This week marks the halfway point of the 2021 Regular Session of the 101st Missouri General Assembly.
We’ve seen a little bit of everything in the first half of the year. For instance, there have been 14-hour overnight sessions, parliamentary moves in the House, contentious debates about choice in education, denial of access to the House Chamber for the Governor’s State of the State address, the 2nd Amendment and election reform.
The overall mood of the legislature is to push back against federal government overreach.
Did I mention that the Convention of States Project has legislation that’s also on the move? In 2017 Missouri’s application for a convention of states meeting to discuss proposals to limit the size, scope and jurisdiction of the federal government, discuss term limits for federal officials, and restore fiscal restraints passed with a bipartisan vote. This legislation also passed with a five-year sunset clause, meaning it expires on May 12, 2022.
Today’s HCR17 is a carbon copy of the Convention of States resolution that passed in 2017 but without the sunset clause. The House General Laws Committee heard our testimony and passed this resolution with an 11-4 vote a couple of weeks ago. The next step is a hearing and passage by the House Rules Legislative Oversight Committee.
We also have HB836 on the move. This bill would establish the process the Missouri legislature will use to select commissioners to represent Missouri at any Article V convention. This bill has been referred to the House General Laws Committee and will be heard soon.
The companion legislation in the Senate has been heard in committee, and we are awaiting the committee vote. Once we clear the hurdles of the committee votes, these items can be presented for floor debate and floor votes.
If you haven’t gone to sleep yet and are still reading, here’s my point. There are several steps in the legislative process. It takes time to move from introduction to final passage.
So far in the 2021 session, 1,555 bills or resolutions have been introduced in the House. Only one bill has been finally passed and signed by Governor Parson. Over 4,000 bills were introduced in the 2020 Regular Session, and 47 were signed by the governor. You can see how difficult it is to pass legislation.
A common frustration of our grassroots volunteers is how slowly the legislative process moves. This is by design. It’s a good thing the legislature moves slowly, except when it’s your issue that’s being considered!
This emphasizes the importance of and need for grassroots activism. We can encourage our legislators to keep legislation moving throughout the process. This is an exciting part of being self-governing citizens and where each and every one of us can make an impact.
Your Convention of States Missouri team keeps you posted through phone calls, emails, text messages, and calls to action. Whether you receive these or not is up to you. These will usually have a link to a webpage that will contain the necessary information to take action.
I ask you to take advantage of these vehicles to keep informed of COS news. Log into your Convention of States profile and opt in to emails and text messages. We are always considerate of your time not to abuse the privilege of communicating with you. There are so many developments that you need to be aware of, especially during the legislative season.
Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to having you on our calls, seeing you at events and working with you at the Capitol.
In liberty,
Brett
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