet.
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Senate General Session
Lt Governor Wasinger presiding saying that he was +100 days in as lieutenant governor and he would like to thank his chief of staff Katie Ashcroft and the Secretary of the Senate for their hard work. Wasinger commented that he had been traveling the state of Missouri this week and was hearing from Missourians that the Senate is dysfunctional and that Tuesday night was one of the worst processes they had ever seen. Wasinger continued by saying that he will be presiding over the Senate more and definitely next year and the riles need to change. He held up a copy of the Missouri Constitution and then a comparison of the Federal constitution and stated that most of it has been added in the last 10 years.
Overhead in the gallery from lobbyists “what is going on”, “what is happening.”
Bernskoetter introduced an organization that helps special needs children. There were a number of grade school special needs children on the floor in The Chamber.
Messages from the governor, there was 1 message from the governor but the reading was waved. The narrative continued saying the withdrawal letter was to be returned to the Governor with the appointment withdrawn by the governor. A motion was made to accept all the reports in 1 motion for advice and consent.
SB98 was the first bill on the Senate floor for 3rd read. This bill came back from the House with 9 amendments. All 9 amendments were complete pieces of individual legislation that had been filed and heard in committee’s in the Senate and passed out of committee. It was stated that the Senate wanted all 9 amendments and because the bill was not going to conference they would need to vote on each amendment individually and have a roll call vote.
Senator Moon and Nicole voted against all 9 amendments. Senator Nicola stood and spoke, thanking LT Governor Wasinger for his comments on the rules and agreed that the process is broken, and SB98 was another example of the process being broken. He said that he had made the campaign promise to read every bill before we vote on it and he was voting no because the bill was just dropped on the Senator’s desk as the Session was beginning this morning.
The 3rd Read motion was made by Senator Crawford and Moon spoke on the bill. He said that the title was changed and that changed the intent of the bill. He said something to the effect that we changed the title so that it could addresss everything but the wall and carpet color in the bill. He continued that if anyone outside this chamber takes offense with this bill that he believes there is a case for constitutionality.
The bill passed 29-2. In the votes on all 9 amendments, all the other votes were yeses but Moon and Nicola, except on Amendment 6, dealing with the transmission of $$ an amendment attached to the bill in the House by Representative Murray, where Senator Fitzwater also voted no. If you would like to read the amendments that were attached to the bill and who filed the amendments, you can go the House Website, go to Legislation, to Bill Search and type in SB98. At the bottom of the home page for SB98 there is a small line that says “House Amendments” and a drop down list of the Amendments from the House are listed, with the names of the amendment makers and the Amendment numbers.
Senator Nicola thanked Lt Governor Wasinger, who is also the President of the Senate for his comments on the rules, agreeing that the process is broken. Senator Nicola stated that he made the campaign promise to read every bill before we vote on it, and he is voting no because it was just dropped on our desk this morning.
SB67 by Senator Mike Henderson was brought up on the floor. The Senate refused to accept the changes by the House and has asked the House to recede from its position. McCreary inquired of Henderson saying the CPI (Consumer Price Index) language is not part of the amendment that the House attached concerning the circuit breaker and believed that the agreement with the house was there would be CPI in the amendment.
HB169 Cotton Trailer bill. There were cotton trailer bills filed in both the House and Senate. This particular cotton trailer bill is “clean” as it is not an omnibus with other things added to it. There was a change made to the bill in the House, raising the speed limit for cotton trailers from 65 mph to 70.
HB419 an Education bill came to the floor with no discussion and passed 27-4
HB754 next up. This financial bill includes an amendment with Gold and Silver as an accepted legal tender in Missouri. Again, this bill had no discussion on the floor. The bill passed 20-11 and is headed back to the House, as the Gold and Silver language was added in the Senate.
Gold and Silver bills were filed in both the House and the Senate. The House has been holding Representative Hardwick’s gold and silver bill in the House until it has very little chance of getting through the Senate in the next 2 weeks. Similar is true of the Senate version, so the hope at this point for Gold and Silver is with HB754.
SB63, the Senate is refusing the changes and requesting a conference with the House
SB68 refused by the House and the House is requesting a conference.
HB’s 2-7 and 13, which are all appropriation bills and are headed to conference committee. The members of the House conference committee were named.
The Senate recessed until 1pm, to give the Senate time to name the members of the Conference committee from the Senate and the Senate adjourned after the naming of those conference committees.
Senator’s Carter and Cierpoit appeared to be absent all day. It was overhead in the Senate gallery that Carter was out for a migraine.
CHANGING TITLE OF BILLS—-AND LOADING THEM UP WITH AMENDMENTS THAT ARE NOT GERMAINE TO THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF THE BILL:
SB28
The Democrats were pushing back on the changing of title, with the titling amendment. Theresa underlying bill on cotton trailers has now changed to Agriculture Transportation. It appears that all the same amendments are being added to SB28 as those that were published on HB169. HB169 was added to the Ag Omnibus Bil
Amendment 4, HB799 added to the bill, which I was about fewer inspections on newer vehicles as well as conservation plates and Space Force plates.
SB1 County Officials, Representative Reedy the bill carrier. The discussion was to keep the bill very narrow and following the narrow title, as a previous bill with some of this same language was struck down by the courts because the bill was amended late in the session.
2025 Legislative Session - Day Fifty Eight- Wednesday, April 23 - Morning Session
This bill defines what happens and how a coroner is compensated if the sheriff is vacated in a county. Provisions for 3rd class counties to set local official salaries if above a certain threshold of assessed valuation. Records are to be made available to auditors, sheriff’s pay requirements actually lowered the sheriff’s salary in Boone County, so they want an opt out. Also provisions for public administrators pay schedule dealing with guardianships and conservatorships.
This was law put them in limbo with the court decision.
This interaction in the next clip is on the constitutionality of changing the original purpose of the bill with a titling amendment and then additional amendments to the underlying bill.
2025 Legislative Session - Day Forty Two - Tuesday, March 25 -Afternoon Session-
Representative Darin Chappell
This discussion was on HB176 about trusts. Representative Rudy Viet introduced an 81 page amendment that was further amended by Representatives Black with an amendment to the amendment. There was additional inquiry by multiple democrats representatives about the length of the amendment and the lack of time to read over the 81 page amendment that was dropped on the floor. The concern was the lack of time given to representatives that are not part of the committee that the amendment came through as a stand alone bill.
From the clips you can see that there are Representatives that are concerned with changing the titles on the bills and amending the bills with entire pieces of legislation. They know there is a possibility of entire pieces of legislation being struck down because of changing of bill titles and adding other subjects into the bills as they go through the process.
LISA’S SHOW NOTES:
LAST WEEK OF APRIL - MAY 1, 2025
HB 595 Senate asking the House to recede its position and go to conference.
HB754 Ohlkering
Bad financial omnibus bill
Brattin added an amendment for gold and silver which was great.
Then, Nicola attempted to add an amendment banning CBDC, but Senator Rick Brattin removed the underlying amendment so both of them were withdrawn.
Crawford wanted to negotiate changes in the gold/silver bill and came to an agreement at which time Moon offered another version of the gold/silver bill which passed. No CBDC was part of that one.
Then, Senator Curtis Trent added an amendment that I feel quite confident no one knew what it was or the impacts of it. It dealt with crypto currency but also referenced things like the Patriot Act and the Federal Bank Secrecy Act, nationwide national licensing registry system, etc. They passed the amendment in a matter of a few minutes.
Democrat Mcreery offered an amendment thqt they adopted more tax credits for affordable housing.
362.020 the articles of agreement may provide for the issuance of additional shares of capital stock provided they terms and procedures are acceptable to the director of finance and provided that any notice or other approval required or given by division of finance director.
-One person would not be good to have the authority to determine all the terms. 362.247 is removing a regulations replacing with an MOU which is not good. Any of these entered into should be required to be sunshine able.
-Its removing the requirement to put in a newspaper and replacing it with a periodic report if a customer requests it.
362.424 reporting suspected bank fraud to any appropriate public protective agency and shall be immune from civil liability in doing so. 370.245 has the same language.
381.410 references real time payment system and Fed Now.
362.490 what are these pooled bank funds? What are they to be used for? These would all be held under the order of one person-the ‘director of the division of finance.’
The director of the division of finance shall have exclusive authority to appoint a bank, trust company or association for Missouri banks which is chartered or incorporated in MO to serve as the administrator with respect to a single bank pooled method. HE will also be the one to determine liquidating assets in regard to insolvency.
Then, Trent added an amendment under section 361.1100 which is the Virtual Currency Kiosk Consumer Protection Act. They allowed an 11 page amendment of new language that would probably take a good week to understand to be added to the bill.
NO ONE IS READING THESE AMENDMENTS AND SUBSTITUTE BILLS!
McCreery had an amendment that Crawford and said she supported the bill. They let this garbage bill go through with a sprinkle of good gold/silver. A tiny sprinkle.
1. HB974 is the car to car sharing insurance program not including uber eats and stuff like that. An entire whole section has been added that is the Insurance Data Security Act.
They passed the bill.
NO ONE READ THE BILL. BLINDLY PASSING BILLS OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
1. They added a huge cyber security part 20 pages to the bill that I had not heard of, or was aware that it was made a priority until now. Under 375.1415 there is concerning parts regarding the director having information that is kept confidential and shall not be subject to disclosure under chapter 610, shall not be subject to subpoena, and shall not be subject to discovery or admissible in evidence in any private civil action. However, the director is authorized to use the documents, materials, or other information in the furtherance of any regulatory or legal action brought as a part of the director’s duties.
WHAT?
It looks like this was part of the Obama Administration’s push which should give us
greater pause.
The initial car sharing bill is only 11 pages and the cyber security is 20. The bill is
more about cybers security then car sharing.
