It's a win for the republic!
Yesterday around 10:00am the Senate Local Governments & Elections committee voted "Do Pass" on a concurrent majority ratification bill based on Missouri House districts! They reconvene today at 1:00pm and we are hoping to see it perfected on the floor very soon.
Check out the photos & video below!
Highlighting Senator Rick Brattin
Please support by liking, sharing, & making even a small contribution to senator brattin's campaign!
Senator Brattin worked hard throughout the interim to gather a team of senators together who would stand and fight back against the establishment, the status-quo and for our individual liberties here in Missouri. We have watched him first-hand stand for Biblical principles and we are proud to have him in the senate. We want to keep it that way!
He's got 2 primary opponents and we want him to stay in the senate fighting for Biblical values in Missouri. Please support him by liking, sharing & encouraging him. And please consider making even a small contribution directly to his campaign.
Missouri Freedom Caucus Chairman, Senator Rick Brattin
it was a great day for a rally!
change the rules & read the bills!
If you read the blog on Jan 5th or if you've listened to today's Arise & Build podcast, you know that we've got a Pelosi-style leadership in our Missouri legislature.
The MISSOURI FREEDOM CAUCUS through Senator Bill Eigel, has proposed a senate rule change that would help ensure our legislature has time to actually read the bills they are voting on!
Here's a screenshot from the senate journal last Thursday,
But guess what??
our senate leadership is not in agreement to allow this window of time!
The Majority Floor Leader in the Senate, Cindy O'Laughlin, has the responsibility of determining what comes to the Senate floor. It's a position of great power and has a direct effect on Missouri citizens, our freedoms and way of life.
On Thursday, January 4th, Senator Bill Eigel, who is a member of the new Missouri Freedom Caucus, proposed a rule change that would require a window of 2 legislative days to be given for the purpose of allowing time to READ. THE. BILLS.
But our Majority Floor Leader is refusing to allow the rule change to be brought to a vote and has advised the republicans to vote no if she is forced to bring it forth.
do you want our legislators to read the bills they pass?
That's not happening much right now.
They are passing HUGE omnibus, multi-subject bills that are unconstitutional to begin with.
They are passing such kitchen sink bills that the democrats & republicans are all voting together as a block. Everyone has a piece of language in it they want or need, so they vote yes on all of it to get their own pork & lobbyists sludge across the line.
For Perspective
In 2023...
- 39 of 40 regular bills they passed were voted on in the last 2 weeks of session
- 17 were unconstitutional omnibus bills
- 80% of the time, the democrats & republicans all voted together
Last year, almost every single bill that passed was shoved through in the last 2 weeks and amended into omnibus Christmas tree bills that were brought to the floor as senate substitutes at the last minute.
When a few good senators stood up to ask questions about them, they were told by their Majority Floor Leader, Cindy O'Laughlin, to sit down, shut up and vote! She is forcing them to VOTE ON HUGE BILLS THEY HAVEN'T READ!
Unfortunately for us, they mostly obeyed her and voted when they should've continued to stand. It resulted in the voting chart you see below where they are all voting in unison because their favorite lobbyist friends & contributors have language included or their pork projects are delivered in those bills. MAYBE there is one or two decent policy changes included, too, but they really wouldn't know for sure because NO. ONE. READS. THE. BILLS!
And this is the way the lobby core & our republican leadership wants it!
use your voice & take action
It's time to call them on their behavior and demand better! The government was created BY the PEOPLE & FOR the PEOPLE.
We are hoping to see a vote tomorrow, January 10th. Please let them know today that you want them to READ the bills!
1. Call and email Majority Floor Leader, Cindy O'Laughlin and let her know that you want to see that rule change to Rule 64, offered by Senator Eigel, to come to the floor for a vote.
Email: cindy.olaughlin@senate.mo.gov Phone: 573.751.7985
2. Call your senator & as many others as you are able. Request a yes vote on the change for Rule 64 if given the opportunity. You can find senator contact information on each member page on the senate website or download the PDF below. We suggest printing the PDF and keeping it for future use.
2023 Final Senate Votes on Bills Truly Agreed Upon & Passed
the rules matter
I've discussed the rules before, both here online and in a variety of groups I speak to across Missouri.
The rules matter. In fact, they matter more than most other things when it comes to the passing of legislation.
Why? Because the Rules dictate the specific details in the process by which a bill becomes law.
The rules specify when bills can be filed, how they are referred to committee, what the committees are and who sits on them, how the chairs are chosen, how debate on the floor is handled, how and when bills can be amended, how and when votes take place, etc. etc. EVERY detail about the process is spelled out in the House Rules & the Senate Rules.
So, if the rules are written in a way that doesn't protect the interest and the individual liberty of Missourians - it's a BIG PROBLEM. And we've got a few problems with the rules.
the state budget
According to the Missouri Constitution, the state budget is the only thing required of our Missouri legislature each year.
With a super majority of republicans you'd think the budget and spending would be under control and fairly conservative, they'd be working to lower taxes and reduce wasteful spending. According to the Missouri Republican Platform, this is a priority. This screenshot was taken from the MO GOP website on the state platform:
but instead they spend more!
And has your tax burden decreased lately? Yeah, mine hasn't either.
In 2023, the state budget was the highest it's ever been and had the highest percentage increase in history. In Missouri, we now spend more per capita than the state of California!
eigel wants to reign it in and relieve the tax burden
On Monday, 1/8/24, Senator Bill Eigel stood to file 2 resolutions that would change the rules in regard to the way the budget bills are passed in the Missouri Senate. You find the details in the Senate Journal for that day on page 2.
These changes would make for more accountability and more transparency in regard to spending of the taxpayer's dollars. They would also require a reduction in spending if there is an increase in spending. Hmm....is that when they call balance??
- Proposed change to Rule 60: Each section of the budget bills that require new spending will be voted on individually by the entire senate, not only the Appropriations Committee.
2. Proposed Change to Rule 50: No amendment to the budget bill that increases aggregate spending will be accepted unless there is a reduction of aggregate spending in another section. The reduction amendment must be approved prior to the spending amendment.
call your senator & ask for a yes vote on these rules changes!
Find your senator's contact information here:
The current narrative in the news cycle after the launch of the new session & Missouri Freedom Caucus is that these "conservatives" are obstructionists. The GOP and Senate leadership are shouting through the news outlets that they won't be able to get anything done until these senators sit down and hush.
What you should be asking the GOP leadership is,
"what things are you wanting to get done?"
What things do they feel these senators have kept them from doing?
Because, I can tell you more than a few things about what they did in 2023 and basically very little of it is good.
Most of it's not even really republican let alone conservative.
democrats party on the front steps to celebrate
Somewhere in social media land, there is a photo of the democrat representatives literally drinking and dancing on the front steps of the Capitol in celebration on the last day of session in 2023. One democrat legislator said they couldn't have had a better session even it had been run by the democrat party!
why would the democrats be celebrating a super majority republican legislature?
Well, I've got 100+ pages of details on the 39 bills passed in 2023 that explain why.
The majority of those details will be published in the near future, but for now read through this short list and consider, "What do we WANT them to do? MORE or LESS of this?"
When 17 of the 39 regular bills they passed are unconstitutional in the first place because of changes to titles and multiple subjects, that's our first problem.
The rest are full of spending, chipping away our freedom, and then we have the creation and funding of policy that is literally opening the door for the likes of the United Nations and the WHO to walk right in and make themselves at home.
Want more of that getting done?
The GOP got PLENTY of "dog poop brownies" passed in 2023 and I'm praying Senator Moon and the Missouri Freedom Caucus will start standing in the gap for us even more to keep the dog turds out!
Listen, our freedom is safer when they aren't in session. When they are in session, the priority in my playbook is defending the Constitution and protecting the individual rights and liberties of Missourians. They could go 10 years without passing one more bill and we'd be better off.
Aren't Republicans supposed to want smaller government?? That's not a "conservative" idea. It's a REPUBLICAN idea. We have a super majority of those!
2023 stats
Total Bills Passed - 58
Budget Bills - 19
Regular Bills - 39
Total Resolutions - 6
Joint Resolution (ballot measure) - 1
Concurrent Resolutions - 5
Unconstitutional Bills - 17
They are unconstitutional based on multi-subjects and title changes that were not germane to the original intent of the bill.
Truly Republican Bills - 2
The SAFE Act prohibits medical gender transition for our children under 18.
The Save Women's Sports Act prohibits boys from participating in girls sports in K-College.
10 piles of dog poop that passed inside larger (mostly unread) bills in 2023
- Gave away our state sovereignty in regard to the licensing our healthcare workers, counselors and social workers when they opted into a federal commission. The commission rules will be enforced as state statute. They are going to do it with dental health professionals next. (SB 70 & SB 157)
- In fact, the statute reads that the rules of the commission will be enforced by all three branches of our state government. AND if we get taken to court by this commission, guess who will pay the fees? MISSOURI!
- In the commission mentioned above, Missouri will have only one representative who is an appointed bureaucrat along with one member from every other member state. (SB 70 & SB 157)
- That same statute says that all licensees who participate will have to FULLY participate in any data collection that is being done.
- Speaking of data collection. They're collecting it or allowing it to be collected at every turn. EVERY. TURN. There are so many bills that talk about data collection I can't list them here.
- They created loan repayment programs for healthcare workers and veterinarians. Who needs the feds to repay college debt when we can do it right here in Missouri?? (SB 70, SB 138, HB 417, HB 202)
- The Sheriff's retirement fund can now accept PRIVATE gifts. (SB 75 by Senator Mike Bernskoetter)
- DESE is now providing grants for private childcare providers to be used for programming our babies and toddlers. Because DESE is to be trusted with our babies now?? Of course, to get the money those providers will have to follow the rules...whatever those turn out to be. But don't worry! I'm sure they are here to help. (SB 24 by Senator Lincoln Hough)
- They sold our children's personally identifiable information. (SB 28 by Senator Lincoln Hough and SB 106 by democrate Senator Lauren Arthur)
- MO First Responders are REQUIRED to participate in vaccination programs as recommended by the CDC when they are working a situation where bioterrorism is suspected and federal grant money has been received. This was already in statute but they opened that section to make changes and left this there. (SB 24 by Senator Lincoln Hough)
- And it goest ON and ON... this is truly just a minute fraction of what "things" they like to do.
YOU WANT MORE OF THIS TO "GET DONE?" I DON'T.
I want the Missouri Freedom Caucus to follow Senator Mike Moon's lead to STAND in the gap to defend our freedom, our state sovereignty and our Constitution.
If you didn't see the previous post - here are the 2023 senate votes on passed bills again. I'll be publishing more information in the days to come as well as a full 2023 legislative review resource. Stay tuned!
What a start
Thursday, January 4th, 2024, was the 2nd day of our legislative session here in Missouri and it barely got started before it was over! There's so much to talk about in regard to this brand new session and it's my intention to share my thoughts about it with you here and on the Arise & Build podcast. In the days ahead, I'll be talking about ...
- The new Freedom Caucus
- The Republican platform
- The newly filed bills we're keeping an eye on
- Actions & words of current legislators
- And so much more!
But, to understand what's happening now in 2024, we've got to look back AT LEAST to last year. It would be even better if we could look even further back through history, but for now I think the stats on 2023 will be enough to show you that we have a HUGE problem here in Jefferson City. In fact, I'd compare it with a Pelosi-run D.C.
Understanding that problem will help you know why it is you see brave senators standing on the Missouri senate floor trying to change the status quo & being met with the full force of the GOP leadership.
Pelosi style leadership results in passing unread omnibus bills
The following charts are the final pass votes on every bill and joint resolution that passed in 2023 and went to the Governor's office for his signature. These bills are what your Missouri General Assembly actually accomplished. These were the bills they "truly agreed and finally passed."
The Governor signed most of them, but not all. The bills he signed took effect at the end of August in 2023. They are now current Missouri statute.
I've been wondering for a while, "What ARE they actually doing?" I knew, often times, the bills we were hoping to see pass were indeed dying and the ones we'd hope to kill were passing.
You hear Senate leadership (really GOP leadership in general and the talking heads on the news) complaining that they "can't get anything done" because of this crazy band of conservatives that just want to bicker and fight. From what you hear at leadership-led press conferences these guys are just far right fanatics that are making it their mission to thwart the good intentions of the GOP who only want to work together to "get things done."
My perspective after a good friend of mine, Lisa Pannett, printed and read every bill passed last spring and after we summarized and scrutinized all of them for days upon days... is that the narrative coming from senate leadership couldn't be further from the truth.
The truth I see is that Missouri would be BETTER off if they stood and opposed MORE OFTEN!
Our freedom would be much safer if they passed NOTHING at all. After all - aren't ALL republicans supposed to support less government instead of more?
To reassure you about our opinions, we contacted experts and even attorneys when we had questions or weren't sure of the language we were reading. We have already had several conversations with a variety of legislators - both senators and representatives on the specifics of certain bills as well as this overarching problem I'm addressing today.
We believe we have a good understanding of these bills and what they mean for Missourians.
We've got a huge problem and I think this 2-page chart with all the 2023 final pass votes will give you insight as to what might be the reason we aren't seeing particularly REPUBLICAN policy pass even though we have a super majority of republicans in the senate & in the house.
what you're looking at
- What they ACTUALLY did. Every bill (House & Senate bills) and the one joint resolution that actually passed the Missouri General Assembly.
- Final votes on each bill. These are ONLY the "truly agreed & finally passed" votes. These votes alone do NOT tell the whole story of what happened, but these votes alone DO pass the bill in its final form. It's the TAFP vote that is the final vote a legislator takes on bill and the vote that officially passes the bill. These are the votes you hold them accountable for.
- Every bill that passed in 2023 and the 1 joint resolution that passed. The 39 non-budget bills plus 1 joint resolution that passed are included here. We did not cherry pick bills. We wanted to know the whole story and we want you to know the whole story. After the 2023 session our team printed and read every bill that passed, searched for the votes and compiled them to study for ourselves and to share with you. These charts include all the bills & one joint resolution. 40 total votes.
- All Senators from both parties. I wanted to know ALL of the votes and see who was voting with who. All 34 senators are listed down the left. Names in red are republicans and blue are democrats. Yes, I have the House votes, too, and I'll be publishing them as well. Stay tuned.
- Part of the story. Again, these votes don't tell the whole story. Please, if you have questions about the votes, give your legislators a call or better yet, make an appointment in their office and ask in person. You can't necessarily trust they'll tell you the truth but it's your responsibility to ask and start learning. If you're new to this political arena I suggest a "trust but verify" approach with all of them.
missouri, we have a problem!
Actually we have more than one problem, but let's focus on just one for now.
What do you see when you look the charts below? Red names are republican senators and blue are democrat senators. Green votes are good (in our opinion) and yellow votes are bad.
Do you notice how A LOT of the time, everyone is voting the same way?
Even if you don't know why we support or oppose a bill and even if you don't agree with our position - it's easy to see that 80% of the time, the senate is voting as one block. They ALL vote together nearly all the time.
WHY?? Good question!
The answer: Leadership in the Senate wants everyone to be happy and get along so they can get things done. That means they have to include LOTS of things in the bills to keep everyone happy and get all the yes votes.
After they pass all the bills, they each go back home to their voters and talk about the tiny little details - almost like trophies. But while they wave the feather in their cap in front of voters at home, they don't tell you the whole truth.
Well, here it is. Every senator. Every final vote. None of them are immune...even the ones I really love and support.
This is the system they are working in and that system needs an overhaul badly.
The problem for voters: How do you hold anyone accountable when one vote includes so many topics, especially when everyone votes the same!?
The fact is they are ALL supporting ALL the issues by voting yes on Christmas tree, multi-subject, unconstitutional omnibus bills that are so big and being thrown together so quickly the last 2 weeks of session - NO ONE is actually even reading them!!
Hello! Anyone remember Nancy Pelosi?? It's like she is living and working right here in Missouri!
For more clarity....these bills come up for vote and there are really on a few options as to why they would vote yes.
- They know one or two sections of language is included that they want to support and/or they promised Lobbyist ABC or even a good friend they'd support a piece of language that's included (that makes them happy) so they vote YES.
- Their own language is in it (that makes them happy) so they vote YES.
- They know leadership will be angry if they vote NO. Happy leadership makes them happy but angry leadership means you don't get what you want tomorrow. So they vote YES.
But when you vote to support a bill that has 12 subjects in it and you've only read 1 or 2 or even if you read 11 - the unread portion of statute that you vote yes on could be the one that erodes another piece of our freedom.
The unread but supported language can & OFTEN does harm people.
Here's a PDF version that will be more readable if you'd like to download: 2023 MO Senate Final Votes.pdf
**Disclaimer: The votes shown are accurate to the best of my human ability. They were manually taken by myself, personally, from the senate journals on the last truly agreed vote on each bill. If you find an unintentional error, please reach out to me and I'll be happy to fix it.
but jodi, what is actually in these bills?
You're a smart cookie to ask!
I've already posted a few podcasts on that very topic so hop over there, take a listen and subscribe. There's more on the horizon!
It's my intention to talk and/or write a little each day about what passed in 2023, what I've witnessed since I've been involved (this is my 4th up close & personal session) and how I believe it relates to what's happening right now.
I'm going to keep talking about it both here & there so stay tuned & be sure to share with like minded friends & family.
And PLEASE pray about sharing with your pastor. We NEED the ekklesia to rise up, get educated & start using the tools God has given us to make a difference in this government mountain!
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8:32
TODAY'S GOAL: Understand the 2023 voting pattern and why it's happening.
TODAY'S ACTION: 1. Subscribe & share. 2. Find your senator's contact info here: Lookup Tool
