Legislative Update: March 29, 2022

Thanks to the Rev. Michaelene Miller and the Deaconess Anne House Community for sounding the alarm for a "Baptismal Covenant Call to Action!" last week when I was on Spring Break about SB 843, which had a public hearing on March 23 in the MO Senate. As Shira Berkowitz from PROMO put it, "This egregious bill seeks to ban transgender youth from accessing life-saving affirming health care by punishing parents and providers who help their child receive it." Thanks to the folks at Trinity CWE and elsewhere who wrote to oppose that bill! Keep up the pressure against anti-trans legislation! PROMO - the primary LGBTQ advocacy group in Missouri - posts and sends regular weekly legislative updates during Legislative Session. You may find a petition against SB 843 and other links from PROMO HERE: https://linktr.ee/PROMOmissouri

You can see from this week's Senate Committee Calendar that there are a slew of anti-equity and anti-public schools legislation being heard in the Senate Education Committee this week. There are even more such bills proposed in the House. If you want to keep up with the latest, the Missouri Equity Education Partnership MoLeg page is the place to find out more about ALL of the anti-equity in education bills that are introduced or moving, as well as which School Board candidates who support equity and support public schools, since most Missouri School Board Elections are coming up on Tuesday, April 5. You may also sign on to an Interfaith Statement of Support for Equity in Education in Missouri here: https://www.missouriequity.com/interfaith-council-statement

Here is an abbreviated version of this week's MOJWJ Legislative Update:

This week, the top bills we’re watching include cuts to unemployment, attacks on public education, the repeal of Medicaid expansion, and attacks on the initiative petition. We’re continuing to push calls, emails, and letters to the editor on these priority bills and core issues. Take action here.

RSVP for our mid-session webinar: Wednesday, March 30, 1:30 p.m.
https://www.mojwj.org/action/2022-march-webinar/

Unemployment Cuts:

SB 665 had sat quietly on the Senate calendar up until last week. Sen. Bernskoetter amended SB 665 to include SB 673, which would waive the recovery of overpayments. This does not make this a good bill. We launched our SB665 action alert last week & generated more than 100

• Bill Number: SB 665
• Why take action: This would make Missouri the shortest eligibility time frame in the country. This could especially harm building trades and factory workers & industries that are more impacted by weather, supply chain issues, or production slowdowns. This bill ties the duration of unemployment benefits to the unemployment rate and lowers Missouri’s duration to as low as 8 weeks. Eight weeks would be the lowest in the nation. We currently have 20 weeks, which is still shorter than the average state which is 26.
• How to Take Action: Send a message to your senator and share your story - https://www.mojwj.org/action/22stop-unemployment-cuts/

Medicaid Expansion

• HJR117 - a bill to repeal Medicaid Expansion - was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, March 22nd. The committee did not take a vote on the bill. Most notably, ZERO folks testified in favor of the bill. Testimony against this bill was heard from several MO JWJ members & organizational partners. HJR117 could be voted out of committee this week.

• Bill numbers: HJR 117- the repeal of Medicaid Expansion on the ballot.
• Why take action: We cannot allow this to only be a discussion that happens in Jefferson City. We need to show our elected officials that this matters to real people. Contact your senator and share your health care story.
• How to Take Action: https://www.mojwj.org/action/protect-medicaid-expansion/

Public Education:

These bills are about efforts to shift funds intended for public schools to charter schools. Our position is that public money must come with public oversight and accountability.

• Bill numbers: SB869 (Koenig) is the companion to HCS HB1552 (Richey)
• Why take action: Each of these bills will divert public funds to charter schools. This is a problem for MO JWJ because charter schools are not necessarily governed by the elected school board in the communities in which they operate. This undermines the community’s voice, the elected boards, and is the privatization of public dollars.
• Our position is still public money = public oversight.
• How to Take Action:
  • Contact your senator and share: https://www.mojwj.org/action/protect-public-schools-2022/
  • Champion Sessions:
    • Tuesday, April 12, 10-11:30 a.m.
    • Wednesday, April 27, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
    • Plan to attend for 90 minutes, on camera as much as possible.
    • RSVP to Teresa Danieley at teresa@mojwj.org

Initiative Petition Defense:

In response to the success of issues like minimum wage and Medicaid Expansion, there has been a national push in conservative states that have direct democracy to restrict access by making issues harder to place on the ballot and harder to pass. Missouri has been center stage, with more than 20 bills filed each of the last four years. This session is also packed with anti-democratic bills - the main focus is HJR79, SJR 31, and SJR 37

• Why take Action: This is part of a national movement in conservative states to restrict the power of direct democracy. This has been the key tool to proactive wins, minimum wage, Medicaid Expansion, and repealing RTW in Missouri.
  • The bad stuff:
    • Each of these would require signatures in all congressional districts.
    • Each of these would increase the number of signatures per district.
    • Each of these would increase the threshold to pass an initiative on the ballot.
• How to Take Action:
  • Email your senator here.
  • Phone Bank with us: Missouri Jobs with Justice leaders are phone banking on Wednesday, April 13th, 5:00 - 8:00 PM. Click the link to sign up or reply to this email for more information.
  • Lobby Day: Join our coalition lobby day on May 3rd - sign up here to join us.
  • You can also reach out to a local organizer to present at a membership meeting to educate people on the threat.

What else we’re watching:

Unemployment Clawback:

While Governor Parson reluctantly - and perhaps cryptically raised the wage for state workers last month - the Parson administration is still turning to temporary workers to staff up AND garnishing the wages of workers who received an overpayment through their unemployment assistance. Again, the federal government will forgive these overpayments - but we’re not putting our full trust into a clean bill.

• Bill numbers: SB 673 and SB 709
• Why take action: Many workers are having wages garnished by the state. The federal government is willing to forgive the overpayments. This bill has bipartisan support, for the second session in a row. Governor Parson has been aggressive in garnishing these workers' wages.
• How to Take Action: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/pass-sb-679-709-to-stop-wage-garnishment/

Anti-Protest bills:

We are again partnering with the Organization for Black Struggle to help monitor bills that restrict the right to assemble and protest in Missouri. These bills continue to pop up across the country.

• Bill numbers: HB1914
• Why take action: These bills are part of a national movement to restrict the right to assemble and protest in response to the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd protests. As a direct action organization, this is important to us.
• How to Take Action: Alicia and Jamala host a biweekly call on Tuesdays at noon. Email Alicia@mojwj.org to be added to the list.