Greetings!
The Missouri General Assembly ended its 2022 session on Friday, May 15.
Often times in the legislative process, we measure our success not by what we achieved, but by what we prevented. And by that measure, it was a successful session.
With one big exception - Voter Protection. Unfortunately on Thursday, May 12, a final version of HB 1878 was passed and is being sent to the Governor for his signature. This bill creates a very restrictive voter ID requirement among many other provisions. A summary of the bill is below. We can expect this bill to be fought in the courts, as many provisions of the bill violate Federal election laws. Stay tuned.....
We can point proudly to two legislative victories: both a mandate for Holocaust Education in K-12 schools and funding and support to remove lead out of school drinking water were included in an omnibus education bill that passed on May 11. In addition, Medicaid Expansion was fully funded.
Here are some issues that DID NOT move forward:
- Changes to the Missouri Citizen Initiative Petition process
- Roadblock to teaching a full and comprehensive and equitable view of history in K-12 classrooms
- Efforts to harm and discriminate against transgender youth
- Legislation that would have allowed guns on public transit and in houses of Worship
- Attempts to roll back Medicaid Expansion and make it more difficult to keep Medicaid benefits.
- Stricter Stand Your Ground legislation (Shoot First).
Several of our coalition partners are hosting end-of-session wrap-ups, registration details for four of them are included below.
Thanks for going on this journey with JCRC during the legislative session. We will continue to keep you up-to-date on how you can participate in advocacy activities to support JCRC's social justice priorities.
