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Hicks’ CPR bill faces uphill struggle

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – One of the most innocuous bills in the Capitol this year may become one of the most contentious in the final week of the legislative session.

Rep. Ron Hicks, R-St. Peters, authored a bill to make CPR instruction a mandatory high school requirement. Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, has a similar bill. The two have made it through the hearing process relatively quickly late in the legislative session, even using a young girl to testify because CPR saved her mother’s life.

Rep. Ron Hicks poses with the Lutz family, including Lauren to his right, whose life he saved three weeks ago.
Rep. Ron Hicks poses with the Lutz family, including Lauren to his right. Hicks saved Lauren’s life with CPR in 2014.

Hicks came up with the idea when he learned that CPR training was not taught in high school anymore. Years after he learned CPR, he used it to save a young woman’s life in the Capitol building.

However, Hicks also changed his vote on the paycheck protection bill in the House, angering labor supporters and advocates who long considered him an ally. As such, some of his bills may become targets by those who feel jilted from his switch.

“I made a decision yesterday on the House floor that I know hurts me, and I know it also hurts a lot of people that I respect, that I’ve respected for many years,” Hicks said. “It’s an unfortunate situation I had to do this. I’m trading something off here. I know how the building works.”

Sen. Gina Walsh, D-St. Louis, noted that Senate Democrats were ready to filibuster the paycheck protection bill whenever it comes to the floor. She also expressed her own disappointment in Hicks’ decision.

“That’s what people do here, but I didn’t think he’d do that because he was so committed up until the other day he said he was always loyal to the cause,” she said. “There’s a billboard thanking him for his willingness to protect working families across the state, and he has just slapped them all on the face.”

However, Walsh says she and other Senate Democrats do not plan on retaliating against his CPR bill specifically. In the past, Sen. Jill Schupp, D-St. Louis, has attempted to add language to the bill that would assist with suicide prevention, and Walsh said that was likely to continue. That amendment was opposed by Republicans and deadlocked the floor.

“The CPR bill is a good bill, but there’s good bills that fit on that bill,” Walsh said.

Hicks also hinted that if had not shifted his vote on paycheck protection that the CPR bills, either his bill in the Senate or Brown’s bill (which has reached the House), may not have been entertained by either chamber. To him, the choice became an easy one as it was a choice between “A little bit of bureaucratic red tape versus a bill that’s going to save some lives.”

“I’m not going to let it get blocked on this side of the building,” he said. “This bill is way too important.”

As such, Hicks expects Brown’s bill to be brought to the House floor sometime early next week.