JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – As ethics legislation marches through the legislative process, Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said that keeping the bills narrowly tailored remains a high priority even as the bills move between the chambers.
At a Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics Committee Hearing, Kehoe and four other senators recommended do pass two Senate Committee Substitutes on HB 1983 and HB 2166, written by Reps. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, and Rep. Justin Alferman, R-Hermann.
HB 1983 would ban statewide elected officials and members of the legislature from being paid political consultants, and HB 2166 is a ban on lobbyist gifts.
Kehoe said he and the committee found some of the provisions in HB 2166 reached too far.
“There was a concern that the bill was so expansive that it might include, let’s say, school board officials,” he said. “If a school board came to the Capitol or in their home town, they would not be allowed to be served a meal for instance. It was too broad.
“The intent of ethics legislation this year is really to focus on this building and the members in this building so we narrowed it down to this building.”
The committee also removed a $50 limit on honorariums given to legislators from advocacy groups like plaques and other types of awards.
Despite the addition of the amendments on the substitutes, Kehoe has also had concerns with tacking on too much to certain bills. He wants to avoid the failures of omnibus ethics bills from years past that sank under their own weight.
“Those big omnibus bills often have pieces that somebody doesn’t like in there,” he said.
Kehoe is cautious to speak his thoughts as to which bills he think will ultimately make it onto the governor’s desk, and he said that legislative leadership has had limited opportunities to work with Gov. Jay Nixon’s office on the specific kinds of ethics reform they want.
He also said that the Senate would dedicate a special day or week sometime this month to move ethics legislation.
