MOScout Daily Update: Three Weeks Left - 340B Debate - Signature Deadline - Trouble for Moon Re-elect? and more…
Where We Are
Three weeks left on the legislative session. The clock is now in play.
The constitutional deadline to pass the budget is one week from Friday (May 10). This week the Senate will work on passing the FRA tax renewal, and then the budget to send back to the House to start the conference process next week.
Tonight, the Governor and First Lady host the Legislative Barbecue for legislators and their families. So don’t expect a lengthy session today in either chamber.
But first, there may be a few fireworks in the Senate as they third read Sen. Justin Brown’s “340B” bill from last week….
Fireworks on 340B Third Read Today?
One lobbyist texts: “On SB 751, we might have an interesting third read after Thursday’s perfection vote. With a quick motion to perfect a complicated bill, any senator who may have wanted to make a change to the bill or even discuss it were closed out… Some are wondering if that is the goal: no questions, debate or amendments on a complicated bill dealing with an enormous federal program that Missouri is evidently eager to embrace. VA Governor Youngkin vetoed a similar bill and late last week, Kansas Republicans rescinded their support on 340b less than a month after passing it…”
· Opponents have been making the case that the program is give away for illegal immigrants. One GOP consultant: “Knowing that every poll in the state right now consistently has immigration as the number one issue in a Republican primary, I would be very worried if I am Republican on the ballot in August, voting to give illegals taxpayer funded healthcare. I can promise this vote will definitely come up in some primaries this year…”
· And also they’re adding a pro-life argument… “There is also a Planned Parenthood angle. Planned Parenthood is a 340B provider, they get those drugs at a discount and then get to charge full price. They can use those profits to subsidize their other services…”
I don’t expect a filibuster. It’s unusual – though not completely unprecedented – for a third-read filibuster. Filibusters in the Missouri Senate are viewed as tool to incentivize a compromise, and when a bill is perfected and amendments aren’t possible, there’s really no compromise available to the senators.
Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin is firmly behind the bill. In a Facebook post over the weekend she explained…
· The 340B program is intended to help reduce the cost of drugs for underserved and low income areas. Most of our rural area would qualify… The drug companies provide the prescription drugs at a very nominal cost and they are sold to customers at a reduced price but still a profit is made. That profit goes back into a local entity and helps them keep their doors open…
· Rural hospitals also use the savings to help keep the doors open and if you know anything about rural healthcare you know hospitals are struggling to survive.
· Big pharma makes an astronomical profit off their products and this effort to reduce our ability to access the 340B program doesn’t make sense. As far as I’m concerned the big hospitals in the cities are making plenty, the insurance industry is also making tremendous profit and the pharmaceutical industry tops even both of those. This last minute effort to kill the bill is nothing more than greed. Pure and simple.
IPs Signatures Deadline Looms
Signatures for initiative petitions are due at the Secretary of State’s office by Sunday evening (5PM).
Rather than wait for the deadline, supporters of the sports betting IP appear poised to deliver their signatures early. Two weeks ago, they announced they’d already collected 300,000 signatures, far more than the 175,000 needed.
House Floor Leader Jon Patterson has signaled that there’s no appetite to spend time on sports betting in these final three weeks. The House has consistently been banging head against the Senate wall on the issue for years. And JP points to the initiative petition as a chance for Missourians to weigh in on the issue directly.
The pro-choice initiative petition, meanwhile, may use every single day between now and Sunday. Last week KQ-2 reported that campaign was just over 200,00 signatures. And I assume that Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is vehemently pro-life, will apply every possible scrutiny to those signatures in hopes of denying them a ballot spot.
Driving the Day: House Ethics
There’s a House Ethics Committee hearing scheduled for today (11AM). According to the posting they’ll be meeting in House Room 3 rather than House Room 4. This could signal that today’s discussion may be open to the public. We’ll see.
· HR 4, without camera and streaming, is used when there’s a preference for less fanfare.
eMailbag on Senate 29 Poll
One reader thinks last weekend’s poll should make Sen. Mike Moon nervous…
Houston, we have a problem…
· Moon, a 4-year senate incumbent who has also served in the House, with only 37 percent on the ballot test is a red flag.
· Moon’s numbers outside of Lawerence County are sub-par especially Christian County where almost 50 percent of the primary vote is concentrated. Susan Haralson – polling where most House incumbents start – has not run for office before.
· Haralson may just need money to fuel a successful Moon landing.
MEC Fines Griswold
Gail Griswold, who’s involved with the Armorvine lobbying team, was fined by the Missouri Ethics Commission for untimely filings in her 2021 school board race. See the consent order here.
$5K+ Contributions
Liberty and Justice PAC (pro-Bailey) - $10,000 from John and Janell Brunner Family Trust.
Together Missouri PAC (pro-Hamra) - $10,000 from Magellan Development Group LLC (Chicago, IL).
theLOUpac - $12,000 from Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.
Lobbyists Registrations
Brian Bernskoetter added Entertainment Software Association.
Thomas Robbins added PhRMA.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Rep. Stephanie Hein, Brad Bates, and Belinda Harris.