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| BRIDG: Business Research and Information Development Group |
Sunday, November 08, 2009
1:13:43 AM CST
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Overview of the Legislative Process in Missouri The following article is the launch of a new feature from Eric Anderson, a BRIDG representative located in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach at the University to Missouri Rolla. This article gives an overview of the legislative process and beginning with the new session in January of 2004, Mr. Anderson will provide articles introducing the proposed legislation for that session as they relate to small business. |
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Each year the legislators elected by Missourians propose bills that impact small business. An overview of the Missouri General Assembly and the law making process is useful in understanding how a proposed bill may be affected.
The Missouri General Assembly is the legislative branch of Missouri government.
The General Assembly is made up of the Missouri House of Representatives
and the Missouri Senate. For its House of Representatives, the state of
Missouri is made up of 163 districts, with one representative from each
district, and currently has 162 representatives (district 162 has a vacancy).
Representatives are elected to two year terms and are elected every general
election. In 1992, the Missouri Constitution was amended to only allow a person
to serve eight total years in the Missouri House and eight total years
in the Missouri Senate. These restrictions are regularly referred to as
"term limits". At each annual session the members elect the house leaders by majority
vote. The current speaker of the house, the highest officer in the house,
is Catherine Hanaway, a republican from District 87. The speaker then
determines the total number of members for each committee and appoints
the majority members to serve on those committees and appoints a chair
for each committee. The minority floor leader picks the minority members
of the committees, but the speaker has final approval of these appointments.
The committee's political composition is to reflect the overall political
proportions of the house. The house committees may meet with 24 hours
notice, and the notice is made on the bulletin board outside of the speaker's
office.
A bill may be "introduced" in either the House or the Senate. The bill is filed by a member and then it is read twice. Hearings are held by the Committee assigned the bill and the Committee gives a recommendation. The bill is then brought up for perfection, in which the bill is debated, possibly amended, and voted on by the members present. Next, the bill has a third reading and is put to a vote. If the majority votes to pass the bill, it goes to the other legislative body and there it goes through the same process again. If the bill has been fortunate enough to pass both the House and the Senate with identical language, it is sent to the governor for signature or veto. If the House and Senate have voted on different amended language of a bill, the bill is sent to a conference committee composed of members of each body to try to work out a compromise. If a compromise cannot be reached the bill is at an end. If a compromise is reached the bill goes back to each body for a vote and if passed on to the Governor. In both the House and the Senate, Committees play an important part in
reviewing a bill. Also, because of the time pressures of a session of
the general assembly, a committee may have the power to "kill" a bill
by having it get tied up in committee and never voted upon. Both the House
and the Senate have small business committees, which are discussed next.
The Missouri legislature produces several proposed bills each year from
both the House and the Senate that are intended to affect small businesses
in Missouri. Both the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri
Senate delegate members to serve on committees to review and report on
proposed bills. The House gives its Small Business Committee the following
description:
The House committee is currently chaired by Representative Neal C. St. Onge, a republican from District 88 (part of St. Louis County). In his member biography, Representative St. Onge gives his hometown as Ballwin, Missouri and states he is the chair of the Small Business Committee, "which is developing strategies to help Missouri retain and attract small businesses." Representative St. Onge can be reached at his Capitol office at telephone number (573) 751-5568 or by e-mail: nstonge@services.mo.gov Presently the members of the House committee on Small Business are: St. Onge, Neal C., 88th , Chair, Angst, Randy, 146th, Vice-Chair, Adams, Ray, 101st, Baker, Brian, 123rd, Bland, Craig C., 43rd, Cunningham, Mike, 145th, Darrough, Bruce, 75th, Davis, Cynthia, 19th, Dougherty, Curt, 53rd, Fares, Kathlyn, 91st, Nieves, Brian D., 98th, Parker, Sherman, 12th, Seigfreid, James, 26th, Skaggs, Trent, 31st, Wasson, Jay, 141st, Zweifel, Clint, 78th The Senate committee addressing proposed bills dealing with small business issues is the Small Business, Insurance & Industrial Relations Committee. The Senate committee is currently chaired by Senator John Loudon, a republican, from senatorial district 7 (a part of St. Louis County). In his member biography, Senator Loudon gives his hometown as Ballwin, Missouri. Senator Loudon can be reached at his Capitol office at phone number (573) 751-9763 or by e-mail: http://www.senate.mo.gov/email/mail_request.htm Presently the twelve members of the Small Business, Insurance & Industrial Relations Committee are: John Loudon, 7th, Chair, John Cauthorn, 18th, Vice-Chair, Matt Bartle, 8th, Dan Clemens, 20th, David Klindt, 12th, Delbert Scott, 28th, Carl Vogel, 6th, Rita Days, 14th Ronnie DePasco, 11th (currently vacant due to the death of Senator DePasco), Pat Dougherty, 4th, Harry Kennedy, 3rd, Steve Stoll, 22nd These small business committees may review bills, hold public hearings and make recommendations to fellow legislators regarding proposed bills. Legislators ultimately represent the people of their districts and the interests of Missourians as a whole. If a person has a comment about a bill, they may address them to the Committee or through their own representative or senator. Finally, the Governor will review the bill and decide to sign the bill (pass it) or veto the bill. The current Governor of Missouri is Bob Holden and his office may be contacted at telephone number (573) 751-3222, or by e-mail: mogov@mail.mo.gov. While the Governor may veto legislation the House and Senate with a 2/3 majority vote in each may override the veto and the bill will go on to become law.
New laws generally take effect on August 28 of the year they are enacted. If a bill has an emergency clause, it takes effect upon signature by the Governor. Also, bills may state a specific effective date, but this date must be at least 90 days after the end of the regular session (after August 28 for the regular session, which ends May 30). Laws are published in a book entitled Laws of Missouri and in the Revised Statutes of Missouri. Here is a link to the Revised Statutes of Missouri: http://www.moga.mo.gov/homestat.asp
Lists of Missouri Senators and Representatives, along with links to their office information and e-mail, are at the following sites: Missouri House of Representatives, Member list by district and district
map: Missouri Senate, Member list, alphabetically and by district and district
map: There is also a site that provides legislators by zip code: Information can be gained on where a bill is in the legislative process
by tracking a bill: Starting with the next session of the General Assembly in Missouri, Mr. Anderson will report upon the bills coming before the Small Business committees. If you have any questions about the legislative process or this memo, please address them to Eric Anderson at the following link: ericwa@umr.edu or by mail:
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