After barely passing a budget on time thanks to a filibuster over a Kansas City landfill, legislators still have major priorities to try to pass in the dwindling hours of the session, including restrictions on initiative ballot petitions and gender-affirming care. Missouri lawmakers only have five more days to consider several pieces of major legislation before the 2023 session ends.
After barely passing a budget on time Friday thanks to a filibuster over a Cass County landfill, legislators still have major priorities to try to pass in the dwindling hours of the session, including restrictions on initiative ballot petitions and gender-affirming care.
Gov. Mike Parson has already said that if the legislature doesn’t pass transgender health care and sports participation restrictions, he will call lawmakers into special session.
Here are some of the big issues that legislators could tackle this week:
Restricting gender-affirming care for minors Missouri lawmakers followed several other GOP-leaning states by pursuing legislation curtailing treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors. But it’s likely that the final product will be less restrictive than in some of those other places.
That’s because Senate Democrats extracted compromises to exempt transgender youth who are already receiving gender-affirming care. And the law would expire after four years, which gives Democrats in the upper chamber a chance to filibuster any effort to extend it.
But House Republicans don’t want gender care legislation that includes an expiration date or exemptions.
One added wrinkle to this debate is emergency restriction rules from Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Since state statutes trump emergency rules, it’s possible that passage of gender-affirming care legislation that only affects minors will supersede Bailey’s guidelines that also affect adults.
Source: kcur.org
Photo Credit: GettyImages-Ron_ThomasE+
Categories: Missouri, Government & Policy