Senate Bill 40: Update for the House
Last week we let you know that the Missouri Senate passed SB 40, threatening our health and environment. It will be having its hearing in the House soon!
Tell your state representative: “SB 40 is financially irresponsible, harmful to our health and environment, and must be stopped! This bill must be stopped in committee – tell your colleagues on the committee to vote NO!”
Don’t know who your state representative is? Look them up here and make a call!
Select SB 40 – Burlison and submit your testimony against SB 40 here.
SB 40 will have detrimental effects on Missourians’ health and environment. This bill:
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- removes emissions testing for vehicles in St. Charles, Franklin, and Jefferson Counties
- causes the state to lose $1.5 million in annual revenue, weakening DNR’s budget
- risks the state losing up to $52 million in annual federal highway funds by 2024 due to failure to implement the federally-mandated emissions inspection program, which we have because St. Louis fails federal emissions standards!
- severely limits the Hazardous Waste Management Commission’s authority and effectively ends the Brownfields/Voluntary Cleanup program
- may force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step in and enforce federal environmental law
Bad companion bills needing swift action – tell your state legislators to vote NO on these bills:
Don’t know who your state legislators are? Look them up here and make a call!
Ag-gag Law: HB 574 (passed in the House and subsequently passed in the Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee) and SB 254 (on Senate formal perfection calendar) would restrict the inspection of agricultural grounds/facilities to certain federal/state agencies and limits who can testify in court related to these inspections.
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- This is another attempt to block local public health agencies from protecting their local communities from health concerns found in agricultural operations.
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- Tell your state senator to vote NO on HB 574 and SB 254!
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Threat to Democracy: HB 333 (passed in the House and had a hearing conducted in the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee) and SB 149 (on Senate informal perfection calendar) threaten democracy in multiple ways:
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- It requires initiative petition signatures to be gathered on a government identified form
- The text of the proposed measure must be “no smaller than twelve point, Times New Roman, and have a top, bottom, left, and right margin of not less than one inch.”
- $500 filing fee for initiative petitions
- Only signatures written in black or blue ink shall be counted as valid without requiring verification.
- All of these changes in HB 333/SB 149 would make it incredibly difficult to ensure petitions get started (the cost is so high) and that petition organizers obtain signatures that will be deemed valid.
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- Tell your state senator to vote NO on HB 333 / SB 149!
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Threat to Food Security: HB 217 (passed in the House Rules-Legislative Oversight Committee) and SB 138 (on Senate formal perfection calendar), which both require SNAP participants to comply with federal work requirements
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- This is another attempt to mandate the harshest penalties for SNAP recipients when they fail to meet federal work requirements – being permanently ineligible for the program after a third failure to meet work requirements.
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- Tell your state senator and state representative to vote no on these bills!
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Threat to Soil Health and Climate Resiliency: HB 529 (passed in the House and had a hearing conducted in the Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee) and SB 96 (on Senate formal perfection calendar) would establish a minimum biodiesel fuel content mandate.
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- We do not need to incentivize more biodiesel production. Our farms need to focus on growing food and promoting soil health!
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- Tell your state senator to vote no on HB 529/SB 96!
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Attack on Renewable Energy: HB 697 (passed in the House and had a hearing conducted the Senate Insurance and Banking Committee) and SB 105 (on Senate formal perfection calendar) would modify provisions relating to property assessment contracts for energy efficiency.
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- This is an attack on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, which facilitate local government funding of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
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- Tell your state senator to vote no on HB 697/SB 105!
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Greenwashing Natural Gas: HB 892 (referred to the House Rules-Administrative Oversight Committee) and SB 141 (passed in the Senate and has a hearing scheduled in the House Judiciary Committee on 4/14) would both require the Public Service Commission to create a “renewable” natural gas program.
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- Natural gas is not renewable!
- Tell your state representative to vote no on HB 892/SB 141!
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Visit our 2021 Mo Leg Bill Tracker to learn the status of all bills MCE is tracking this legislative session.