Mariel Lutz, Spring Legislative Intern
The MO Leg 2022 Session ended on Friday, May 13, and MCE wants to share where our highest priority bills landed. This session, we monitored 276 bills, sharing our highest priority bills – 122 of them – on our MO Leg bill tracker webpage. We submitted written testimony 92 times and testified in person once it was safe to do so a half dozen times. All of this work is to ensure our legislature is doing all that it can to protect Missouri’s water, air, land, and democracy through sound policy related to energy, waste, public lands, agriculture, government accountability, elections, and petition initiatives.
WINS
We supported these bills and they successfully passed out of the Legislature and are now headed to the Governor:
- HB 1720: While we do not support every provision of this bill, we do support the amendment that creates the specialty agricultural crops act, which comes from a bill MCE wrote and supports Missouri farmers in growing specialty crops, which includes fruits and vegetables. We also support the provision that establishes a tax credit for urban farms in food deserts.
- SB 820: While we do not support every provision of this bill, we do support the original bill language that prohibits homeowners associations (HOAs) from preventing the use of solar panels because it supports renewable energy.
- HB 1697: This bill seeks to expand opportunities for Missourians to support themselves and feed their fellow Missourians by allowing cottage food products to be sold over the internet.
- Please contact Governor Parson today and ask him to sign these bills! You can call him at (573) 751-3222 or write to him using this comment form.
We opposed these bills and they fortunately did not pass out of the Legislature:
- HJR 79: This bill would have made it harder to get initiative petitions on the ballot and to pass said petitions, thereby threatening the initiative petition process.
- HB 1972: This bill would have allowed for the sale of Eleven Point State Park.
- HJR 82: This bill would have prevented the Missouri Department of Conservation from revoking hunting and fishing licenses when necessary, through a rigorous process. Removing this important safeguard would have encouraged the unchecked and illegal harvest of Missouri’s game and fish resources.
- HB 2587: This bill would have allowed for some state laws and regulations to be waived or suspended for participating businesses for a period of time. The laws and regulations of Missouri should be enforced impartially and equally for all people and companies in the state in order to protect the environment and the health and well-being of all Missourians.
LOSSES
We supported these bills and they did not successfully pass out of the Legislature:
- HB 2833: This bill modifies provisions relating to soil and water practices in order to improve soil health.
- SB 984: While we do not support every provision of this bill, we do support the amendment that creates the “Get the Lead Out of School Drinking Water Act.”
We opposed these bills and they successfully passed out of the Legislature and are now headed to the Governor:
- HB 2485: This bill would allow for dangerous recycling practices that are far more likely to produce more greenhouse gasses than reusing the plastic material. This could include “recycling” the plastic into more fossil fuels that would hurt the environment and would release many other toxins that could damage the health of Missourians. Even if these toxic practices occur in Missouri, they should not be exempt from regulations, and this bill would allow these facilities to operate without solid waste permitting.
- HB 1878: This bill imposes MANY voting restrictions, including stricter photo ID rules.
- HB 2005: This bill would make it more difficult for transmission lines that can bring Missourians renewable energy to be approved and constructed.
- SCR 25: This bill calls for a Constitutional Convention, which would create an unacceptable risk for the people of Missouri and the United States for potential negative consequences.
- HB 3020: This is one of the budget bills and it originally had approx. $70 million for the Rock Island Trail, but that money was moved to different projects.
- Please contact Governor Parson today and ask him to veto these bills! You can call him at (573) 751-3222 or write to him using this comment form.