On the surface, Sens. Mike Cierpiot and Denny Hoskins shouldn’t be bitter adversaries.The two Republicans represent parts of the Kansas City area and served in GOP House leadership together in the 2010s. According to Hoskins, they’ve even been roommates for nearly a decade.But the two absolutely do not get along.In fact, Cierpiot caused quite a stir last Thursday when he put forth an amendment to the Senate Journal disapproving of Attorney General Andrew Bailey defending Hoskins and two other senators against a defamation lawsuit related to tweets that falsely accused a Kansas man of the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade.This barb, in response to a similar amendment from Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, telling the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms to watch out for a thundering herd of rhinoceroses, was one of the last things the General Assembly’s upper chamber did last week before quickly adjourning on Friday. (Eigel was referring to Republicans in name only, or RINOs, when mentioning a herd, a criticism often lobbed at GOP officials who are not sufficiently conservative.)“You just reach a point that you just want to respond in some way and other than being humorous or demeaning. I thought it was factual,” said Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri State Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Kansas City, pauses while listening to colleagues speak at a press conference on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.

After declining to comment on the substance of Cierpiot’s move, Hoskins added, “I will just say that he decided he was not going to stay in the apartment last night.”“So that was probably very appropriate,” said Hoskins, R-Warrensburg.The Hoskins-Cierpiot spat was perhaps a small example of the bitter and public factionalism among Missouri legislative Republicans, something that became so pervasive this session that it helped tank one of the party’s biggest priorities — a ballot item making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution.And while disunity among Republicans is hardly a new phenomenon in the Missouri General Assembly, both Republicans and Democrats say this year could prompt changes in how lawmakers approach policymaking — especially if the perennially outnumbered Democrats make gains in both chambers.In fact, outgoing Democratic Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo said the fact that Senate Republicans decided against shutting off their record-setting filibuster over the constitutional amendment boost isn’t just a show of strength for his party. Rather, the Independence Democrat said, “I think it’s a beacon of hope for the country.”“Unfortunately, in today’s world, compromise is a terrible thing,” Rizzo said. “But when we work through the process together, we can get some stuff done, and we can really do some things. I wish we would have been able to do more things if we’d have done this a few years ago. But at the same time, I think they’ve charted a path where they can.”

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, pauses while giving closing session remarks on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City. O’Laughlin gaveled the Missouri Senate out minutes after gaveling in and a week of dysfunction.

Factionalism feature or bug?The 2024 session will not only be remembered for the divides in the Senate, but also the lack of productivity.Missouri House Democrats noted that when appropriations bills are subtracted, this past year’s session was the least productive in recent memory in terms of legislation passed. In fact, the Senate didn’t end up passing a single bill during the final week.But House and Senate leaders disputed the idea that nothing happened during the session, pointing to passage of a wide-ranging education bill that expanded a tax credit program for public and private schools. On the last day of session, lawmakers made tweaks to a senior property tax freeze program and approved a crime bill that included a long-sought provision aimed at curtailing celebratory gunfire.“This legislative session started off with most dire predictions, doom and gloom. But it wasn’t that,” said House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres.“I think that we had a pretty good year,” added Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina. “I like all of my colleagues. They are all very bright. Difficult to handle sometimes, but they all kind of want the same thing. It’s just that some people want to take a different path to get it.”It appeared that the GOP House, Senate and Freedom Caucus were on substantially different paths throughout the past few months.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, listens to Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, on Thursday during the waning days of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.

At the start of the session, O’Laughlin remarked to reporters that she would vote to expel Eigel— something that prompted a bitter confrontation between the two. After Freedom Caucus members held up Senate business, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden went as far to strip members of the Freedom Caucus of their committee chairmanships and their parking spots in retaliation.While the tensions ebbed and flowed throughout the session, they arguably reached a fever pitch near the end of session when the Freedom Caucus engaged in a lengthy filibuster of legislation reauthorizing a critical tax to fund the state’s Medicaid program. That eventually passed, but uncertainty over the passage of what’s known as the Federal Reimbursement Allowance led to an unprecedented budget process that didn’t feature a conference committee.The bid to make the Missouri Constitution harder to amend sputtered out after a record Democratic filibuster — and refusal from some Republicans, including Rowden, to use a rarely dispatched maneuver called the ‘previous question’ to cut off debate. The House refused to pass a version of the amendment threshold boost without other provisions, including a measure barring noncitizens from voting. (That’s already illegal in Missouri, but the provision was placed on another ballot item that Missourians will decide later this year to ban ranked choice voting.)“I think the idea of how this place is supposed to function should be kept intact for as long as it can,” said Rowden, noting how the GOP majority passed legislation to prohibit most abortions and curtail federal gun laws in prior years. “But every once in a while you lose. And that’s the way it is.”

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, holds up a flyer touting GOP successes by the majority party on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.

A more moderate course?House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said the lack of productivity was something of a mixed bag for her Democratic colleagues. She said GOP infighting brought about the demise of bills that her party didn’t like, most notably the measure to boost the constitutional amendment threshold.But she added the dysfunction also meant that bipartisan priorities fell by the wayside, including efforts to provide tax credits for child care facilities and to raise the age a person can get married from 16 to 18.“The experiment of putting people who hate government in charge of government has predictably failed,” said Quade, a candidate for governor. “The time for change is now.”While there is little hope of Democrats taking over either chamber of the General Assembly, the last redistricting cycle created a House map that features a number of competitive districts — especially in suburban parts of the state. And it’s possible that Democrats could make more pronounced gains than usual if a ballot item legalizing abortion is on the November ballot.“We’ve seen Republicans run the state for 20 years,” said Rep. Richard Brown, D-Kansas City. “People complain about how the state has been managed and how the state’s been run. But again, as I tell them: Democrats are not in the leadership positions to make those changes that people want. So let’s go to the polls, elect some Democrats, and let’s see what the future brings for Missouri.”Democrats like Quade are bullish that they can win enough seats to break the GOP supermajority — something that, with some other good election results, could radically change how a Republican-led General Assembly operates.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioMissouri Senate Minority Floor Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, speaks on Friday during the last day of the legislative session in Jefferson City.

Senate Democrats could also potentially break the GOP supermajority, though their ability to gain seats is more limited because many of the districts up for grabs are heavily Republican. But Rizzo said that with lots of people leaving the Senate this year, it’s possible that a new group of lawmakers could create a less hostile environment.“There has to be a follow-through next year,” Rizzo said. “Don’t regress, keep moving forward. Don’t let the bullies win. And I think they took the first step to do that. I’ve been waiting for it for four or five years. And I think they finally did.”It’s unclear how many members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus will return next year, especially with Brattin facing a competitive GOP primary, and it’s unknown who will prevail in races to represent Republican-dominated Senate districts.But Hoskins noted in his remarks to reporters that the concept of Republican factionalism that chafes against legislative leadership is not a new phenomenon. In fact, that’s been fairly constant since the mid-2000s — and especially during times when Republicans control the governorship.“It’s much bigger than us five right here,” Hoskins said. “It’s a movement to stick to the Missouri Republican Party platform in our conservative beliefs.”

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Lawmakers passed more than 200 bills last week ahead of their scheduled May 24 adjournment.Many of the measures will soon head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including a bill that changes how damages accrue under Illinois’ first-in-the-nation biometric data privacy law.The Illinois House on Thursday approved Senate Bill 2979 with several Republicans joining supermajority Democrats in its passage. The Senate last month also OK’d the measure on a bipartisan vote.The measure is a response to an Illinois Supreme Court ruling last year that “respectfully suggest(ed)” lawmakers clarify the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. That ruling found fast food chain White Castle violated BIPA each time its employees used their fingerprints in the course of performing their jobs, as the company never obtained permission under the law.In that case, White Castle estimated it would be on the hook for up to $17 billion in penalties, as the law provides for $1,000 in damages for each “negligent” violation or $5,000 for each “reckless” or “intentional” violation.However, White Castle last month settled the case for $9.4 million.“That’s million with an ‘M,’” House sponsor Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, said during House floor debate on SB 2979 Thursday, adding that the White Castle case represented a “sky is falling” scenario that didn’t end up coming true.The legislation would change BIPA’s violation accrual so that each initial collection of a fingerprint or other biometric data would amount to one violation, rather than a violation occurring for each individual scan. Employees might scan their fingerprints dozens of times per shift if they’re unlocking doors or cabinets with those scans.Illinois is the only state that grants residents the right to sue over businesses’ improper collection and mishandling of biometric data – whether they are an employee or a customer. A business is in violation of BIPA if it doesn’t have a storage policy in place, doesn’t properly protect the data, or if it does not get consent from customers or employees for the data being collected.Under SB 2979, businesses could get that consent via an electronic signature, which the bill defines as an “electronic sound, symbol, or process.”Business groups have been clamoring for changes to BIPA in recent years as upwards of 2,000 lawsuits have been filed under the law since roughly 2018, resulting in a few high-profile settlements – including a $650 million class-action payout from Facebook in 2020. The social media giant paid more than 1 million Illinoisans roughly $400 each.Some business groups are still opposed to SB 2979 because it wouldn’t be applied retroactively and doesn’t specifically shield data centers from liability for storing biometric information on behalf of companies who may have violated BIPA.Juvenile human trafficking victim recordsLegislation that would allow human trafficking victims to have their juvenile disciplinary records expunged has now passed both chambers of the General Assembly.House Bill 5465 would make it easier for former human trafficking victims to have those records sealed or expunged for offenses they were involved in while they were being trafficked. The bill is an expansion of a law passed last year that allows adults to have their criminal records pertaining to being trafficked sealed or expunged.The bill is part of a package of human trafficking-focused legislation House Republicans are pushing this year. House Bill 5467, which would remove the statute of limitations for a victim to press charges from being trafficked as a minor, is the only other bill to pass the House and is waiting to be assigned to a committee in the Senate.Foster care regulationsThe House passed two bills amending foster care policies this week.House Bill 4781, known as the Kinship in Demand (KIND) Act, would allow the Department of Children and Family Services to use a “kin-first approach” to foster placement by considering placing children with relatives before other foster or guardian options.Sponsor Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, said the bill would provide permanence to children, reduce instances of family separation and “make that disruptive process less traumatic.”The bill unanimously passed the House Wednesday and is waiting to be assigned to a committee in the Senate.Senate Bill 2824 passed the House unanimously this week after also clearing the Senate unanimously. The measure would allow foster children to attend school in their former district and not be charged with nonresident tuition if they were moved out of the district by DCFS as part of a safety plan.Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, said the aim of the bill is to allow DCFS to decide what is best for the child and to not force guardians to pay tuition to school districts for children to “stay in that stable environment.”Homeowner landscaping rightsHouse Bill 5296, dubbed the Homeowners’ Native Landscaping Act, would prohibit homeowners associations from restricting residents from planting native plants on their property.Associations would still be able to mandate that properties be free from weeds, invasive species and trash. The homeowner would also need to keep the plants from growing onto common areas or neighboring properties.Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, said the bill is “an intrusion on what a homeowner’s association can do.” She said homeowners know what the association’s rules are when they buy the property, and that any regulation would be best left up to local levels of government.Last month’s vote in the House was partisan but two Republicans – Minority Leader John Curran and Sen. Sue Rezin – voted in favor of the bill this week in the Senate. It passed 42-17 and needs only a signature from the governor to become law.Garbage truck litteringGarbage trucks that lose trash because they are not properly covered could soon be fined after a bill unanimously advanced out of both chambers.House Bill 4848 would create a specific violation for law enforcement to cite when garbage or other debris falls from a truck and litters highways. Each infraction would result in a $150 ticket.Sen. Donald DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said the legislation is an attempt to eliminate unsightly waste.“You don’t have to drive very far to see the fences along the farm fields, the trees, all decorated with various pieces of plastic bags and garbage that might have flown off trucks,” DeWitte said.Mindful classroomsA measure allowing educators to provide students with time for mindful stretching and movement during the school day cleared both chambers as well.Nothing prevents schools from implementing these practices now, but Senate Bill 2872 codifies that educators may provide students with at least 20 minutes of relaxation activities, like yoga and meditation, each week. It would also allow them to partner with an outside institution to provide the activities.During House debate, supporters of the bill said practicing soothing techniques, like breathing exercises and stretching, is essential for helping students manage their mental health – especially as students deal with leftover trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic’s interruption of their education.But those opposed expressed concern with potential programming interfering with classroom learning time and religious freedoms.Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, specifically cited a recent class-action lawsuit filed by former Chicago Public Schools students against the Chicago Board of Education. Students allege the board forced them to participate in a meditation program that students argued was actually a Hindu ritual that violated their religious beliefs.The House sponsor, Rep. Laura Faver Dias, D-Grayslake, reiterated during debate that the bill is not a mandate and parents could air any concerns about specific programs with local school boards.The bill cleared the Senate 36-19 in April and the House 71-40 this week along party lines.Food grantsA pilot program that has given nearly $2 million to local farms would be expanded into a permanent fund under a measure that received unanimous approval in the House.Senate Bill 3077, which also got a unanimous vote in the Senate last month, would create a special fund for the Department of Agriculture to administer the Local Food Infrastructure Grant Program. In its pilot phase, the state awarded $1.8 million to 19 local farms for a variety of projects, like building a meat processing center and a new kitchen.Under the measure, the IDOA would be able to work with a partner nonprofit and grant money from the newly created Local Food Infrastructure Grant Fund to select small farms for things like food processing and cold storage. Grant amounts could range from $1,000 to $75,000 if it’s for an individual project and up to $250,000 if it’s a collaborative project.Capitol News Illinoisis a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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Child marriage will remain legal in Missouri for at least another year after Republican House leaders said they don’t have enough time to pass it.

Under current Missouri law, anyone under 16 is prohibited from getting married. But 16 and 17 year olds can get married with parental consent to anyone under 21.

Under legislation that cleared the Senate with virtually no opposition earlier this year, marriage would be banned for anyone under 18. “It was very surprising that the House has not allowed it to come to the body,” said Republican state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of Scott City, who sponsored the bill along with Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Democrat of Kansas City.

“Banning child marriage should not be controversial. When I filed this bill, I had no idea it would be controversial,” Rehder added.

The bill was stalled by a group of Republican critics in a House committee, who said it would constitute government overreach and infringe on parental rights. It finally passed out of committee this week after several of those critics were not present at the vote.

But House leadership told reporters Friday morning it was too late to place the bill on the House calendar for debate. Session ends at 6 p.m.

“There’s some interest there, unfortunately the rules preclude us from doing that today,” said House Majority Leader Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican.

Arthur said the failure is “shameful.”

“When I talk to people back home, they’re surprised to learn that minors can get married in the first place,” Arthur said. “And these are the kinds of headlines that my friends who are apolitical or live in different parts of the country send me and say, ‘What is happening in Missouri?’

“It makes us look bad,” she said, “but more importantly, we’re not doing enough to protect young girls who are forced into marriages and their lives are worse in every way as a result.”

Twelve other states have in recent years banned child marriage.

Rehder said she was told only around 20 out of 163 House members were opposed. She also said the House could have voted to suspend its rules to allow the bill to be debated and passed before adjournment, but suggested that House Speaker Dean Plocher refused to let the bill move forward to avoid embarrassing Republicans who are opposed to banning child marriage.

“We have the votes,” Rehder said, but it didn’t come up “because the speaker didn’t want to put his members in a bad situation.”

“…Because you shouldn’t be against banning child marriage.”

Rehder said she’s hopeful the bill will succeed next year, in large part due to the “public pressure” of state and national media.

“You cannot sign a legal binding contract in Missouri until you’re 18. But we’re allowing a parent to sign a child into a lifetime commitment. It’s ridiculous.”

Rehder attributed some of the opposition to generational differences.

“People who have been against it — the men who have been against it — who talk to me about it have said, ‘Oh, my grandmother got married at 15.’ Well, yes I did too, mine was 40 years ago,” Rehder said.

“And it didn’t work out because I was operating on not an adult mindset.”

Fraidy Reiss, an activist who founded the nonprofit against forced marriage Unchained at Last was active in testifying in support of the bill in Missouri and has worked nationally to pass similar legislation. Upon hearing the news, Reiss said: “How can legislators live with themselves?”

She added that “dozens of teens will be subjected to a human rights abuse and legally trafficked under the guise of marriage in the coming year,” due to the failure to pass the legislation.
“…How will they explain that to their constituents?”

This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.

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