Some ill-conceived bills that were defeated

One of the marks of a successful legislative session is not only passing good bills, but also ensuring that bad bills are defeated. This session, there was no shortage of ill-conceived measures. Thankfully, most were defeated and many never even got to the floor. Here are just a few of the bills I am proud to have helped defeat this session.

Billington

I join the majority of my constituents in steadfastly defending our Second Amendment, and this means tracking any legislation that could jeopardize our rights. Several of these bills were filed this session, including House Bill 210, which would require all transfers of firearms to be handled by a federally licensed firearms dealer. In effect, this would have criminalized private firearm transactions. Unless you had a federal license and performed a background check, you couldn’t even give a gun to a family member. The bill would have made the process to exchange firearms more burdensome, and would have expanded the amount of information the federal government has about gun owners. Our Second Amendment majority kept this bill from going anywhere this session.

Another problematic bill I opposed this session was House Bill 864. This bill would have substantially changed the teacher retirement system in Missouri. Potentially, the legislation could have reduced the pensions that teachers have worked so hard for during their careers. It was clear this bill should be stopped, and it was not even heard in committee.

Finally, protection of the unborn is one of my priorities as your state representative. We have certainly made steady gains in defending life, including the historic passage of House Bill 126 this year. However, we still must continually fight against pro-abortion forces that remain in our legislature. Year after year they file bills to impose their views on others, and this year was no different. One of their most outrageous bills was Senate Bill 216. This bill would have required all organizations that provide pregnancy-related counseling, including pro-life “pregnancy resource centers,” to provide information about abortion to their clients in order to receive state funding. Apparently, Senator Schupp thinks the state needs to force even pro-life groups to promote abortion. Thankfully, this bill was essentially dead on arrival.

House Speaker Elijah Haahr made it clear this week that the House will continue to look closely at the changes in Medicaid enrollment numbers. Haahr issued a letter outlining the steps he has taken to seek answers to why the state has seen a significant drop in enrollment over the past year, and giving his support to a continued investigation into the issue.

Missouri’s Medicaid program, which is known as MO HealthNet, provides health insurance for low-income Missourians. Missouri currently has approximately 600,000 Missourians on Medicaid. That number has dropped by more than 100,000 over the past year.

Missourians received good news this week as the state received a federal infrastructure grant that will trigger a bonding plan to repair more than 200 bridges across the state. The bonding plan was approved by the state legislature during the 2019 regular session and was one of Gov. Mike Parson’s top priorities.

Parson made the announcement that the state had received an $81.2 million Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build a new I-70 Missouri River bridge at Rocheport. The grant will enable a project to replace the existing four-lane bridge with a new six-lane structure. The existing bridge has been rated in poor condition and a repair plan could have caused traffic backups of 20 miles in each direction and delays of up to eight hours.

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Hardy Billington represents the 152nd District. Contact him at hardy.billington@house.mo.gov or by calling 573-751-4039.