JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe will likely introduce his lobbyist gift ban bill sometime this week as it nears the top of the Senate bills for perfection calendar. Yet five other bills stand in front of it, not to mention Senate bills on other calendars and numerous House bills.
Last week, Sen. Rob Schaaf made a stand that heavily indicated he would grind the Senate to a halt until a bill came up to disclose donors to certain political nonprofits, like the Gov. Eric Greitens-supporting A New Missouri, Inc. The nonprofit ran a social media ad campaign against Schaaf in late April for stalling debate in the Senate as part of his crusade against managed care.
“The only way… we can move forward, is to pass ethics legislation that discloses the dark money that’s being used against us,” Schaaf said Monday.
Last week, Kehoe said he was optimistic his bill, a lobbyist gift limiting bill would pass through the body. While Rep. Justin Alferman’s bill offers a total ban on monetary gifts from lobbyists, Kehoe’s bill puts a limit of $10 per day on lobbyist gifts, serving as a compromise with some members of the upper chamber who fear a total gift ban from legislators would prevent advocacy organizations from holding their events at the Capitol.
However, Kehoe’s bill could also serve as a canvas for a more in-depth discussion on ethics in campaigning as well. Senators have apparently eyed the legislation since Greitens made ethics reform, including a lobbyist gift ban, a primary goal of his administration.
Still, those five bills on the Senate perfection calendar stand before Kehoe’s. Here’s a closer look at some of those pieces of legislation.
Riddle’s bill allows for hospitals to apply for a STEMI center designation provided they become accredited as such by the American Heart Association or another national organization. Hospitals designated as STEMI centers have systems in place to care for patients suffering from heart attacks, scientifically known as a ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The bill also removes certain regulations from hospitals, as they related to trauma, stroke and heart attacks.
Hoskins’ bill is slightly more straightforward than Riddle’s. It changes the law so a written correction order can be sent directly to a facility or program at a facility instead of the head of a facility.
SB 518 posits that as of July 1, 2018, if a hospital complies with Medicare conditions, then it also complies with hospital licensure in the state. In addition, state regulations from the Department of Health and Senior Services that become redundant with Medicare conditions for licensure, or defy them, will lapse.
Nasheed’s wide-ranging prostitution bill raises the criminal classification of people who solicit prostitutes under the age of 18 and forces anyone who commits such a crime to register as a sex offender. Anyone convicted of promoting a prostitute younger than 16 will also serve a sentence of 10-15 years.
Nasheed’s bill also allows for the expungement of criminal records for prostitutes if they did so under the influence of another party.
Emery’s resolution would put all impeachment proceedings under the jurisdiction of the Senate, instead of the Missouri Supreme Court. The chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court would preside over the proceedings if the person being tried for impeachment is the governor.
