It’s the mid-way point of the 2021 edition of the Missouri General Assembly. Spring break, a 10-day break, is underway, and as I write this article, I am hurtling down I-55 on my way for a little R&R in Mobile, Alabama, on the Robert Trent Jones III Golf Trail.

At the break, we have succeeded in having a mandate removed from a bill that would have required Missouri financial institutions to bank any business selling the supplement Kratom, an herb from Southeast Asia that has been banned in several countries and the U.S. We have also promoted a revision in the states PACE law and the Division of Finances priority, another regulatory revision bill in both the House and Senate.

This session has been anything but normal, with a week off in the House in January due to COVID and a week off in the Senate due to the extreme cold weather in mid-February. The House has been playing catch-up with marathon hearings both in number and bills heard. The Senate is more measured.

The House’s key issues are Education reforms — educational savings accounts, open enrollment, school accreditation and Charter school expansion to any community of $30K or more. The House has also found time to move forward a bill to mandate biodiesel fuels’ sale rather than clear diesel and a bill restricting Missouri law enforcement from enforcing any federal gun law. The Senate priorities are police reforms, wayfare (collecting sales and use tax on internet sales), income tax cuts and raising fuel excise taxes 12.5 cents over the next five years.

With these and other issues beginning to percolate, the next nine weeks should be interesting!