Missouri legislature's 2024 session has started. Here's what lawmakers hope to do

Missouri lawmakers reconvened Wednesday for the start of the 2024 legislative session.

Republican and Democratic caucuses shared their legislative priorities for the session, which include limiting foreign farmland ownership, improving public safety, childcare and education

Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher led the session with a speech identifying key areas of focus for the upcoming year. He acknowledged the concerns, voiced by many ahead of the session, about accomplishing legislative goals in an election year.

“We are all here because we believe in public service,” Plocher said. “Let us place statesmanship and the welfare of the people before petty politics and personal interest. I know we can work together and get things done. We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again.”

With many members of the Missouri House and Senate running for reelection or a higher office in 2024, some lawmakers and elected officials have been pessimistic about the session.

Additionally, an ethics investigation is currently underway that is widely understood to involve Plocher and allegations that he sought improper reimbursement from the House for campaign funds used on legislative trips and other related expenses.

Plocher, who is running for lieutenant governor in 2024, dismissed any such concerns about his own personal office, indicating to reporters that he still had the support of the House Republican caucus members gathered around him at the press conference following adjournment of the House.

The House Republican caucus indicated its intentions to once again turn its focus to implementing school choice, a measure that failed to pass the Missouri Senate in the last session.

“Achieving the American Dream often begins with good education, and I think we need to offer parents choices,” Plocher said. “We did that last year. We offered open enrollment, but never got through the whole process. We're going to tackle that again this year.”

Also among the issues that the caucus hopes to pursue is revising the initiative petition process to make it more difficult to make changes to the Missouri Constitution through ballot measures. In the past few years, voters repeatedly have bypassed the Republican-controlled legislature, expanding Medicaid and legalizing marijuana through this method.

“I firmly believe our constitution should not be amended as easily as it is, and I think our voters need to be informed in a transparent process on how that initiative should be vetted,” Plocher said. “I believe there needs to be a higher threshold and a higher standard to pass that.”

Currently, there are competing ballot initiatives seeking to reinstate abortion rights in Missouri, something that the Republican caucus is opposed to. If lawmakers approve a measure to revise initiative petitions, it would also have to be approved by voters. The timing of this vote and a potential vote on an abortion measure are key things to watch in the upcoming year, if both measures make it on a 2024 ballot.

One item that must be passed in 2024, if the state hopes to retain its federal funding for Missouri’s Medicaid program, is the federal reimbursement allowance, or FRA. Since this is a must-pass bill, unrelated amendments have been tacked on in the past, causing lawmakers to squabble and resulting in a special session in 2021.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, who is running for governor in 2024, is concerned that failure to pass the FRA could result in funds being drawn from other vital areas of the state budget.

“If we do not pass the FRA, we will be out so much money,” Quade said. “Where's that money gonna come from? Public education? General revenue? When we have the conversation about the FRA, it's not just about making our Medicaid program solvent, it's about making sure that we are funding all of the things necessary.”

Other priorities for the House Democratic caucus, for which Quade delivered comments, include boosting teacher pay, reducing violent crime, strengthening gun laws and restoring access to reproductive health care. However, Quade recognizes that, with a Republican dominated legislature, accomplishing some of these issues will be a steeply uphill battle.

“We are apprehensive to what the Republican majority will be able to accomplish this year,” Quade said.

More: What Greene County senators Hough and Trent hope to accomplish in the statehouse in 2024

In the Missouri Senate, a new Freedom Caucus has formed with members of the now defunct Conservative Caucus, who made up roughly half of the Republicans in the chamber.

Quade hopes that some of the more moderate conservatives who don’t belong to the Freedom Caucus will choose to work across the aisle with Democrats to pass legislation in the best interest of Missourians. Many attribute the small number of bills passed in 2023 to the division among Senate Republicans, who fought bitterly in the final days of the session.

“The continued fracturing of the Republican supermajority just continues a testament to show why voters need to elect more Democrats and bring balance back to our state so we can actually govern and get some stuff done,” Quade said.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri lawmakers share priorities as 2024 legislative session starts