Brandom: Legislative Priorities This Session

Last week the Second Session of the 95^th General Assembly opened and we
are off to a busy start. This week the House and the Senate issued a list of joint priorities that will be pursued in the early weeks of this session. Some of our commitments as we continue this session include:

• Pledge that there will be no increase of taxes for Missourians
  
• Further reduce fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system
  
• Require legislative oversight for the continued spending of
  our federal stimulus dollars
  
• To urge the Governor to issue prompt income tax refunds

We will also work to support safeguarding our freedoms, protecting our families and upholding our values. We have pledged to do what we can to protect our vital constitutional freedoms and liberties. Specifically we promise to:

• Ensure greater transparency in government
  
• Oppose a bloated and expanded government
  
• Oppose the federal government takeover of our health care system
  
• Call upon congress to oppose job destroying cap-and-trade legislation
  
• Require credit agencies to withhold reporting negative information if it is caused by identity theft.

Speaker Ron Richard created the House Special Standing Committee on Government Accountability and Ethics Reform to review all the rules governing the conduct of Missouri legislators. I believe I was fortunate to have been assigned to work in a committee of this importance to help craft a bipartisan piece of legislation that will help set the new ethic standard for our state’s legislators. This is an issue that transcends party lines and speaks to the integrity of the legislative process. I know both Republicans and Democrats want our government to be transparent and accountable to the people of Missouri. I promise you that my goal and my voice in this committee will be to set in place standards that eliminate even the appearance of impropriety in the lawmaking process. Backroom dealing, lobbyist buyoffs and general corruption may be customary in Washington D.C., but these methods are incompatible with Missouri’s values and unacceptable in this state. In other news, I introduced my bill [HB1377] requiring drug testing to all welfare applicants if there is reasonable cause to suspect drug use. The bill was successfully voted out of committee this week. I will now present it to the entire House for a vote.

This week we also sent a letter to Attorney General Chris Koster urging him to join with other State’s Attorney Generals across the nation in standing against the “Nebraska Compromise.” This deal would leave Missourians to pay the bill for
Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion. We hope that Attorney General Koster will review the constitutionality and legality of this compromise as it may violate the United States Constitution.