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Lobbying reform bills referred from committee

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Government Oversight and Accountability Committee heard testimony and reported “do pass” on four lobbying reform bills in one of the most high-profile issues surrounding the opening of the 2016 legislative session.

HB 1452, sponsored by Rep. Denny Hoskins; HB 1983, sponsored by Rep. Shamed Dogan; HB 1575 and HB 1979, both sponsored by Rep. Caleb Rowden, will go to Speaker Todd Richardson’s office, where he is expected to put the legislation on the calendar as soon as possible, according to committee chair Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City.

Barnes noted the process of pushing through ethics reform legislation had a high priority from both parties and chambers in the General Assembly and that these bills deserved floor debate.

Barnes
Barnes

“No bill has ever been voted out of committee, on ethics, this early,” he said, while also acknowledging that this legislation could face challenges along the way to passage. “There’s still a long way to go. These bills, as they’re passed now, certainly will closely resemble how they came out of this committee, but they are always subject to change.”

One of the first roadblocks on the legislation was Rep. Gina Mitten, D-St. Louis. The committee member had particular issue with HB 1979, which imposes a one-year ban on lobbying by former members of the General Assembly and other statewide elected officials. Mitten contended that the bill had numerous problems, not the least of which was that the legislation did not actually specify a calendar-year ban, but instead, just a single session ban.

Mitten
Mitten

Regardless, Mitten voted in favor.

“Even though it is the tiniest of possible steps that the majority party could take on this issue… it is still a tiny step in the right direction,” she said.

Rowden argued that the legislation still needed to eventually become a successful law that stood up to strict scrutiny.

“You sacrifice maybe wanting to go further because eventually you have to pass something that stands up to muster and stands as law one day,” he said.

Rowden
Rowden

Barnes also offered that getting too broad on other details, such as one part of the bill not applying it to current members of the legislature or nitpicking about the exact date after retiring that a legislator can become a lobbyist, could muddy the intent of these bills.

“Revolving door bans, while enacted in many states… there’s a thin constitutional rope to walk,” Barnes said. “Right now, this is not illegal, and although it’s frowned upon, it is not deemed completely unacceptable behavior. We can create a climate where it becomes unacceptable.”

However, Barnes did say he favored Mitten’s calendar year proposal, a change would could be made on the House floor.

Mitten went on to state that she favored stricter punishments for those who resign early to become lobbyists.

“There needs to be some absolutely punitive measures for someone that resigns their office early in order to become a lobbyist,” she said. “That is unconscionable to your constituents to leave them unrepresented for months and in some cases years in order for you to go make a living.”

The other bills received much less debate. Hoskins’ will change the filing deadline for personal finance disclosure (PFD) reports biannual, instead of annual; on Jan. 15 and July 15 instead of just May 10. Rowden’s other bill requires officials to disclose lodging and travel expenses within 30 days of the trip.

Dogan’s, which would ban legislators and statewide office holders from acting as political consultants, did receive a bit more discussion. Mitten asked why staffers were not also included in the bill, but Barnes argued that a provision like that could effectively restrict the political speech of ordinary citizens.

“There are certain things we can prohibit of ourselves than we can go further and prohibit of others,” Barnes said.

That sentiment summarized the entire meeting, and it solidified the aim of what the legislature hopes to accomplish in the face of the criticism that the body has done too little to address these concerns in recent years.

“We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Rowden noted. “This ethics package… was designed by legislators to tell the people of Missouri that we take their trust and their responsibilities they have given us seriously.”

Three other bills were scheduled to be discussed, but Barnes pushed them to next week’s hearing over various concerns. One of those was Rep. Justin Alferman’s bill, which would ban gifts to legislators from lobbyists, which apparently had some improper wording.