Moon was the only NO vote and there were these that were absent for the vote-
Bernskoetter, Nurrenberg, Fitzwater, Hough and Justin Brown
THE HOUSE CHAMBER:
SB7 bad bill
Many amendments were added.
House Amendment 11 raise awareness about infertility to help reduce stigma, foster understanding, and promote equitable access to fertility treatments and family-building options, including assisted reproductive technologies, adoption, and surrogacy.
This could be used for men that can’t have babies. “Equitable access".
Keathley tried to add amendment 12 and then withdrew the amendment. Saying that his bill had not been referred to committee or had any movement. A rep said the speaker didn’t see fit to move it and so why should we be taking up? So here is again the reason why we need he change to the rules. He should of voted for a change in the system so that he could get his bills referred and possibly passed.
THE SPEAKER KING, JON PATTERSON, DID NOT LIKE THE BILL, PEASANT. They moved for passage of the bill.
SB98 Ohelerking bad bill.
Senate passed HB737 /bad bill:
Senate passed HB296 raises age of school bus drivers to 75 from 70 and allows the licenses to be given every two years instead of every year.
Senate took up HB419
Senate took up all the budget bills and passed them including taking away SOS funding.
House took up SB63 added amendments. Argument from democrat Barton you want you’re the best of both worlds. Not wrong.
Democrat then asked can a public school demand to see grades? Hulbert said he sees nothing precluding them from doing that.
Teachers are mandated reporters and could report if they see a problem. This is a horrible take on this and will not work out well for homeschool parents that choose to participate. This is definite camel’s nose in the tent. It was also quoted 61,000 students are homeschooled in the state of MO.
Senate had the public hearing on HJR73 the so called amendment 3 fix. This means the bill is now ready for passage as long as there are no obstacles. Passed the bill.
House heard a senate substitute HB974 had the majority of cyber security. It was agreed and passed.
Senate took up HB711 open enrollment
20 pages to 107 pages; 22 page summary
Page 4 The emergency operations plan shall be shared with local law enforcement agencies, providers of fire protection services, and emergency management.
This plan is in reference to:
School safety, crises, and emergency operations; Prevention, preparation, operations, and follow-up; Collaboration with local law enforcement agencies, providers of fire protection services, and emergency management; and (4) Consideration of supporting mental health needs of all involved in any crisis.
The department of elementary and secondary education shall develop standards for emergency operations plans described in subsection 1 of this section and shall annually ensure compliance with the adoption of the emergency operations plan described in subsection 1 of this.
What happens when these plans are in the wrong hands? What happens when our law enforcement can now except gifts from any source that now is in control of the safety of our schools and has those plans?
The department of elementary and secondary education, DESE, shall develop standards for the annual physical security site assessment described in subsection 6 of this section using nationally accepted methodology and shall ensure compliance with the completion of the assessment.
Page 9 regarding AED devices and why would we refer back to these associations?Associations like the American Medical Association have gone on record to say we should abort babies after birth. Why would we recognize them? American Heart Association or nationally recognized guidelines focused on emergency cardiovascular care.
Nicola offered an amendment saying that all school districts that were operating under a 4 day school week should be able to operate under that system.
School safety coordinator must complete FEMA course and MSBA incident management course. Why do we continue to say these entities are a problem and then mandate that we use them for training?
Requiring of anti intruder locks and bullet proof film for the windows. Reduced the age from 21 down to 18 for adult high schools. This is important because the vilification of the public schools and the success of charters depends on charters being viewed as successful. They are now saying in other places that those that go on to adult high schools are not considered a drop out. This would skew the results.
For the purposes of compiling and tracking dropout rates of a local education agency by the department of elementary and secondary education, a student transferring from a local education agency to an adult high school shall be considered a transfer student and not a dropout student from the local education agency.
167.020 is putting in a behavioral threat assessment that is subjective.
The definition is Behavior that puts students, faculty, staff, or administration at risk for harm;
Then the bill goes into open enrollment.
The department or another entity skilled in policy development shall develop a model policy determining the number of transfers available under section 167.1215 and establishing specific standards for acceptance and rejection of transfer applications.
This was very clear that this was DEI.
LEA cannot discriminate even with status being a migrant or homeless. We have talked in length about what homeless is now.
-check all this Max of 3% with 5% cap of last school year last year.
No enrollment before July of 27.
Public schools shall actively foster an environment in which students feel comfortable sharing information they have regarding a potentially threatening or dangerous situation with a responsible adult. As part of each public school's efforts to actively foster such environment, each public school shall annually provide age-appropriate information and training on the Missouri State Highway Patrol Courage2ReportMO (C2R) reporting mechanism or its successor reporting mechanism.
That has cyberbullying so anyone that will misgender could be reported.
Nicola passed that said they can have 4 day school weeks if they have ohe already. City of St.Louis 5 days now and they can determine the school start date. The Independence school district board would go from a 6 year term that gets reduced to a 3 year term once they have served that 6 year term.
Laid the bill over.
The next two weeks promise to be doozies. We will archive as much as we can capture so you can hold your elected accountable when they come home to try to tell you how wonderful they are.
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