This week, without any legislators being involved, Governor Nixon called a meeting of various agriculture groups and animal rights organizations. He persuaded them, along with the Director of Agriculture, to sign an agreement which would change some aspects of SB113. For this agreement to become a reality, new legislation would need to be passed by both the House and Senate.
Therein lies the largest obstacle to this agreement Governor Nixon has dubbed the Missouri Solution. Under the best of conditions, passing a bill through the legislature is a lengthy process. This agreement, decided on with no input from legislators, was signed with only four weeks of the legislative session remaining. This issue does not fall into the category of ‘best of conditions’. From the beginning this has been very contentious as we sought to find a balance between honoring the integrity of what the voters passed and protecting the licensed, legitimate, and law abiding producers of our state.
If the canine producers and other commodity groups in our state are willing to accept the changes proposed by Governor Nixon, that is fine. However, since we are so close to the end of session, the chances of passing a second bill through both chambers would be a daunting task.
On Wednesday, a rally was held on the south lawn of the Capitol to show support for SB113 and urge Governor Nixon to sign it into law. By most estimates over one thousand people showed up to lend their support. Several agriculture commodity groups went together and provided hot dogs, chips, and drinks for those attending. A counter rally organized by the Humane Society of the United States only drew a few dozen attendees.
For the new compromise to work, Governor Nixon needs to sign SB113 now so we can turn our attention to the new language. The sooner we know his intentions of signing or not, the quicker we can work on getting the new language through the legislature.
Until my next update,
Mike Kelley
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