State Rep. Scott Cupps Archives

Missouri House votes to give final approval to feral hog legislation; bill to be tweaked in Senate

April 30, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Legislation boosting criminal penalties for those who knowingly release feral hogs into the wild is heading to the Missouri Senate, after receiving final House approval on Thursday. The bipartisan vote was 108-38.

State Rep. Don Rone (R-Portageville), who chairs the Missouri House Agriculture Policy Committee, speaks on the House floor on April 27, 2021 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

House Bill 508 is sponsored by State Rep. Don Rone (R-Portageville), who chairs the Missouri House Agriculture Policy Committee. State Rep. Tracy McCreery (D-Olivette), the committee’s ranking Democrat, urged her colleagues to vote for the bill.

“When you have groups like the (Missouri) Farm Bureau and the (Missouri) Department of Conservation and soybeans and corn all working together and saying let’s give this a try. Let’s do everything we can do to help eradicate an invasive species,” McCreery says.

The Sierra Club also backs the bill.

Feral hogs are a major issue across southern Missouri, especially in and near the Mark Twain National Forest. Governor Parson has been warning that feral hogs are a danger to the state and pose serious safety risks to residents.

State Rep. Scott Cupps (R-Cassville), who voted for the bill, tells colleagues that it will be tweaked in the Senate to address concerns from some House members.

“There is an agreement to change the first offense from a felony to a misdemeanor. So the first offense will be a misdemeanor and then upon a second offense, it will be a (class E) felony,” says Cupps, who chairs the House subcommittee on appropriations for Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources.

The bill is also backed by the Missouri Parks Association (MPA), which says some residents are transporting and releasing feral hogs on public land. MPA says feral hogs are destroying Missouri’s native ecosystems, and have damaged the Taum Sauk, Roaring River and St. Francois state parks.

Governor Parson met in late March in Jefferson City with U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Salem), Missouri Department of Conservation Director Sara Parker-Pauley, the United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service and state lawmakers like State Sen. Jason Bean (R-Holcomb), about the feral hog issue.

Congressman Smith, who represents 30 southern Missouri counties, says the majority of the feral hogs in Missouri are in his 8th Congressional District.

“We hope to have them eradicated one day, they’re awful. The best feral hog is a dead feral hog,” Smith told Missourinet in late March.

Missouri’s 2021 legislative session starts Wednesday; Rob Vescovo set to become House Speaker

January 5, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri lawmakers will return to Jefferson City on Wednesday for the start of the 2021 session. Both the Senate and House will gavel-in at noon.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be the major issue again this session, like 2020. Missouri’s current operating budget is about $38 billion, which includes two major supplemental budgets with federal money.

State Rep. Steven Roberts (D-St. Louis) will be sworn-in to the Senate on Wednesday. He’s seen here on House floor on April 27, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Republicans will control the Missouri Senate 24-10 this session. That’s a supermajority.

11 newly-elected state senators and six returning state senators will be sworn-in on Wednesday. Several of the new state senators are moving over from the House. They include State Reps. Greg Razer, D-Kansas City, Holly Rehder, R-Scott City, Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, and Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis.

Razer, Rehder, Moon and Roberts were elected to the Senate in November.

The Republicans also have a supermajority in the Missouri House this session, 114-47. There is one vacancy that was created when then-State Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, resigned to become chief of staff for Senator-Elect Razer.

The House Wednesday is expected to elect the first Speaker in state history from eastern Missouri’s Arnold. State Rep. Rob Vescovo (R) has served as the House Majority Floor Leader for three years. Vescovo was first elected to the House in 2014 and will be starting his fourth term.

Vescovo is a former member of the Jefferson County Port Authority.

Springfield Republican Elijah Haahr served as Speaker from November 2018 until last Thursday, and has termed out of the House.

Missouri House Majority Leader Rob Vescovo, R-Arnold, stands on House floor on May 15, 2020. He’s set to become Speaker on Wednesday (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) will briefly preside over the House on Wednesday, once session begins. The House will then elect a temporary speaker from the chamber, who will preside over the vote for Speaker.

