The state senate has advanced a proposed law making it illegal for the Revenue Department to do something some senators say it already is doing illegally.

Missouri already has a law saying this state will not honor the federal Real ID law that requires people show documentation proving they are who they say they are when they get government-issued ID cards.  The department has started asking for those source documents.  Several legislators say the department is violating the law and is keeping copies of them.  The senate’s bill says the department cannot  keep copies of that information in any format.  The bill also requires the department to destroy the materials it has kept.

Independence Senator Paul LeVota wonders if the department is not between a rock and a hard palce—faced with obeying the present state law or obeying the federal Real ID law. He’s talking to senate appropriations chairman Kurt Schaefer. 

                                      AUDIO: LeVota/Schaefer   :29 

Schaefer’s appropriations committee is scheduled to work on the department’s budget today.

One provision added to the bill takes away from the department  all rights of issuing concealed carry gun permits.  It leaves that power in the hands of county sheriffs alone.

The bill needs another favorable vote to go to the House.