Schupp: Committee News & Assignments, Smoking Still Allowed In Capitol

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

In Jefferson City, the start of the legislative session is quite different from my past two years' experiences. We're moving forward at a rapid clip!

As has been my practice, I will continue to provide you with the tone and my impressions as well as substantive information about what is occuring in our State Capitol. I hope it is always evident that I deeply appreciate the opportunity to serve.

With new Representatives making up almost half of the chamber, it is an interesting juxtaposition. Often unfamiliar with procedure and policy, these new legislators are being thrown into the fire, voting on substantive and significant legislation within their very first committee meetings where the legislation is introduced...without ample time for thought and deliberation.

In two of the committees on which I serve, we only received the fiscal impact information and reports upon arrival at the meeting. Many questions asked went unanswered as two bills, costing the state over $2.2 million combined, were voted "do pass." I'm hopeful that we're not rushing so quickly that we haven't considered the ramifications of the legislation being passed.

At the same time, I have had many opportunities to meet with new people who have a lot of ideas and a lot of enthusiasm about working together for the betterment of Missourians.

As always, I am looking forward to representing you as all members, new and old, work together in the weeks and months ahead.

Truly,

Jill Schupp

Breaking News in Education

I received information just a few hours ago that, due to increases in revenue over the state's projections, the Governor was able to release money he had withheld based on those early projections. Now, with the new revenue information, K-12 schools and higher education students will be receiving more of the money that the General Assembly had appropriated.

The release includes 7.5 million in transportation dollars back to our schools, and, our students attending college with Access Missouri Scholarships will see their scholarship dollars increase, helping lessen their financial burden as they strive to achieve the dream of attending college.

My Assignments

My committees for the 2011 legislative session are Appropriations-Transportation and Economic Development, Small Business, Higher Education, and Ranking Member of General Laws.

Following an appointment in November to the role of Policy and Member Engagement Leader for the Democratic Caucus, I was formally elected to that position on Monday, January 10.

We had a long and well-received Policy meeting on Tuesday to inform members on issues including Open Enrollment, Teacher Tenure, Merit Pay, Charter Schools, Missouri's Non-Partisan Court Plan; The "Fair" or "Mega" Tax ; Turner v. Clayton; Construction Work in Progress' first step...the site permitting process; "Right to Work" and more. We are grateful for the speakers who braved the weather coming from St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia to offer their expertise and insights.

While small in numbers, the Democrats will continue to work hard to understand the issues and advocate for good legislation as each of us works to support our districts and the state.

This Week in the House

General Laws

For those who are regular readers, you might recall information from the last two sessions about legislation that recommends the imposition of drug testing for parents in poverty who are recipients of Federal dollars through a program called TANF...Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Most recipients are single- parent moms with a couple of children. These recipients must comply with a training program to help them find employment.

House bills 47 and 73 were discussed this week in the General Laws Committee. These bills, largely similar, require the Department of Social Services to implement drug testing at a cost of around $2,000,000 state dollars per year. A positive test will result in the loss of the parent's TANF funds for 12 months, which is a loss of approximately $58 per month out of $292 for a family of three.

While the department will then refer the individual to a treatment center, there are long waits to get in, and Medicaid only covers a portion of the treatment.

Meantime, the children are the ones who continue to suffer. Now, with less money available to the household to pay rent, utilities, buy clothing or food for an entire year, the family descends deeper into poverty.

Drug addiction is a disease. Children living with an addicted parent deserve better.

In my opinion, a good use of our taxpayer dollars would be to limit drug-testing to the pool of people receiving TANF funds that are not in compliance with their program.

If they test positive for drugs, let's use the majority of the $2,000,000 proposed to be set aside for this program to get them treatment. Let's invest in having them become productive, contributing members of our society. Let's make a difference in their lives and the lives of their children.

