The 98th General Assembly adjourned Friday, May 13.

Although ethics reform was a top priority this session, lawmakers fell short of passing bills creating political contribution limits or prohibiting lobbyist gifts. The Legislature did approve a 6-month waiting period for public officials seeking to become lobbyists as well as prohibit legislators from serving as paid political consultants.

Both houses stand adjourned until Wednesday, May 25. They will convene for a technical session and then adjourn sine die on May 30 pursuant to constitutional mandate.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed two ethics bills on Friday, May 6.

One bill creates a revolving door provision for lawmakers and statewide elected officials seeking to become lobbyists. They must wait at least six months after their terms end before engaging in lobbying. The second bill requires candidates to dissolve their campaign committees and either refund or donate the remaining funds upon registering as lobbyists.

Both bills are effective August 28, 2016.

Missouri lawmakers sent legislation to the governor on Wednesday as part of the state’s attempt at ethics reform. One bill would create a revolving door provision, prohibiting legislators and statewide elected officials from lobbying until six months after their respective terms end. Because he has expressed a need for ethics reform since 2009, Gov. Nixon is likely to sign the bill.

Another piece of legislation still under consideration involves a potential ban on lobbyist gifts to public officials. The Senate recently voted on an amendment to remove the ban from the bill and, instead, to replace it with a $40 per-gift limit for each lawmaker.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed House Bill 1983 yesterday, prohibiting statewide elected officials and legislators from receiving compensation as paid political consultants on behalf of other officials or members of the General Assembly. The bill is the first ethics-related legislation to cross the governor’s desk since multiple lawmakers resigned last year amid embarrassing sex scandals.

While the law does not address the conduct issues of the past, Nixon believes it is a step in the right direction and will strengthen the ethics laws he believes are the weakest in the nation. Missouri is one of few states with no campaign contribution limits, no limits on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers, and no revolving door provisions preventing legislators from immediately lobbying after leaving office.

A revolving door ban, prohibiting legislators from serving in office one day and returning as lobbyists the next, has been a priority for the Missouri General Assembly as it considers sweeping ethics reform legislation.

The House passed a bill earlier in the year barring lawmakers from lobbying for one year after leaving office. The Senate removed the waiting period and wanted legislators to simply finish their respective terms before becoming lobbyists.

After months of deliberation and negotiation, a conference committee reached an agreement Wednesday both sides are likely to approve. The compromise would prohibit legislators from working as paid lobbyists for six months after their terms expire.

If both houses approve the committee’s recommendations, the bill will be sent to Gov. Jay Nixon for final approval.

Photo of the Missouri State Capitol by Nickbigd on Wikimedia Commons.

The Missouri Senate recently passed a bill to restrict certain political contributions from registered lobbyists. The bill limits the ways campaign committee funds can be invested and prohibits elected officials from keeping their campaign money if they become lobbyists.

If the bill becomes law, elected officials would need to dissolve their respective campaign committees upon registering as lobbyists.

The Senate amended the version previously passed by the House, so the bill must head back to the House for final approval.

Photo of the Missouri Capitol courtesy of RebelAt on Wikimedia Commons.

Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis introduced a bill recently to amend Missouri lobbying law. Current law exempts union workers from lobbying registration unless their job is specifically to lobby. The proposed legislation would remove the exemption.

While comparing the bill to other recent ethics proposals, Curtis told a House committee it is wrong to delineate special rules for special groups.

Nobody testified in favor of the bill.

Lobbying

New Mexico: “Senators Credit KOB As They Pass Campaign Finance System Reform” by Ryan Luby for KOB

Campaign Finance

New Mexico: “‘Dark Money’ Disclosure Bill Dies in Final Days of Session” by Trip Jennings for New Mexico In Depth

Washington: “State: Food industry lobby engaged in ‘egregious’ money laundering in 2013 vote” by Joel Connelly for Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ethics

Alaska: “Former Juneau Lawmaker Fined $18K for Allegedly Helping Oil Companies While Seeking Oil Jobs” by Matt Miller for KTOO

Missouri: “Gutting of Lobbying Bill Clouds Ethics Agenda’s Future” by Kurt Erickson for St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Missouri: “Missouri Rep. Don Gosen Abruptly Resigns under Cloud of Suspicion” by Jason Hancock for Kansas City Star

New York: “Former Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak Accused of Sexually Harassing Staffers Is Fined $100G by Legislative Ethics Commission” by Kenneth Lovett for New York Daily News

Ohio: “Ginther’s Ethics Proposals Get Public Hearing” by Mike Foley for WCBE

Texas: “Reports: Indicted Crystal City mayor jailed after disrupted council meeting” by Claire Cardona for Dallas Morning News

Virginia: “Virginia Taxpayers Pick Up $2,435 Food and Beer Bill for Mystery Guests in Redskins Suite” by Graham Moomaw for Richmond Times-Dispatch

Elections

“Fall of the House of Bush: How last name and Donald Trump doomed Jeb” by Ed O’Keefe, Dan Balz and Matea Gold for the Washington Post

“Sanders Supporters Like Chipotle, While Trump Fans Prefer Sonic” by Tim Higgins for Bloomberg.com

“Bernie’s Army of Coders” by Darren Samuelsohn for Politico

“Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’” by Jim Yardley for The New York Times

Nevada: “Hillary Clinton Beats Bernie Sanders in Nevada Caucuses” by Amy Chozick and Patrick Healy for The New York Times

South Carolina “The More Donald Trump Defies His Party, the More His Supporters Cheer” by Trip Gabriel for The New York Times

South Carolina: “Donald Trump’s South Carolina Victory Spurs New G.O.P. Jostling” by Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport for The New York Times

Missouri House Bill 2166, just one of many ethics bills moving through the legislature, passed the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday and will be sent to the full House for further debate. The bill bans most lobbyist gifts to state public officials and requires itemization of expenditures on lobbying reports for certain events unless all members of the legislature or all statewide elected officials are invited.

State Rep. Justin Alferman, the bill’s sponsor, says the proposal is designed to “alleviate some of the undue influence of lobbyists in Jefferson City.”

Four ethics bills have passed out of the House Government Oversight and Accountability Committee and now move to consideration by the entire House.

These bills include banning statewide elected officials or legislators from working as political consultants while in office, creating a “cooling off” period of at least a full legislative session before elected officials or officials in jobs subject to Senate confirmation may work as lobbyists, requiring public officials to file semiannual reports detailing their personal finances, and reporting any out-of-state travel for official business when paid for by a third party.

Rep. Gina Mitten questioned the effectiveness of the revolving door bill during the committee hearing, asking if the cooling off period was long enough. She advocated having the measure cover legislative staff, requiring elected officials who leave office early to be prohibited from acting as lobbyists until the end of the term, and making the measure become effective as quickly as possible.

Hearings for bills regulating how to handle surplus campaign funds once an official leaves office and the banning of gifts from lobbyists have been delayed due to issues with the drafting of the bills. The committee will take those bills up next week.

Photo of the Missouri Capitol courtesy of RebelAt on Wikimedia Commons.

State Rep. Bart Korman filed a bill on Wednesday to add sex between lawmakers and lobbyists to the gifts required to be reported on ethics forms. The bill defines a reportable sexual gift as “sexual relations between a registered lobbyist and a member of the general assembly or his or her staff.” It excludes sex in a marriage or in a relationship in existence prior to either party’s lobbyist registration or legislative employment.

State Rep. Caleb Rowden has proposed a gift ban barring lobbyists from giving any tangible or intangible service or thing of value to an elected official or to the official’s staff, spouse, or dependent children. Korman says he has no objections to such a gift ban, but stresses there should be no easy ways around it.

While Korman’s bill covers sex as a defined gift, the reporting of sexual relations would not require a dollar valuation.

State Rep. Caleb Rowden pre-filed a four-point ethics reform package this week, hoping to increase accountability and transparency in government. The first change would prohibit gifts from lobbyists to any state or local elected officials as well as to their families and staff members.

The second change would institute a revolving door provision for state legislators and statewide elected officials up for election during the presidential campaign cycle. Such individuals would be barred from lobbying for one session after leaving office beginning in 2016. Elected officials up for election during the midterm elections would be barred from lobbying for one session after leaving office beginning in 2018. After 2018, the revolving door rule would apply to all state elected officials.

A third change would prohibit individuals with open candidate committees from registering as lobbyists.

The final proposed change would require elected officials to publically disclose travel expenses paid for by a third party within 30 days of receipt or within 30 days of the trip, whichever is sooner.

Speaker of the House Todd Richardson has vowed to make ethics reform a top priority when the session begins in January.

Photo of the Missouri State Capitol by RebelAt on Wikimedia Commons.

The Missouri Ethics Commission recently found a group of lobbyists improperly reported food and drink expenditures made during a 2014 American Legislative Exchange Council State Night dinner. The lobbyists reported the entire General Assembly as the recipient for the total cost of the dinner, though not every member of the Legislature received an invitation to the event.

Such expenditures were required to be reported on behalf of each public official rather than as a group expenditure. The punishment simply requires each lobbyist to amend his or her filing and cite the specific legislators in attendance at the dinner.

Some feel the ruling sets a dangerous precedent, as lobbyists may continue to hide individual gifts under the guise of a group event as long as the entire group receives an invitation.

Voters will decide whether to increase the city’s minimum wage on November 3.

If passed, the initiative would increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.

Opponents of the measure say such a change could cause businesses to leave the city. There is currently a group working to put a veto referendum on the November ballot.

Photo of the JC Nichols Fountain in Kansas City by Henri-Léon Gréber on Wikimedia Commons.