Legislature
Democratic filibuster blocks vote on bill making it harder to amend Missouri Constitution
Senate Democrats seized control of the Missouri Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to block a Republican proposal making it harder to change the state constitution. The measure that would impose a 60% threshold as the minimum majority for amendments has already passed the House and, if approved in the Senate, would go before voters in 2024. […]
Missouri House backs bill requiring state research on psychedelics to treat depression, PTSD
The suicide rate among veterans in Missouri is nearly double the state rate and one of the highest in the country. In hopes of helping veterans and other Missourians facing mental health issues, the Missouri House advanced a bill Wednesday that would require the state to conduct a study on using psilocybin, also known as […]
Missouri House defeats effort to boost pay for home health aides for people with disabilities
Advocates for increasing rates for home care workers fell just two votes short of adding $308 million to the Missouri budget on Tuesday as more than two dozen Republicans joined Democrats on a proposal intended to help dire staffing needs of local agencies. The amendment from Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, would have increased rates for […]
Diversity initiatives within Missouri agencies run into GOP attack on ‘woke’ government
High employee turnover has plagued Missouri’s Department of Social Services for years. The department’s staffing woes have contributed to a range of problems — from foster children languishing in state care for longer than they should be to disabled residents waiting months to receive federal food benefits to investigators unable to keep up with child […]
What state control could mean for the St. Louis Police Department
This story was originally published by the Kansas City Beacon. In a vote watched closely in Kansas City, Missourians approved a statewide ballot measure in 2012 to return control of the St. Louis Police Department to the city itself. Just over a decade later, the Missouri legislature is debating multiple pieces of legislation to reverse […]
Push to spend $900M to help Missourians with developmental disabilities voted down
Republican lawmakers rejected an effort Thursday evening to spend $900 million to assist hundreds of Missourians with developmental disabilities who lack proper residential support, including dozens languishing in hospitals, jails and homeless shelters. State Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, asked the House Budget Committee for $910 million, all from federal tax dollars, to push base pay […]
Missouri Senate advances bill banning transgender care for minors
A bill that would stop physicians from providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors who have not already begun treatment passed Missouri’s Senate Thursday in a party-line vote. The legislation originally sought to ban all gender-affirming care, but after negotiations was amended to allow transgender youth to continue their treatment if they started before Aug. 28, […]
Missouri House Republicans scramble for slice of governor’s I-70 money for other projects
On one end of the Missouri Capitol, House Republicans seem poised to divvy up the money Gov. Mike Parson wants to use widening portions of Interstate 70 on a bunch of smaller projects. Across the rotunda in the Senate, Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough is looking for ways to pour more money into the project to […]
Lawmakers consider bill switching Missouri back to a presidential primary
Like a lot of Missourians, Shelley Swoyer of Jefferson City was surprised to see that the state had switched from its long-used method of selecting presidential primary candidates to a caucus system last June. “I’m just a voter. I encourage people to vote, I register people to vote. We live in a democracy that extols […]
Missouri House committee rejects call for recount in close St. Charles County district
On a party-line vote, a Missouri House committee on Wednesday rejected a request for a recount in a legislative district decided by 99 votes in the November election. Democratic members of the Special Committee on Election Contests voted against the decision to deny a recount. Majority Republicans said they opposed the recount because the challenger, […]
Bill banning COVID vaccine requirements gets initial approval from Missouri House
JEFFERSON CITY — More than three years since the designation of COVID-19 as a pandemic, Missouri House members spent part of Tuesday afternoon debating whether COVID-19 vaccines save lives. A bill sponsored by state Rep. Bill Hardwick, R-Waynesville, would prohibit public schools and public agencies from implementing COVID-19 vaccine requirements. The bill would require universities and […]
Missourians with developmental disabilities languish in hospitals, jails, shelters
On a Friday afternoon in late December, Geri Curtis received a disturbing phone call informing her she had only five days to find a new home for a developmentally disabled person. As part of her job as public administrator for Livingston County, she had become legal guardian of a person with severe developmental disabilities two […]