Jan. 6 Legislative Update and Advocacy Training
The 2023 Legislative Session began this week! Now is a great time to start getting to know some of the bills that have been filed by our elected officials.
There are a few ways to do this:
- To look at bills filed in the Missouri House, click here: Missouri House of Representative – Legislation (mo.gov) Right now, there are 716 bills filed!
- To look at senate bills, click here: Bill List | Missouri Senate (mo.gov)
- Look up your representative or senator to see what bills they have filed:
- To find out who your legislator is, click here: Senator Missouri Senate | Missouri Senate (mo.gov)
- To find bills filed by your senator, click this link and make sure to select the option to filter by “Sponsor”: Bill List | Missouri Senate (mo.gov)
- You can also look up Senate bills by topic. This organizes the bills into major topics of interest using keywords like “Business and Commerce”, “Elections”, “Disabilities”.
To find bills filed by your representative, click here: Missouri House of Representative – Members (mo.gov)
Bill to Watch: HB 312: Establishes the 21st Century Missouri Social Services Gap Analysis Task Force
(aligns with MODDC priority “Access to Quality Care”)
• The mission of this task force will be to, “Evaluate the condition of the state’s social services system, defined as publicly funded system of services intended to meet the needs of vulnerable residents.”
• This includes health and mental health care, housing, and employment supports.
• The task force will look at current funding, other state models, identify gaps in services and make recommendations.
• Among other required members it requires a representative from “a statewide nonprofit organization involved in disability issues” and “the director of the department on mental health or the director’s designee.”
If this bill is of interest to you, you can:
- Reach out to the bill’s sponsor, Louis Riggs, to learn more about the bill.
o Phone: 573-751-3673
o Email: louis.riggs@house.mo.gov - Read the list or required representatives for the task force.
o Does this look good to you?
o Is there any type of representation missing on this important task force? - Share your experiences with social services and how that forms your opinion on this bill.
Empower Missouri has two scheduled advocacy trainings that may be of interest to you.
The Advocacy 101 training will teach advocates, impacted people, and not for profit staff how to share their experience with elected officials. Geared towards the Missouri state legislature, these skills can help you advocate for systems change at many levels. Decision makers must hear from the experts, including you.
Policy advocacy doesn’t need to feel scary or overwhelming, and you will leave this training with the basic education needed to grow your skills and demystify the process to have the greatest impact on the lives of our neighbors.
Empower Missouri is offering two upcoming opportunities to participate in Advocacy 101:
Friday, January 20th, 12:00-1:30 PM
This session will also include Housing Policy 101, an in-depth look into housing issues in Missouri.
Register for Advocacy 101 & Housing Policy 101
Friday, February 3rd, 12:00-1:00 PM
