Senate President Dave Schatz Archives

Parson calls House passage of 5 special session bills is ‘A win for Missouri’

August 26, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri House of Representatives did not pass two of seven bills the governor wanted as part of his special session call to address the state’s violent crime rate. During a briefing today, Gov. Mike Parson says he is still pleased about the ones that did pass.

Gov. Mike Parson

The House did not sign off on legislation that would give the Missouri Attorney General jurisdiction to prosecute some St. Louis murder cases.

“Jurisdiction is something I think was very important, that come later on in the session,” says Parson. “I still think anything we can do to address violent crime in this state. And I do want to say, with what we’re doing with session giving the tools that law enforcement needs, that prosecutors need to be able to take violent criminals off the street is a win for Missouri right now.”

Another measure that did not reach the finish line in the House would let judges decide whether juveniles 16 to 18 years old should be prosecuted as adults and possibly go to prison for certain crimes committed with weapons.

“We would have loved to have the juvenile situation – be able to get that done. That was very important to us,” says Parson.

The House did pass legislation that would create a fund to protect witnesses and their immediate family before trial but members did not put money into the fund. The governor told Capitol reporters his office is looking at whatever funding they can get, to get the program started as soon as possible.

Other bills passed in the House would:

* Boost penalties for witness and victim tampering

*Remove a requirement for St. Louis first responders to live within the city

*Toughen the penalty for anyone who sells or gives a gun to a juvenile

*Make it a crime to assist someone 17 or younger to commit a crime with a weapon

The bills head to the Senate for consideration. Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, says the upper chamber will return next week to finish work on the proposals.

Proposed statewide prescription drug monitoring program heads to Missouri Senate floor

February 27, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

A Missouri Senate committee has given approval to the creation of a database designed to crackdown on potential abuse of addictive painkillers. GOP Representative Holly Rehder of southeast Missouri’s Scott City, who’s sponsoring the bill, says St. Louis County’s prescription drug monitoring program covers at least 87% of Missouri.

Representative Holly Rehder, R, Scott City (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“Missouri has a PDMP,” says Rehder. “It’s whether we want one that’s going to have the protections that this bill has in it that the St. Louis County program does not. This bill has Fourth Amendment protections. It has Second Amendment protections and it makes it a crime for any unauthorized use.”

During a public hearing, John Lilly, a family physician in southwest Missouri’s Springfield, tells Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, such programs are unconstitutional.

“It is a mandatory, involuntary database. Your insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid – they all have databases. When you sign up for that, you sign up for their database. I take a prescription to the pharmacy, I didn’t ask to be in a database,” says Lilly.

“But we’re all in databases. You’re in your doctor’s database. You have an illusion of privacy in 2020,” says May.
Lilly goes on to say Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows painkiller overdose deaths have not declined, even though the rest of the country has a prescription drug monitoring program.

May says people are going to get around the system.

“They know that the systems don’t talk and that they’ll be able to get to the different doctors and the different networks,” she says. “When you’ve got a PPO, you don’t have to have a referral from your doctor to go anywhere and you tell your doctor what you want them to know.”

Lilly does not agree.

“On my EMR, I have a little button that says ‘Care Everywhere’. I can click on that – I get all kinds of information from other systems,” he says. “So, it’s not true that you can’t get it from other systems. There are ways to check on chronic opioid users other than a PDMP by using urine and drug screens and pill count visits.”

Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, has vowed to work every year until the Legislature passes the bill. Schatz has three years left in the Legislature.

House Bill 1693 heads to the Senate floor.