Pre-filing for 2018 on the upswing

The next legislative session begins on Jan. 3, 2018, and will last until mid-May. During that time, the legislature will debate, amend, and eventually pass a number of bills that will hopefully make Missouri a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

But while the session does not begin until January, the legislative process began on Dec. 1 with something called “pre-filing”. Pre-filing is the filing of a bill before session begins, and is done because the sooner a bill is filed, the better chance it usually has of passing.

Last year, House and Senate members filed nearly 2000 bills, with about 500 of those being pre-filed. This year, in only six days, over 600 bills have been pre-filed; well ahead of last year’s pace.

The numbers and texts of these bills can already be found on House.mo.gov and Senate.mo.gov, which is a testament to the hard work of the clerks and staff at the capitol and their ability to turn so many ideas into legalese, and get them organized and publicly posted so quickly.

The main theme of last year’s session was changes to the law in the areas of labor reform and tort reform in an effort to grow jobs and improve our Missouri economy. I anticipate similar efforts will continue with the bills filed this year. Also on the agenda will be some welfare reform, health insurance improvements, and transportation funding.

One of the subjects I will be working on is tax reform. The changes the federal government is making to our income tax structure will have ripple effects on our state income taxes, and so some alterations to our state tax laws will be needed to keep the state properly funded without overburdening Missouri taxpayers. As vice-chair of the Ways & Means committee in the House, I will be involved in those discussions.

Also on my plate will be a look into an issue called surprise billing (sometimes called balance billing). Surprise billing happens when you need a medical test or procedure done at a hospital, and so you choose a hospital that is in your insurance company’s network, but unknown to you the hospital subcontracts to certain doctors that are out of network and sock you with an overly high charge – a surprise bill.

We may try to amend the law such that if you choose an in-network hospital, all doctors that hospital utilizes will be billed as in-network, allowing those doctors to make a fair rate for their time and consumers to pay a fair price for their health care. I worked on this bill last year, and received more complaints from constituents about surprise billing over the summer.

Another issue I will be a part of is re-examining the need for a bi-annual car inspection. The state requires all of us to pay up to $12 every other year to get our cars inspected, which adds up to an over $30 million cost to Missouri drivers each year. But Missouri is one of only 18 states that requires its citizens to have a periodic mechanical inspection of their cars, and statistics indicate there is no correlation between states requiring car inspections and states having fewer traffic fatalities because of it.

Some of the best ideas for bills come from constituents, like the two I mentioned. If you have any opinions on the bills noted here or any other ideas for legislation, please contact my office at [email protected].

Until next time, Merry Christmas and best wishes of safety, health and prosperity to you and your family.