The Missouri State Legislature returned from spring break this week.
Second District State Representative Mazzie Christensen of Bethany reports the State House has now sent 63 bills to the Missouri Senate.
One piece of legislation passed by the State House this week, which she says had a lot of constituent support, was the Farm Bureau Health Insurance Bill.
Christensen reports another bill passed by the State House this week that legislators have been trying to pass for about six years was Valentine’s Law.
She explains the bill would essentially make it an offense to flee from law enforcement when it is attempting to stop you.
Christensen notes fleeing from law enforcement during a traffic stop was not previously an offense, and this bill would make it a felony.
Another bill would allow a Missouri driver’s license or non-driver’s license to indicate if someone is a United States citizen, and yet another bill would designate Branson as the live entertainment capital of Missouri.
The State House passed a bill to the Missouri Senate that relates to income tax deductions for broadband internet expansion grants.
Christensen voted in favor of all these bills. She hopes the Missouri House of Representatives focuses more on priorities in the coming weeks. The House has been refining initiative petition legislation.
Second District State Representative Mazzie Christensen says she thought most of the bills heard by the Missouri House of Representatives this week were not substantial. There were multiple bills that the State House passed to the Missouri Senate this week against which she voted.
One such bill was the Missouri Rural Access to Capital Act, which Christensen says she voted against for two reasons.
Christensen reports another bill passed by the State House this week would allow authorized emergency vehicles, when going the wrong way on a street or in an unmarked vehicle, to go through red lights. She says if an emergency vehicle were to collide with someone, or someone were to collide with it, the emergency vehicle driver would not be liable.
She does not believe that this is a good statute to implement.
State Representative Mazzie Christensen.
