MOScout Daily Update: House Committee Talk - The Long Winter Ahead - COVID Immunity Hearing - Pre-Filing Day and more...

House Committee Talk

A few weeks ago, I recklessly offered some guesses at possible 2021 Senate committee chairmanships.  The House side is much more difficult.  The sheer numbers of committees (and possible committees) and representatives create a near infinite number of combinations.  Instead of trying, here are some “big picture” guesses, with the caveat of course that this all speculation:

·         The House will retain its two Rules Committees.  It makes sense anyway.  It creates a second powerful committee which can be assigned to deserving ally.  And it enlarges the speaker’s power by allowing him to send a bill on specific path – for better or for worse for that bill.

·         An early favorite to chair the House Redistricting Committee is Rep. Dan Shaul.  He gets the most chatter because he’s close to Speaker Rob Vescovo, and he’s part of the JeffCo paesan.  That’s important because JeffCo folks are rallying (like the St. Charles delegation) to have their county placed entirely within a congressional district as a means to increase their clout.

·         Rep. Curtis Trent will land a nice chairmanship.  Although Trent lost his bid to become floor leader, don’t expect a winner-takes-all mentality.  Instead a spirit of unity will prevail and Trent will be offered a prominent chairmanship.  It validates those who voted for Trent that he is a valued member of the caucus.

·         The Special Committee on Government Oversight will continue.  Robert Ross brought the committee a high profile with its investigation into the medical marijuana licensing process. Since then, other members have offered suggestions of different parts of government they wanted investigating.  There’s no shortage of ideas.  As a result, it’s become a top committee.

·         Look for members that have Vescovo’s trust to do well in the chairmanship draws.  Among them: Don Rone, Jered Taylor, Phil Christofanelli, and Justin Hill.

The Long Winter

The promise of a vaccine lies just on the other side of the year, yet to get there it looks like a long COVID winter.  The New York Times sums up the current situation... Each week, good news about vaccines or antibody treatments surfaces, offering hope that an end to the pandemic is at hand. And yet... The United States has reached an appalling milestone: more than one million new coronavirus cases every week… Some epidemiologists predict that the death toll by March could be close to twice the 250,000 figure that the nation surpassed only last week…

AP brings it closer to home with a report from Memphis MO.  See it here.

·         As Dr. Shane Wilson makes the rounds at the tiny, 25-bed hospital in rural northeastern Missouri, many of his movements are familiar in an age of coronavirus. Masks and gloves. Zippered plastic walls between hallways. Hand sanitizer as he enters and exits each room. But one thing is starkly different. Born and raised in the town of just 1,800, Wilson knows most of his patients by their first names…. The tragedy is smaller here, more intimate. Everyone knows everyone.

·         Scotland County Hospital’s doctors already are making difficult, often heartbreaking decisions about who they can take in. Wilson said some moderately ill people have been sent home with oxygen and told, “If things get worse, come back in, but we don’t have a place to put you and we don’t have a place to transfer you.”

·         The hospital’s chief nursing officer, Elizabeth Guffey, said nurses are working up to 24 extra hours each week. Guffey sometimes sleeps in an office rather than go home between shifts. “We’re in a surge capacity almost 100% of the time,” Guffey said. “So it’s all hands on deck.” It’s especially difficult to watch friends and relatives struggle through the illness while a large majority of the community still doesn’t take it seriously, she said. “We spend our time indoors taking care of these very sick people, and then we go outdoors and hear people tell us the disease is a hoax or it doesn’t really exist,” Guffey said.

·         Wilson spent hours on the phone one day, trying to find a larger hospital capable of providing the critical care that might save a man in his 50s who was critically ill with the virus. By the time the University of Iowa Hospital agreed to take him, it was clear he couldn’t survive the 120-mile trip…

Against this backdrop, the Parson Administration will offer no new initiatives to contain the spread of the virus this winter.  Regardless of what the cases totals, positivity rates and death tallies are.  They’re locked into a pattern of once-a-week press conferences with tweets about hand-washing.

As one Republican, who’d like bolder action from the administration, texted me: Just hope we muddle through somehow and the deaths are not too high and [Parson] doesn’t get the blame too much on this?.. I don’t get it. Feels like [they have no plan] and after 8 months of this, that is terrifying. But I guess he won huge so Missouri supports his approach...

Driving the Day: Pre-Filing Day

Today legislators will start pre-filing their bills for next month’s session.  It’s worth scrolling through the list at the end of the day.  Although there will be some evergreen bills which are filed every year and don’t gain traction, it can give a sense of where priorities are for various impact players.

Senate Hearing on COVID Liability

This morning the Senate’s Government Reform committee will hear Sen. Ed Emery’s SB1. 

It’s the “COVID liability” bill, aimed at making it substantially harder to sue healthcare workers, manufacturers and business owners for their conduct during the pandemic.

Attorney Brent Emison tweets about the bill with a phrase we may hear repeated: “If no one is responsible, no one is safe.”

eMailbag on Helms Rematch

Before Steve Helms will win a primary, he will need to explain to GOP voters why he spent 2020 doorknocking in St. Louis and failed to spend $11,000 In a campaign that he lost by less than 100 votes. Betsy didn’t win the seat, Steve lost it.  I would be shocked if he is the candidate in two years.

$5K+ Contributions

MO Republican Party - $10,000 from Growth and Opportunity PAC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Frank Plescia, Charlie Dooley, Joe Knodell, Stacy Steen, Elizabeth Zerr, Ryan Stauffer, and Mark McCloskey.

Condolences

To former Rep. Brian Baker on the passing of his father, Pastor David L. Baker.