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Gracious God, as we ask often, please help the people of Iraq and all that human power gathered there, that their country may be boosted into a more democratic and compassionate civilization. But also God, we just thank You for this beautiful day here in the state of Missouri.

Thank You for the natural richness and the plentiful resources You have seen fit to have all around us here. Aid these, our representatives, that they continue to lead all our people in the ways of thankful, respectful and careful stewardship of all the good in our natural world here and in that human web we've built across this portion of our country.

The Speaker appointed the following to act as an Honorary Page for the Day, to serve without compensation: Elizabeth Emery.

HB 743, introduced by Representative Stevenson, relating to small claims actions.

HB 744, introduced by Representative Jackson, relating to the amusement ride safety fund.

HB 745, introduced by Representatives Stevenson, Bearden, Icet, Cooper (120) and Hunter, et al, relating to the calculation of certain existing elements of state school aid.

HB 746, introduced by Representative Guest, relating to salary of council members in certain cities.

HB 747, introduced by Representative Cooper (120), relating to adoption tax credits.

HCS HBs 404, 324, 403, 344, 426 & 541, with Part IX of HS, as amended, pending, relating to the regulation of utilities, was taken up by Representative Rector.

AMEND Part IX of House Substitute for House Committee Substitute for House Bill Nos. 404, 324, 403, 344, 426 & 541, Page 39, Section 393.1018, Line 11 of said page, by inserting immediately after all of said line the following:

“Section 1. No utility can offer or request to the commission or technical advisory staff a proposed increase in rates, whether temporary or permanent, while there is litigation pending against said company or corporation by a state agency.”; and

On motion of Representative Rector, Part IX of HS HCS HBs 404, 324, 403, 344, 426 & 541, as amended, was adopted.

Representative Rector moved that Part X of HS HCS HBs 404, 324, 403, 344, 426 & 541 be adopted.

AYES: 000

NOES: 160

Abel	Angst	Avery	Baker	Barnitz
Bean	Bearden	Behnen	Bishop	Bivins
Black	Bland	Bough	Boykins	Bringer
Brooks	Brown	Bruns	Burnett	Byrd
Campbell	Carnahan	Cooper 120	Cooper 155	Corcoran
Crawford	Crowell	Cunningham 145	Cunningham 86	Curls
Darrough	Daus	Davis 122	Davis 19	Deeken
Dempsey	Dethrow	Dixon	Donnelly	Dougherty
Dusenberg	El-Amin	Emery	Engler	Ervin
Fares	Fraser	George	Goodman	Graham
Green	Guest	Hampton	Harris 110	Harris 23
Haywood	Henke	Hobbs	Holand	Hoskins
Hubbard	Hunter	Icet	Jackson	Jetton
Johnson 47	Johnson 61	Johnson 90	Jolly	Jones
Kelly 144	Kelly 36	King	Kingery	Kratky
Kuessner	Lager	Lawson	Lembke	LeVota
Liese	Lipke	Lowe	Luetkemeyer	Marsh
May	Mayer	McKenna	Meiners	Merideth
Miller	Moore	Morris	Muckler	Munzlinger
Myers	Nieves	Page	Parker	Pearce
Phillips	Portwood	Pratt	Purgason	Quinn
Ransdall	Rector	Reinhart	Richard	Roark
Ruestman	Rupp	Sager	Salva	Sander
Schaaf	Schlottach	Schneider	Schoemehl	Seigfreid
Selby	Self	Shoemaker	Shoemyer	Skaggs
Smith 118	Smith 14	Spreng	Stefanick	Stevenson
Sutherland	Taylor	Thompson	Threlkeld	Townley
Viebrock	Villa	Vogt	Wagner	Walker
Wallace	Walsh	Walton	Ward	Wasson
Whorton	Wildberger	Willoughby	Wilson 119	Wilson 130
Wilson 25	Wilson 42	Witte	Wood	Wright
Yaeger	Yates	Young	Zweifel	Madam Speaker
PRESENT: 000

ABSENT WITH LEAVE: 003

Adams	Hilgemann	St. Onge

On motion of Representative Rector, HS HCS HBs 404, 324, 403, 344, 426 & 541, as amended, was ordered perfected and printed.

