A State Representative being blamed for the failure of an important piece of legislation, SB 668 , during the just concluded session of the General Assembly responds to critics.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce points an accusatory finger at Representative Steve Hunter (R-Joplin), Chair of the House Committee on Workforce Development and Workplace Safety, whose committee dealt with legislation that would have fixed a State Supreme Court ruling known as the Schoemehl case, which basically extended Second Injury Fund workers’ compensation benefits beyond the death of an injured employee to his dependents. The Chamber says the bill died because Hunter kept it bottled up in his committee.

Hunter says he preferred a House version of the fix, and doesn’t think much of the Senate bill he claims was put together with only a couple of business groups, labor organizations, and trial attorneys. Hunter says the House version was much tighter and included a statute of limitations clause which did not exist in the Senate version.

He says it was the floor leader who prevented the House version from getting to the floor for a vote. Hunter calls the Senate version "pretty much worthless."

Download/Listen: State Representative Steve Hunter (R-Joplin) (:30 MP3)