Sater: Rally For Animal Agriculture

Yesterday afternoon around 4pm the House stood in recess and many of us went outside to attend a rally. The rally was sponsored by every farm and agricultural organization in Missouri. There were a couple of speakers, a veterinarian representing the Veterinarians Association, Senator Munzlinger who chairs the Agriculture Committee, and the Farm Bureau president. It was a celebration of Governor Nixon's commitment to sign into law the bill [SB113] that modifies what Proposition B or the "puppy mill" law did. Potentially Prop B could have run all dog breeders, some 10,000 people, out of business or out of state. The reason for the wide support amongst the agriculture community is there are groups in this country whose main goal is to shut down all forms of animal agriculture.  The House, Senate and now the Governor think that the new legislation improves Prop B.  The legislation is reasonable and goes after the bad dog breeders, insures the profitability of the good dog breeders while protecting the animal agriculture community.

We had a good floor debate on a few issues this week. One bill [HB320] had to do with prevailing wage requirements for government or public construction. This bill was about renovation of existing school buildings and allowing the renovation not be tied to prevailing wage. This will save taxpayers of school districts many dollars in our area because we will not have to pay contractors a wage that a contractor in St. Louis receives. It would be bid out to the lowest quality contractor.

Another bill we discussed [HB492] was the requirement that unions who deduct monies from a worker's salary for the purpose of funding the organizations political action committee.  Yearly the union must have permission from the worker to continue deducting money for this purpose. There are bills from the Senate on the House calendar and a few House bills on the Senate calendar. I have three bills that have passed out of the House and are sitting in limbo in the Senate. I am trying to attach some of my bills to some Senate bills in an effort to get this legislation passed.

Unfortunately yesterday afternoon the legislature came to a standstill because of congressional redistricting. Every 10 years after the census is taken, and if there is a major change in population, the congressional districts are redrawn. Since Missouri did not keep up with the rest of the nation in population growth we will be losing one congressional seat.  Missouri will have eight seats instead of nine.  It is up to the House and Senate to draw the lines for the new districts. Each side has drawn up their respective maps.  We don't like the Senate map and they don't like the House map.  As of this time we have a "conference committee" made up of members from both sides who are trying to work things out.  We have to come to an agreement and have the bill on the Governor's desk by tomorrow.  He has the choice of approving or vetoing the bill.  If he vetoes the bill it comes back to us for an override vote.  It's a mess, but if we don't get this settled the courts will take over and do it for us. As of right now, we are deadlocked, but hopefully this weekend, there will be a resolution.

That is all for now. Contact me anytime.