All Missouri House members will be sworn-in on Wednesday. That will include 46 new members who have never served before. It also includes the six members who were elected during November 2019 special elections. They are State Reps. Yolanda Young, D-Kansas City, Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, Mark Sharp, D-Kansas City, Trish Gunby, D-Manchester, Mike Person, D-Ferguson and Scott Cupps, R-Shell Knob. Young, Aldridge, Sharp, Gunby, Person and Cupps were re-elected in November.

There will also be three new Missouri House members who served in the chamber previously. They are State Reps. Joe Adams, D-University City, Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, and Bill Owen, R-Springfield.

Owen will return to the Missouri House for the first time since 1981-1982. He served one term, after being elected in 1980.

There will also be a bipartisan legislative prayer service Wednesday morning in Jefferson City, to mark the start of session. It will take place at 9 a.m. at Concord Baptist Church, which is across the street from Capital Mall. There will not be a breakfast this year.

Missouri lawmakers draw attention to feral hog issue during budget hearing (AUDIO)

January 28, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Two southern Missouri state lawmakers are unhappy with a letter the state Department of Agriculture (MDA) director has sent to the U.S. Forest Service, in support of their decision to close the Mark Twain National Forest to feral hog hunting.

State Rep. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, speaks at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on August 22, 2019 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The issue came up during Monday afternoon’s Missouri House Budget Committee hearing in Jefferson City, when State Reps. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, and Scott Cupps, R-Shell Knob, mentioned the issue to MDA Director Chris Chinn, during her budget presentation.

Chinn testifies that Oklahoma has gone away from an approach Missouri was using, including hunting.

“One of the things that we learned from them (Oklahoma) is that, that above-all approach that we had been taking, they had tried as well and it didn’t work,” Chinn tells Representative Ross.

“Especially not when your (Missouri) Department of Conservation is actively working against the private landowners,” Ross responded.

The above-all approach that Director Chinn is referring to is a policy that some hunters and ranchers near the Mark Twain National Forest want to continue. It involved trapping by Conservation officials, but also hunting by residents.

Ross, who chairs the House Special Committee on Government Oversight, serves on the Budget Committee. He questions Chinn’s letter.

“That’s what really surprised me is that your agency (MDA) would take a position that was in directly in opposition of working with the private landowners, following along with the misguided approach the Missouri Department of Conservation is now pushing,” Ross tells Director Chinn.

Ross says his Texas County constituents support eradicating feral hogs, by hunting. He and Cupps say residents should be allowed to hunt for the hogs on public land.

The Missouri Department of Conservation says allowing residents to hunt feral hogs has increased the number of the animals, along with their range. Conservation agents say there have been illegal releases by people who wanted to hunt feral hogs for recreation.

The Conservation Department has launched a new plan, which aims to eliminate feral hog damage by trapping and killing the hogs themselves.

Director Chinn says feral hogs are a threat to Missouri livestock. She backs the Forest Service’s decision to close the Mark Twain National Forest to feral hog hunting.

Chinn testifies that MDA’s job, through its Animal Health division, is to protect Missouri from diseases. She says if African swine fever were to hit Missouri through the feral hog population, it would be a threat to livestock producers and agribusiness.

“A lot of these livestock eat the corn and the soybean that are raised on many of these farms, and if we should have a disease threat like that hit Missouri, it’s not only going to hurt the livestock industry, it’s going to hit our row crop as well as our grain elevators,” Chinn testifies.

Chinn emphasizes that what’s been done previously isn’t working.

After several minutes of questioning, State Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Appropriations for Agriculture, asked Ross and Cupps to save the feral hog discussion for another date, when both MDA and the Conservation Department can attend. Kelly wanted Chinn to have time to present her budget.

The issue has been a big one at the Missouri Capitol. Just last week, about 150 southern Missouri hunters and ranchers protested quietly outside the governor’s office, saying the MDC-federal approach won’t work.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) Director Chris Chinn, which was recorded at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on January 27, 2020: