Consent Bills Move to the Senate

This past week the Missouri House moved through our consent bill calendar. Consent bills must be considered non-controversial, cost nothing to implement, and may not reduce revenues. While these bills may not bring overarching reform, they represent Missouri’s basic goals, values, and commitments. The following list is a small sampling of consent bills that have passed the House this session.

House Bills 79 and 81 are part of Missouri’s effort to bring international companies to our communities, instead of outsourcing American jobs to foreign workers. HCS HB 79 creates the Missouri International Business Advertisement Fund.  This fund will place ads in international business magazines, social media sites, and search engines in order to attract international companies to the state. HCS HB 81 creates the Missouri International Agriculture Exchange website. This website will set up a marketplace for Missouri agricultural sellers to promote their products abroad.

HB 334 exempts children working on family farms from child labor laws. Farming parents depend on their children to help out with the family business, and kids gain lifelong skills and responsibility. Agriculture is Missouri’s biggest industry and this measure reaffirms the legislature’s commitment to continue our tradition of family owned and operated farms.

HB 440 enables cottage food producers to keep on selling without health department inspections. This means that home-canned jelly and home-dried herbs, among other products, can continue to be sold at farmers’ markets, fairs, and to friends, without government intervention.

Currently, counties are only allowed to increase their budgets annually, but not decrease them.  HB 451 allows counties to amends their budgets during the middle of the fiscal year, if revenues decline dramatically. This allows counties to responsibly act in times of economic crises. Counties have no power other than that granted by the state, and so we want to grant them this power to keep themselves afloat in tough times.

HB 471 designates the third week of February as Engineer Awareness Week. During this week, citizens and various groups are encouraged to promote the engineering discipline to students, expand public recognition of the engineering profession, and celebrate engineering accomplishments.

HB 673 changes the name of Linn State Technical College to the State Technical College of Missouri. This reflects the college’s unique status as Missouri’s premier public institution of technical education, and recognizes its growth from a regional school to a statewide college.

HB 715 allows motorcyclists to use brake light modulators that vary the brightness of the lights for up to 5 seconds. This measure helps vehicles keep up with the latest technology and helps improve motorcycle operators’ and other drivers’ safety