FROM THE CAPITOL

At the Missouri Capitol, we have just finished spring session.  As previously mentioned, the senate started slow out of the gate, and has continued to crawl along throughout the session until this week.  Unfortunately, a very small group of senators placed personal politics ahead of the people’s interest.  However, our local Senator, Karla Eslinger, is objectively viewed at the Capitol as one of the hardest working senators in the state.

I am very proud to announce that our Senator garnered support in the senate to add funding to the budget for creation of a new autistic center to be built at the MSU West Plains campus.  A few years ago, I visited with Chancellor Dennis Lancaster and asked what his single greatest vision was for the West Plains campus.  This is it, and it’s a great idea.  Since that first meeting, we worked together to get to this point.  With the help of many of my colleagues in the House and Senate, we passed this project on both sides of the Capitol (subject to line item veto).  With great help from Carol Silvey and many county officials, Dennis has gathered strong community and county wide support for this project.  I will definitely report further on the Chancellor’s visionary project in future reports.   

Also over the summer, I’ll be helping the Willow Springs School District  with securing state grant funding to help in repairing and improving the old MoDOT buildings in town.  I think the Board and school officials are considering several options for the buildings including a new technology career center.* I look forward to helping in anyway possible.  Special thanks goes to my old friend, Wendell Bailey, for his long term dedication to the restoration of the buildings for the benefit of the community. With the grace of God and the hardwork of the entire community, we can now see this dream becoming reality in the forseeable future.

On the other hand, one of my biggest responsibilities is keeping bad stuff (bad language and bad bills) from becoming law, and the good news is that we at the Capitol have had less chances than usual to muck up the law.  But to me, passing fewer good laws is better than passing many bad ones.

We were able to work together and pass some good stuff, and I’ll highlight a few of those in this report.  Please remember all legislation is subject to governor veto.

First, the House and Senate both passed HB 2116.  This bill is called “No Patient Left Alone.” It creates a patient bill of rights and requires all health care facilities in Missouri to allow access by care givers in health care facilities to visit their loved ones and to provide input on critical health care decisions. By the end of session and with many changes, this bill received bipartisan support. We have all read, heard, and many were tragically impacted, by the federal government’s arbitrary decision to keep family and friends from being able to visit their loved ones during the pandemic.  This bill was written to end that abuse of power. I very strongly supported my former office mate and friend (Rusty Black) in his very hardwork in getting this bill across the finish line. Rusty took on this challenge out of the goodness of his heart. Our friends and family should never be forced to suffer or die alone.

SB 775 also passed out of both the House and Senate. This bill was sponsored by Senator Rehder, and was based on a joint state task force created to study and to propose greater statutory protections for assault victims (children as well as adults). I was honored to be appointed to and to serve on that task force.  

Working closely with various law enforcement agencies and the Missouri Prosecuting Attorneys’ Association, I sponsored several bills that were incorporated within Senate Bill 775.  These provisions include several clarifying definitions in the criminal code regarding sexual assaults, clarifying criminal court jury instructions, and expanding the crime of sexual assault of minors to include minors assaulted by volunteer coaches (and not just school coaches). Also included within SB 775, I am particularly proud of the language I drafted and co-sponsored with friend, Lane Roberts, on orders of protection.  These clarifications were a priority request of  several victim rights groups.

In my next report, I’ll discuss among other new legislation a strong election integrity bill that we finally passed out of both the House and Senate. One part of the bill I did not support, but House leadership has committed to readdress that issue in upcoming sessions.  We’ll talk about this in detail in my next report.

It is my honor to serve as your representative and to speak for your commonsense values. If you would like to schedule a specific time to meet locally or at the Capitol, please call my office at 573-751-1455, or email my office at david.evans@house.mo.gov. 

*Publisher’s note: See the school board’s latest discussion on the subject of the MoDOT buildings on page XXX.