Legislative Issues

Legislative Report

September 11, 2023

Glenn Koenen

Federal Items:

To paraphrase Will Rogers, “I’m not a part of any organized political party: I’m a Republican.”

The Grand Old Party barely exists as a cohesive entity. The Trump Effect has devastated the ability of their leadership to lead and their rank and file elected officials to govern. A few quick examples…

1. The Speaker of the House and the Senate Minority Leader have very public disagreements about aid to Ukraine, the impeachment of President Joe Biden and the “need” for a government shutdown.

2. Militant members of Congress have retired to different camps, with Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Bobert — among others – openly at war.

3. Many members refuse to honor the government funding deal made several months ago, resulting not just in the threat of a government shutdown but in the House only supporting a budget with severe cuts in Medicaid (including for kids), food stamps, the number of federal workers, and illegal actions against those trying to enter the United States.

4. Several senior GOP senators are talking about the need for their leader to step aside.

A side effect of all that is happening among the Republicans is that positive impacts of the Boden administration’s investments in infrastructure and in preserving American jobs are getting scant attention. Plus, long overdue work, such as raising the national minimum wage, is not even on the agenda in Washington.

Without a budget deal in the next 19 days a shutdown of the federal government is inevitable. Due to bureaucratic and court decisions in recent years, the shutdown could quickly have wide ranging impacts on citizens. Social Security applications could not be processed. The Department of Labor would stop investigating pension plan abuses by employers. It is even possible that, after a couple of months, payments to Veterans’ medical providers would stop. This is what many GOP House members want.

After disasters in Hawaii and Florida, plus wildfires, etc., the government needs a special supplemental approbation (think $40 billion) to refill FEMA’s coffers. That might not happen.

Hanging over all of this, obviously, is Donald Trump. Virtually no Republican criticizes his actions or his words. And, his host of legal woes has only made his core supporters more rabid.

The press has covered the 14th Amendment position that you can’t run for federal office after advocating the overthrow of the government. While it is clear that Trump’s words and actions before and after January 6, 2021 were seditious, remember that the U. S. Supreme Court would get to decide if Trump can be kept off ballots in any or all of the states…expect a six to three decision in Trump’s favor.

State Items

The annual Veto Session is coming this week! While Governor Mike Parson excised half a billion in budget line items, most legislators do not expect those cuts to be challenged. Good news: the required trip to Jefferson Coty is a boon to restaurants and caterers: one lobbyist told me he’s been invited to 27 fund raisers during the expected one-day session.

If not for Texas, Missouri government would be the laughing cock of the nation.

Let’s start with Medicaid reauthorization. The required process is a disaster – just as the governor and friends want it to be. Tens of thousands of kids and parents are getting kicked-off the rolls: the state admits most of the knock-offs are due to paperwork mistakes. Tens of thousands of other claims are backed-up, meaning the state will soon be forced to throw people off the rolls just because the state workers can’t keep up. The system requires about 110,000 cases to be reviewed each month. After three months it appears that less than 120,000 cases have been properly processed.

This was predictable. The state claims it has 5,800 workers in the Department of Social Services. Back when caseloads were much smaller, they had more than 7,000 – and still couldn’t keep up. Plus, Missouri’s computer operations are severely dated. The legislature and governor could have addressed these issues but they have not.

Meanwhile, in Texas 82% of Medicaid authorizations in a recent month failed. They got the bad press.

Speaking of bad press, Missouri law spells out the process for getting initiative items on the ballot. The Secretary of State and Attorney General have gatekeeping roles in the process. Both office holders are abusing their authority. This is most apparent on the proposed petitions to guarantee abortion access. Jay Ashcroft gave the petitions barbaric language. Andrew Bailey insists that the fiscal note include the billions in lost tax revenue the non-born won’t pay.

It gets worse…Ashcroft also wants to make the voter registration process harder, and, effectively make it impossible for any one who is not able bodied and a licensed car driver to vote. It is expected that the next legislative session will enact new restrictions on voting in Missouri’s most populous counties – which already have state controlled election boards!

Success by radicals in Florida and Texas have caused Show Me State activists to push for new restrictions on education here. While the Florida crowd overplayed their hand by saying slavery gave people a purpose in life and taught them valuable skills, it is very possible that the state legislature will set curriculum guidelines for Missouri which do not challenge the Pleasantville narrative of a happy state where everything always works out.

Last session the legislature allowed individual counties to freeze property taxes for seniors. For some reason, a number of counties thought they couldn’t absorb the loss of revenue from that change. The result is a movement by some senior groups and GOP legislators to talk about requiring the freeze in legislation next year – to be voted on prior to the 2024 election!

The state has billions of dollars in various accounts built up by not spending COVID impact funds or even extra revenue from routine tax collections. The governor and his appointed Treasurer, as well as the Office Of Administration and the Department of Revenue, aren’t giving out many numbers. For example, a complete overview of all state accounts has not been made public this year. And, the Daily financial recap (available through the House website) hasn’t been updated since August 9th.

Glenn Koenen