HCS HB 435, relating to railroad grade crossings, was taken up by Representative Engler.

On motion of Representative Engler, HCS HB 435 was ordered perfected and printed.

HCR 11, relating to out-of-school programs, was taken up by Representative Moore.

SCS SBs 299 & 40, relating to performance-based budgeting, was taken up by Representative Bearden.

Representative Fraser requested a division of the question on the motion to adopt HS SCS SBs 299 & 40.

Madam Speaker: Your Committee on Health Care Policy, to which was referred HB 688, begs leave to report it has examined the same and recommends that the House Committee Substitute Do Pass.

Madam Speaker: I am instructed by the Senate to inform the House of Representatives that the Senate has taken up and adopted SCR 6.

WHEREAS, the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) of the federal Social Security Act penalize people who have dedicated their lives to public service by taking away benefits they have earned; and

WHEREAS, nine out of ten public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years; and

WHEREAS, the WEP causes hard-working people to lose up to sixty percent of the benefits they earned themselves; and

WHEREAS, many workers rely on misleading Social Security Administration statements that fail to take into account the GPO and WEP when projecting benefits; and

WHEREAS, the impact of the GPO and WEP is not just felt in those states in which public employees, including educators, are not covered by Social Security, because people move from state to state and affected individuals are everywhere; and

WHEREAS, the GPO and WEP apply to all vested members of the Public School Retirement System of Missouri; and

WHEREAS, the number of people affected across the country is growing every day as more and more people reach retirement age; and

WHEREAS, some 300,000 individuals lose an average of $3,600 a year due to the GPO; and

WHEREAS, this amount can make the difference between self-sufficiency and poverty; and

WHEREAS, these people have less money to spend in their local economy and sometimes have to turn to expensive government programs like food stamps to make ends meet; and

WHEREAS, during a national teacher shortage, the GPO and WEP discourage people from entering and staying in the teaching profession, since doing so will mean a loss of earned Social Security benefits; and

WHEREAS, the GPO and WEP are also causing current educators to leave the profession and students to choose courses of study other than education; and

WHEREAS, non-Social Security states are finding it increasingly difficult to attract quality educators as more people learn about the GPO and WEP; and

WHEREAS, the GPO and WEP are established in federal law and repeal of the GPO and WEP can only be enacted by the United States Congress:

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the Missouri Senate, Ninety-Second General Assembly, First Regular Session, the House of Representatives concurring therein, hereby urge the Congress of the United States to immediately repeal the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision of the Social Security Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Missouri Senate be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the members of the Missouri Congressional delegation.

Madam Speaker: I am instructed by the Senate to inform the House of Representatives that the Senate has third read and passed SCS SCR 8.

Relating to changing the name of the St. Louis Central Office of the Division of Workforce Development to the "Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers Office of the Division of Workforce Development"

WHEREAS, Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers served the people of the City of St. Louis as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives beginning in 1969, and he continued to serve for the next fourteen years; and

WHEREAS, Nat Rivers was born in Cache, Illinois and educated at Sumner High School in Cairo, Illinois, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and St. Louis University; and

WHEREAS, Nat Rivers, a real estate and insurance broker, was very active in his community, and served on the Board of Directors of Mid-City Rental Company, Union Sarah Community Corporation, West Side Redevelopment Corporation, West End Congress, Union-Sarah Economic Development Corporation and West Side Community Gardens; and

WHEREAS, Nat Rivers was recognized for his contributions to the St. Louis community through numerous awards, including the St. Louis Citizens Award in Community Service in 1979, the Harris-Stowe College Award in recognition for his concern for Higher Education and Human Development in 1978, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award in 1979; and

WHEREAS, such awards only begin to recognize Nat Rivers' true accomplishments and contributions to the citizens of St. Louis and the State of Missouri; and

WHEREAS, the most appropriate way to recognize an individual of Nat Rivers' stature is to name a public building after him; and

WHEREAS, the St. Louis Central Office of the Division of Workforce Development, located at 4811 Delmar Boulevard in the City of St. Louis, has no proper name; and

WHEREAS, this St. Louis Central Office provides much needed community services to persons in the St. Louis area, including job service and development, job corps, work opportunity and welfare-to-work information, job training assistance, veterans service and unemployment benefit information; and

WHEREAS, Nat Rivers' contributions and service to the community of St. Louis are exemplary and distinguished:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Ninety-second General Assembly, First Regular Session, the House of Representatives concurring therein, proclaims that the St. Louis Central Office of the Division of Workforce Development, located at 4811 Delmar Boulevard in the City of St. Louis, be hereby named the "Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers Office of the Division of Workforce Development", and that a sign or signs of appropriate size, lettering and design be constructed and placed on said office property with the name "Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers Office of the Division of Workforce Development" on said sign, which shall be readily legible from the street; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Director of the Department of Economic Development shall promptly notify those members of the General Assembly whose constituents are served by the Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers Office of the Division of Workforce Development, the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives with the date in which said sign or signs are to be placed on the property; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Missouri Senate be instructed to send this resolution to the Governor for his approval or rejection pursuant to the Missouri Constitution.

Madam Speaker: I am instructed by the Senate to inform the House of Representatives that the Senate has taken up and adopted SCR 9.

WHEREAS, the use of prescription drugs improves the quality of care and helps patients live healthier, longer, and more productive lives while keeping them out of more costly acute care settings in the long term; and

WHEREAS, the increased use of new and improved prescription drugs has changed the delivery of health care in the United States since Medicare was enacted, and while two-thirds of the Medicare population has some form of prescription drug coverage, although many times inadequate, one-third of Medicare beneficiaries have no coverage at all; and

WHEREAS, Congress did not enact a drug benefit in the Medicare program, therefore the program is inadequate in providing the elderly and disabled the most appropriate drug therapies, preventing the delivery of quality health care at an affordable cost; and

WHEREAS, the private sector provides affordable coverage by negotiating discounts on drugs and meeting the needs of special populations with chronic diseases and those with co-morbidities through coordinating care with disease management, drug utilization review, and patient education programs, all of which aid in ameliorating medical errors; and

WHEREAS, comprehensive reform of the Medicare program would utilize the successful tools of the private sector in coordinating care for this population and use the marketplace to foster competition among private plans, resulting in more choices of quality coverage for seniors and the disabled while maintaining the financial sustainability of the program; and

WHEREAS, the failure of Congress to provide for comprehensive reform of Medicare and the encouraging of states to use their own resources to ease the burden of the elderly and disabled Medicare populations, in effect, result in an unfunded informal mandate on the states; and

WHEREAS, in implementing state programs to assist the Medicare population, state budgetary constraints can often result in requirements to restrict and limit patient access to needed prescription drugs, and the enactment of anti-competitive price controls:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the of the Ninety-second General Assembly, First Regular Session, the House of Representatives concurring therein, hereby request that the United States Congress enact financially sustainable, voluntary, universal, and privately administered out-patient prescription drug coverage as part of the federal Medicare program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for each member of the Missouri Congressional Delegation.

The following members and myself request SB 496 be removed from the Senate Consent Calendar as there appears to be language problems with the bill that need to be addressed.

On motion of Representative Crowell, the House adjourned until 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 15, 2003.

I, State Representative Steve Hunter, District 127, hereby state and affirm that my vote as recorded on Page 1000 and 1001 of the House Journal for Thursday, April 10, 2003 showing that I voted absent with leave was incorrectly recorded. Pursuant to House Rule 88, I ask that the Journal be corrected to show that I voted aye. I further state and affirm that I was present in the House Chamber at the time this vote was taken, I did in fact vote, and my vote or absence was incorrectly recorded.