Particulary during difficult economic times plunging more people into poverty, we have an opportunity help people work toward employment and help those who need it be treated for the disease of addiction. I voted against this bill in my committee because I believe there is a pathway to making things better, not simply punishing.

Small Business

House Bill 45, the Small Business Tax Relief Act doesn't state what its sponsor intended. The way the legislation currently reads, it appears that a business could receive a $10,000 tax credit for hiring a person on a full time basis at a county average wage for any amount of time. Seasonal businesses would be able to claim this credit again and again as long as they met the above criteria for a short time.

This is certainly not the intention of the bill...but intention cannot be assumed, it must be spelled out. It passed, but I voted against this legislation in committee. I cannot support legislation that I know is flawed. I am hopeful we can find some great opportunities to support and grow small businesses through our legislation this session.

I was anxious to get started on the Small Business committee because job creation is a huge priority in our district and state-wide. In particular, we know that small businesses are truly the backbone of a vibrant economy. That's why it was disappointing to know that our first piece of legislation, which basically provided tax deductions for small businesses that created new jobs, was just not up to snuff.

New Session, New Rules, Still Smoking...

Today, we voted on the rules by which the House will abide during the 2011 legislative session [HR38]. While I believe there has been an improvement from the 2010 rules in terms of allowing the Minority Leader's decisions about standing committee membership to be honored, I think we fell short in our serious treatment of the committee process.

Committees are the places where we should be able to ensure that testimony is heard, discussed and thoroughly reviewed. As it stands, if the chair is willing to force a vote on the day of the hearing within a two hour meeting, as happened in both of my committees that met for the first time this week, there is no real opportunity to explore new ideas or address unanswered questions.

Examining fiscal implications, processing information and gathering outside input and expertise based on committee discussion will help with the creation of better legislation. As it stands, the process should be changed by Committee Chairs to provide time for debate and reflection.

As we approved the rules by which the House will operate, I offered an amendment to allow time between the committee debate and the vote. It was defeated, but I know some committee chairs heard the message and will honor the sentiment as they choose how to run their committees.

A Smoke Free Capitol Building? ...NOT YET

An important addition to the Rules of Procedure is the establishment of the House Lounge as a non-smoking area. Historically, the lounge is a Representatives-only area and is one of the places which has been exempted from the Capitol's partial non-smoking policy. Though this change sends a positive message about smokefree efforts, with smoking still allowed in members' offices, the toxins from second-hand smoke in the Capitol are still a concern for employees, elected officials and visitors.

For the first time, I voted in support of the House Rules. While I had hoped for some changes, I felt there was a good faith effort on the part of the Majority Party to make the rules better than they had been in the past, and I appreciate and support those efforts.

House makes statement on Federal Healthcare Reform

Earlier this week, the members of the House passed House Resolution 39, which calls on Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat, to join 20 other attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of federal health care reform. Representative Schupp spoke in opposition to the Resolution, suggesting that we use valuable state resources to meet our financial needs. The Supreme Court will make its decision with or without our participation, and we will be bound by that decision.

Welcome Rebecca Anglo!

We are delighted to welcome Rebecca as one of our Interns during this legislative session. Rebecca is a junior at the University of Missouri, where she is studying Political Science.

Green Tip of the Week

We generally provide you with a Green Tip of the Week, written and researched by one of our office Interns. This week's green tip is by Rebecca Anglo.

Josh Dorfman, host of "The Lazy Environmentalists," suggests washing your clothes in cold water. By using cold water instead of warm, the average household can avoid emitting 1,281 pounds of carbon dioxide annually and save on energy bills. (www.filterforgood.com)

Computer Crime Alert

A recent update from the Creve Coeur Police warms of a potential security vulnerability when making "secure" transactions online. "Tabnabbing" can occur when you have a secure connection open at the same time that you have a regular, "insecure" website open. Secure transactions may be exploited during this process.

If you are conducting a secure transaction, do not have additional windows or tabs open until you have concluded it.