The Missouri House and Senate have spent the first two months of sessions at differing levels of dysfunction. The current Speaker of the House is still under investigation by the House Committee on Ethics for several alleged violations of House rules and state law. The Missouri Senate Freedom Caucus held up floor action in the Senate, demanding senate leadership advance initiative petition reform to make it harder to change the Missouri constitution by the initiative.

However, even with the dysfunction, there have been small victories for Missouri’s community banks. Two pieces of legislation, SB 736 sponsored by Senator Sandy Crawford and HB 1803 sponsored by Rep. Terry Thompson, are moving. Both bills would raise the aggregate amount the state treasurer could invest in the MoBucks program.

Rep. Thompson’s bill passed the House on Feb. 19, and Senator Crawford’s bill passed the Senate the week of March 4. Both bills are in a good position to be finalized, but we will need to be vigilant as every day is an adventure with this version of the Missouri General Assembly.