Legislative Update

The filing of legislation has been slow, which is not unusual. The great majority of bills will be filed after the General Assembly convenes on Jan. 9.

* Rep. Rachel Storch (D–St. Louis) was named as Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton's Missouri State Director. Rachel also serves as Chair of the Missouri House Democratic Campaign Committee. Prior to her election to the house in 2004, Rachel served as Deputy Chief–of–Staff to U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan and legal counsel to former state Senator Ken Jacob.

* Democrat Mike Evans (St. Louis) announced that he was dropping his bid for the democratic nomination for lieutenant governor and will support fellow Democrat Sam Page (D–St. Louis). This puts Page as the only major Democrat hoping to unseat Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder.

* Two Democrats vying for their party's nomination for attorney general made news this week. Rep. Margaret Donnelly (D–St. Louis) sued the Missouri Ethics Commission, alleging that the Commission violated the state's sunshine laws by holding closed meetings on the issue of refunds of campaign donations. Senator Chris Koster (D–Harrisonville) was seen in San Diego, CA at a rally with Teamsters President James P. Hoffa to protect the Bush administration's cross–border trucking policies.

* Former Rep. Nathan Cooper (R–Cape Girardeau) was sentenced this week to 15 months in federal prison on two counts of immigration fraud. Cooper resigned his seat in the Missouri Hose and surrendered his law license last August.

* Missouri Supreme Court Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. has been nominated by President Bush to be a U.S. District Judge in Missouri's Eastern District.

Governor Matt Blunt (R–MO) has announced a couple of changes to his cabinet. Omar Davis, the current Director of Labor and Industrial Relations, has been named to head the Department of Revenue. The Columbia resident previously served as the Director of the Legal Services Division and general counsel for the Department of Revenue.

Named to replace Davis as head of the Labor Department is Todd Smith, who currently is the Labor Department's Deputy Director. Smith is a former State Representative who served in the General Assembly from 1984–1994 and from 2002–2006.

Governor Blunt says he will be seeking $2.5 million to enhance health care for poor women in the state. Blunt has announced he will recommend the legislature approve $2 million to expand the Women's Health Program, created as part of MO HealthNet. The program pays for yearly women's health exams and cancer screenings for women under 185% of the federal poverty level. It now is only available to new or expectant mothers. The governor says the expansion will cover all women on MO HealthNet. The federal government is expected to provide around $11 million during Fiscal Year 2009 for the program. If the legislature approves the governor's recommendation the program's budget would total $12.9 million.

The governor also is recommending a half million dollar increase in funding for the Show Me Healthy Women initiative which offers free breast and cervical cancer screenings to poor women. The additional money will allow the program to double and serve an additional 1,500 women. The Centers for Disease Control will chip in another three million dollars and the program also receives some additional funding from other sources.

State Lawmakers Earn Money From Presidential Campaigns

Monday, December 31, 2007, 6:49 AM
By Bob Priddy

The Speaker of the Missouri House, who has endorsed Mitt Romney for President, is getting six–thousand dollars a month from the Romney campaign. Speaker Rod Jetton (R–Marble Hil)l is rounding up support as an employee of the Romney campaign as Romney's Political Director for Missouri.

Another House member also is getting money from a presidential candidate. Representative Rachel Storch (D–St.Louis) is the State Campaign Director for Hillary Clinton.

SB577, which replaced Missouri's Medicaid program with MO HealthNet, created a number of oversight committees to guide its implementation. The Committee with broadest oversight responsibilities is the MO HealthNet Committee. Its first meeting was convened on December 4. The Governor's appointees to the committee have come under question by the public, the media and members of the Committee itself. SB577 laid out specific requirements for the make–up of the Committee, and the appointees don't match those requirements. For instance, the individual appointed as the "consumer" representative is a woman with a history of work on behalf of low income Missourians, but she is not a consumer. Representative Rob Schaaf distributed a letter to the Governor laying out his concerns about the Committee's make–p and the scope of responsibility of the Committee, citing special concern about whether the Committee will approve implementation decisions.

The Department of Social Services and some of the legislators are sparring over the extent of the Committee's power. Dr. Ian McCaslin, director of the MO HealthNet Division, was vague about the separation of powers regarding MO HealthNet implementation, but stated that the Committee members would be asked for their opinion. He also said he wanted to do whatever it takes to move implementation forward, including having the Committee vote on items, if that is what they desire.

The Committee elected co-chairs: Steve Lipstein and Gwendolyn Crimm to guide what could be an interesting dance of implementation.

Members of the Missouri House have thus far filed 204 bills and the Senate members have filed 197 bills. For this week's report, if you desire to look at the new bills filed since your last report, you should start with any House bill numbered over 1415 and Senate bills numbered over SB 871.

Here's a partial rundown of presidential activity in Missouri during this past week: