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House Bill Banning Telemedicine Abortions Advances to Senate Committee
HB 400, a bill that would ban telemedicine abortions in Missouri, will be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. If the bill is voted out, it could pass the Senate and get to the Governor for his consideration this session.
HB 400 would, in its practical effect, ban web-cam abortions. The bill has been proposed in response to how the abortion industry has used telemedicine technology to expand the number of abortion clinics in the neighboring state of Iowa. Passage of HB 400 would prevent the same thing from happening in Missouri.
The MCC issued an Action Alert this week asking members of the MCC's Citizens Network whose Senators are on the committee to call and ask that the bill be voted on and moved forward.
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Missouri Senate Refuses Federal Funds
for Medicaid Expansion
This week the Missouri Senate made it official - Missouri will not be expanding its Medicaid program this year. The body defeated an amendment offered by Senator Jolie Justus that would have allowed the state of Missouri to draw down $890,474,624 in federal funds for the Medicaid expansion.
Click here for the Senate vote.
If Missouri had accepted these federal funds, the state would have been able to extend health coverage to many of the working poor. At present, Missouri limits Medicaid coverage to about 19% of the Federal Poverty Level. Expectations are that the general assembly will resume consideration of Medicaid expansion next January as the 2014 session opens. There remains a slim chance of consideration of Medicaid expansion in a special session this September, but that seems increasingly unlikely. Stay tuned for more.
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Missouri House Passes Major Tax Cut
The Missouri House this week passed legislation (SB 26) that would lower income tax rates for individuals and corporations while increasing the state sales tax. According to House legislative staffers, the House-passed bill would cost the state about $438 million annually when fully implemented in 2019. The Missouri Budget Project, an organization that advocates for lower and middle income taxpayers, reports that the state would lose far more, as high as $986 million annually. The bill must now return to the Missouri Senate for that body to consider the changes made by the House. Governor Nixon has said he opposes the bill. The House would need 109 votes to override a governor's veto; the bill, however only mustered a majority of 90 in the vote this week. |
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Hope Springs Eternal on Food Stamp Ban!
Just one week after the House of Representatives overwhelming defeated an amendment to allow ex-drug offenders to receive food stamps, a House committee heard and passed a bill to allow these benefits to former felony drug offenders.The bill, HB 838 sponsored by Representative Paul Wieland (R-Imperial) was voted 7-2 "do pass" by the Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities Committee.
Why the change? Perhaps it was the passionate testimony of former drug offenders, advocates and ministers who came to testify before the committee. For many of the witnesses it was the sixth year they have come to Jefferson City to urge Missouri to join 41 other states in lifting the life-time prohibition on ex-drug offenders receiving food stamps. Members of the committee obviously realized the positive impact this bill would have on people's lives and for the state in general.
HB 838 could be incorporated into an omnibus bill reported out of the committee, so House members may have another chance to vote on the proposal in the coming weeks.
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Cardinal Dolan Calls for Immigration Reform
This week Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said "now is the time to fix the nation's broken immigration system." Cardinal Dolan was joined at a press conference by Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, and Bishop John C
 | Cardinal Timothy Dolan
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. Wester of Salt Lake City, chair of the USCCB Communications Committee.
"Let me say that now is the time to address this issue," Cardinal Dolan said. "As we speak, persons are being deported and an untold number of families are being divided. Human beings continue to die in the American desert. This suffering must end." The Catholic Church has much to bring to the national immigration debate, given the Church's history as an immigrant church, "having welcomed successive waves of immigrants into our parishes, social service programs, hospitals, and schools," Cardinal Dolan said.
In responding to recently introduced immigration reform legislation in the U.S. Senate, Archbishop Gomez said the path to citizenship for the undocumented population in the legislation is welcome, but certain requirements "could leave many behind, remaining in the shadows." He pointed to the need to shorten the time required to obtain citizenship, to create a more generous cut-off date and to remove barriers for low-income migrants as areas for improvement.
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USCCB Pro-Life Office Asks for
Renewed Effort to Defend Religious Liberty
The Pro-life Secretariat of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is asking all Catholics and people of good will interested in protecting religious liberty to renew their efforts over the next few months by contacting legislators in Washington.
The USCCB is hoping to get H.R. 940, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act, attached to "must pass" budget legislation to protect Catholic institutions from having to comply with the HHS abortion drug, sterilization and contraceptive mandate come August 1. The MCC encourages members of its network to participate.
Click here for the Action Alert.
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