State legislative leaders have named the people that will lead their committees and expect to begin assigning bills to committees later this week. The assignment of a bill to a committee is the first of many steps toward becoming law, after filing, for a bill.
Senator Tom Dempsey (R-St. Charles)
Senate President Tom Dempsey says some of the bills he expects to move early are a bill containing several agriculture provisions, municipal court reform, and a welfare reform bill.
The agriculture legislation includes most of the provisions found in a bill that Governor Jay Nixon vetoed last year and the legislature fell short of overturning his veto. The bill was vetoed because of a provision that would have defined captive deer as “livestock,” and put their management under the Department of Agriculture rather than the Department of Conservation.
That provisions has been filed as a separate measure, and Dempsey thinks the remaining package will move quickly.
“That was a bill that everybody was familiar with that hopefully we could move through committee … that we could get that bill onto the floor early,” said Dempsey. “From what I understand it’s very important to the dairy industry. The sooner we’re able to provide that assistance, the better.
House Majority Floor Leader John Diehl (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommell, Missouri House Communications)
The bill contains a provision that would have the state help dairy farmers pay federal insurance premiums.
When it comes to legislation related to Ferguson, both Dempsey and House Speaker John Diehl say the effort to change Missouri’s transfer law fits in that category and will be moved early, as well.
“Our approach here is going to be about building blocks of where government is not working and trying to make that better,” Diehl told Missourinet. “Trying to deal with the education system, opportunities for economic opportunities, as well as addressing some of the governments that seem to exist for the sold purpose of fining its citizens.”
Diehl says the House Budget Committee, which starts the legislature’s work on the budget, will likely begin meeting this week as well.
