Glenn Koenen’s Legislative Report – November 8, 2021
Federal Items:
At the end of the 1960’s New York columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight about a dysfunctional crime family: if he was still around, The Party That Couldn’t Shoot Straight would be a best seller.
As a CNN host explained, the House of Representatives finally passed the administration’s infrastructure bill ‘despite the Democrats circular firing squad.’ The measure passed the Senate in August. It passed the House late on November 5th. It survived despite six defections by progressive Democrats, prevailing only because 13 Republicans crossed the aisle.
Folks, infrastructure was the easy vote.
Still to come are measures to preserve voting rights – undoing Supreme Court decisions – as well as ‘social infrastructure’ (including paid family leave), a federal minimum wage increase and pro labor legislation (the Pro Act) which would ban Right To Work in all 50 states.
Instead of aggressively pushing the party agenda outlined by the President, fissures among Democrats are squandering the opportunity to make substantial improvements to the economy and improve the lives of working families. A small number of progressives in the House and the Manchin – Sinema circus in the Senate prevent a lot of good ideas from moving forward.
Of course, Republicans (especially in the Senate) are more than happy to gum up the works. Note that most major ambassadorships have yet to be approved by the Senate due to Mitch McConnell’s stall tactics. Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms hasn’t had a permanent director for most of a decade due to the GOP siding with the gun industry to block appointments. And, while most everyone agrees that the ‘light filibuster’ [Senators merely have to announce they oppose something rather than hold forth on the floor for hours or days] needs to be curtailed, a number of key Democrats refuse to make that move.
On a positive note, President Joe Biden keeps demonstrating the return to normalcy in America. He attends and participates in international meetings. He explains his actions and, as he did after the recent House vote, shares praise for legislators who make difficult decisions. This welcome change has been noticed by international media – if not Fox News.
Coming out of the pandemic a spurt of inflation and supply chain issues had to be expected. Don’t forget that the stock market is back in record territory as American business has well profited from the temporary chaos. And, the ‘dearth’ of workers for available jobs ought to be seen as 1) proof that the economy is expanding, and, 2) evidence that immigration to our country can be easily absorbed.
As many have long awaited, Senator Josh Hawley has been exposed as a recipient in millions of dollars of improper National Rifle Association campaign funds, leaving the senator open to investigation and possible criminal action. Please act surprised.
State Items:
Despite supply chain issues, Missouri’s sales tax receipts and income tax revenue remain strong. (Sales taxes are up 22% year to date.) The state has the money it needs to fund its operations even without the tons of ‘off the books’ pandemic relief funds the governor and treasurer have squirreled away. This is not a year when the governor must tell state departments to stop spending money.
Despite the economic good times, Missouri has made no move to improve the pay of state workers.
In September the administration of Governor Mike Parson stole $54 million in food stamps from struggling Missouri families. The pandemic food stamp bonus – first enacted by Donald Trump – was set to expire on September 30th. With the bonus, Missouri distributed $159 million in food stamps in August. The state did not claim the available bonus money in September, resulting in benefits reverting to the old formula. As a result, just $105 million in stamps were distributed in September. This action (or, inaction) not only hurt families, it deprived grocers of revenue too.
Redistricting remains the biggest political story in the state. Under the terms of the GOP-supported ‘dirty Missouri,’ 20 person bipartisan commissions are set to draw state senate and representative lines. A few quick personal observations…
- The state support staff from the Office of Administration is openly pro-Republican. (And, they didn’t wear masks at their St. Louis hearings despite county and venue rules.)
- The GOP members refuse to repudiate the CVAP approach – counting just voting age people in setting districts. Kids, folks in institutions (including colleges), prisoners and the undocumented don’t matter. While this is blatantly in defiance of the U.S. Constitution and the 14th Amendment, Common Cause lists Missouri, Arizona, Nebraska and Texas as states the Republicans are ardent in pushing and using CVAP.
- The GOP doesn’t want to admit that the majority of Missouri counties lost population in the past decade. They seem inclined to want many fewer people in rural districts, diminishing the voting power of urban and suburban Missourians.
The state has every bit of data necessary to draw Congressional district lines. Yet, Parson has not called a special session of the legislature to do that. It appears that fights within the Republican party are delaying the task of setting the required lines. Making this more interesting are sizeable population drops in rural areas currently held by Republican members of Congress, and, the surge in population in St. Charles County. Expect blood on the GOP side of the aisle.
Pre-filing of bills for the 2022 legislative session begins on December 1st. Expect…
► Multiple bills banning Critical Race Theory and limiting local control over school curricula;
► Legislation to outlaw all abortion and severely limit access to contraception methods;
► The return of “guns everywhere;”
► A new Right To Work bill, possibly allowing RTW rules to be set at the county level; and,
► Dozens of bills to restrict voting and allow the legislature to reject public votes they don’t like.
Remember, 2022 is an election year and incumbent Republicans need bullet points for their campaign literature.
Follow up information from the Chat Box
Wendel Rubinstein to West County Democrats(Direct Message) : Hi all! Grateful to my colleague at Planned Parenthood, Teona McGhaw-Boure for inviting me to this great event. We wanted to see if I could get a couple minutes at the end of the meting to discuss west county organizing opportunities we have as Planned Parenthood Advocates currently. thanks! 🙂
Wendel Rubinstein : https://www.weareplannedparenthoodaction.org/a/2022lookahead
Wendel Rubinstein : wendel.rubinstein@ppslr.org is my email as well 🙂
Wendel Rubinstein : and here’s the registration link for Saturday zoom meeting as well: https://www.weareplannedparenthoodaction.org/a/2022lookahead
Helena Webb : actblue.com/donate/ClaimYourPowerMO
Helena Webb : ClaimYourPowerMO.com
Helena Webb : https://www.facebook.com/ClaimYourPowerMO