Submitted by

Beth Farrah, SMT Writer

As we approach the final 5 weeks of session, there are issues that you may or may not be aware of that should be of importance to you as a citizen of the state of Missouri. Listed below are two such issues.

House Urges Koster to Protect Missourian’s Religious Liberties

The Missouri House took action this week to encourage Attorney General Chris Koster to act in the best interest of Missourians by protecting their religious and conscience rights.  House Concurrent Resolution 35 was filed in the wake of the errant US District Court’s decision that sections of Senate Bill 749 – overwhelmingly passed by the General Assembly after being vetoed by the Governor – was unconstitutional.

What was SB 749?

Senate Bill 749 provided employers the protections needed after the congress and the president moved to violate the rights of millions of Americans in requiring them to provide insurance coverage for anti-life forms of “healthcare” for their employees regardless of their religious objections.

If you’ve been minding the state news wires, you’ve no doubt heard the accusations that the Missouri Department of Revenue, which operates the Division of Motor Vehicles, has been scanning, storing, and sharing private information with the federal government regarding our citizens who can carry concealed weapons.  The original complaint came from a Stoddard County resident who did not wish for their information to be scanned at the local DMV.  On April 10, the Missouri State Highway Patrol admitted that in fact they had requested on two occasions the complete list of Missouri CCW holders and they had forwarded that information on to the federal government. 

There are a variety of reasons why this issue is premier.  First, it’s against the law.  The Missouri General Assembly, in 2009, passed HB 361 which specifically states “no citizen of this state shall have his or her privacy compromised by the state or agents of the state.” 

Second, while the government might have good interest in certain data at the group level (this helps when they are tracking and mitigating disease, for example), I can think of no good reason the government should be pinpointing CCW holders individually.  Having a CCW is not a crime or grounds for an investigation.

What Are We Doing to Help?

The House has responded with House Bill 787, which would further prohibit the Department of Revenue from retaining copies of source documents used to obtain driver's licenses and nondriver's licenses.  On the Senate side, Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) has led the investigative charge and continues to garner information from the Nixon Administration regarding this apparent breach of privacy and trust. 

My office continues to receive a variety of concerns from constituents regarding this evolving issue.  I’m committed to ensuring your government is responsible in protecting your privacy. Let me reaffirm that your local fee office has not done anything wrong. They were only following instructions from the Department of Revenue in this new process of scanning documents.

I was honored to host the nine students who attended the Sophomore Pilgrimage (photo at right). Those attending were Bailey Burton, South Pemiscot High School; Kirsten Flowers, Cooter High School; Maegan Jones, Southland High School; Sarah Beth Prater, Caruthersville High School; Matthew Campbell, Campbell High School; Zachary Provance, Clarkton High School; Dalton Whitfield, Delta C-7 High School; Abigail McMullan, Kennett High School; and Katie Jones, Senath-Hornersville High School.

As always, it is an honor to serve you in the Missouri House. If you would like to discuss any issue, please call 573-751-3629. You can also email me at Kent.Hampton@house.mo.gov. I look forward to hearing from you.