MOScout Daily Update: House Convenes at 1PM - Richey Eyes Budget VC - What The New Abnormal Could Mean - Now or Never Saga and more...

Today’s Legislative Action

Committee: Gubernatorial Appointments, Senator Dave Schatz, Chairman

Date:  Wednesday, April 8

Time:  9:00 a.m.

Room:  Room 117

Committee: Fiscal Oversight, Senator Mike Cunningham, Chairman

Date:  Wednesday, April 8

Time:  9:30 a.m.

Room:  Rm 117

The committee hearings will be streamed at: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00325/harmony/en/powerbrowser/RoomRouter?location=JCR%20Live

House convenes at 1PM to take up the supplemental budget.  The same link should work for streaming the House as well.

Richey Eyes Budget?

Word is that Rep. Doug Richey is eyeing the vice-chairmanship of Budget Committee. 

Richey is unopposed in both his primary and general elections and has begun to think about the role he’d like to play in next legislative session.

With Rep. David Wood termed, the vice-chairmanship will be open on the House Budget Committee. Chair Cody Smith is a sophomore and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.  But Richey is making known his desire to forgo other chairmanships and begin the understudy role to eventually succeed Smith.

Yikers! A New Abnormal?

The updated coronavirus model (see it here) now shows Missouri peaking in two weeks, and the projected eventual death total is 548.

With the peak now in sight around the nation, folks are beginning to wonder what comes next.

Politico has a piece called “The New Abnormal,” imagining how life might be changed in America.

[A] widely available vaccine against Covid-19 is thought to be at least one to two years away. In the meantime, our society will be radically altered in ways that seem unimaginable… A time traveler from the 1970s would be baffled by the layers of security now required before boarding an airplane.

Expect masks, hand washing, covered coughing and handshake-less greetings to become the norm. And that's just the start of changes we might see and are already seeing….

·         Regular checkups —Before someone enters a store, office building, school, stadium, airport or other public space, they could be subject to thermal scans to check for an elevated temperature, much like they sometimes have to go through a metal detector to check for guns today.

·         Tracking —Americans may have to get more accustomed to logging and sharing their movements to help officials track and contain the virus spread…

·         Random sampling — Ohio and Masschussets are planning to randomly test people in order to get a better handle on case counts and virus spread. Until widespread testing is available, random testing could allow a region to track the virus spread and know when to re-impose stay at home orders.

·         Certifications — Germany is already creating certificates for people who have recovered from the virus, which confers on them at least short-term immunity. The certificates allow people to sidestep lockdown restrictions…

·         Staggered seatings and at home services — Restaurants, museums and concert venues could offer staggered seatings and shows with smaller, separated crowds… In addition, hairdressers, manicurists and other service providers could move to home services that limit customers' contact with one another.

·         More public spaces and micro-transit —More cities could build bike lanes or widen the ones they already have. Wider sidewalks, too, could help people commute without contact. Cities won't disappear as the result of the pandemic, but they could become less dense.

What It Means

It’s becoming more realistic that there will be no hard stop date to this crisis, no V-Day when the war is over.

Instead there may be various phases during the next year. Life will resume some normalcy but restrictions will remain in place to prevent the virus from re-emerging.

·         That means traditional campaigning may not resume before August – or even November.

·         It means that the V-shaped recovery which would allow the budget to quickly bounce back is less likely to occur.

State Working on CARES Hang-up

Post Dispatch reports that: Some Missourians who are expecting relief from the federal stimulus bill may have to wait. The state is not yet processing unemployment claims from workers who are normally ineligible for benefits, Anna Hui, director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, said Tuesday.

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, made temporary relief available under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for workers whose claims would normally be denied by the state, such as independent contractors. But, Hui said, the state is not yet able to handle those claims.

The inability to process claims will affect self-employed or “gig” workers, such as Lyft and Uber drivers, or other workers who aren’t traditionally eligible for benefits. And it represents another headache for a state labor department that is already swamped with unemployment claims and inquiries… “We’re proceeding as quickly as possible” to get the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program running, Hui said….

Now or Never PAC Saga

This may be the final scene of the Now or Never PAC.  It was a SuperPAC created during the 2012 Missouri US Senate race.  First, it supported Sarah Steelman, then Todd Akin.  $1.7 million was funnel through it, though the ultimate source was never identified.  Missouri politico Gregg Keller plays a part, as does Missouri attorney James Thomas.

FEC Commissioner Ellen L Weintraub tweets:  BREAKING! The district court has lifted its order restraining the @FEC from publishing the names of key players in a $1.7 million straw-donor scheme. Here's my statement with all the details

Read it here.

Also on Twitter

Gregg Keller touts former US Senator Jim Talent for Navy Secretary.  And Jeff Smith retorts “I mean do you really think he is more qualified to step in during a crisis of character and integrity than a certain governor who was *also* a Navy SEAL”

Finally

Rep. Sara Walsh sings a corona song to constituents.  See it here.

Lobbyists Registrations

Irl Scissors added Group XI Health, and Express Medical Transporters, Inc.

Frank Alvarado added Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.

$5K+Contributions

Uniting Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Huntsman Holdings LLC.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Ron Leone, Mike Sutherland, Mike Thomson, and PJ White.

MOScout Schedule

Brief update tomorrow (Thursday), then I’m taking a long weekend.  No Update Friday, no Weekend edition.