By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri lawmakers on Thursday sent Governor Matt Blunt a number of measures, ranging in topic from group home safety to hunting in flood plains.
The bills also include new protections for domestic violence victims; new legal allowances for executioners; new access to Internet-based school programs for students in failing districts; and expanded loan forgiveness for veterinary students.
They also voiced their opposition to a new federal requirement over identification cards.
Here is a rundown of what was passed:
NEW FIRE SAFETY MEASURES
In a response to a deadly fire last year at a group home in southwest Missouri, lawmakers approved new fire safety requirements for group homes.
The bill requires that most assisted living, skilled nursing and residential care facilities install sprinklers by the end of 2012 and fire alarm systems by the end of 2008.
Facilities with up to 20 beds would be exempt from installing sprinklers, but still would need fire alarms that would automatically ring to local fire departments.
The Senate passed the legislation earlier this week 32-1, and the House voted 158-0 Thursday to send it to the governor.
Gov. Matt Blunt had called for all the state's long-term residential care facilities to install sprinklers after 11 people died in a Nov. 27 fire at the Anderson Guest House for the mentally ill and disabled.
The facility did not have sprinklers; investigators believe the fire had smoldered in the attic before it broke through the ceiling.
The owners of the home had been cited for previous fire safety violations at the several southwest Missouri facilities they operated. All four of their group homes are now closed.
"Most of us saw pictures of the bodies lined up in body bags on the sidewalk, and what a horrible, gruesome image," said Rep. Jeff Roorda (D-Barnhart).
Some House members complained that senators had stripped out important protections by allowing the exemption for facilities with fewer than 20 beds and removing a staffing requirement that facilities keep at least one person awake at all times.
Sen. Bill Stouffer (R-Napton) included the exemption because of cost concerns. Currently, sprinklers are required for all facilities opened after October 2000 and even earlier for some buildings, depending on the type of construction and number of stories.
According to the Department of Health and Senior Services, about 59% of all residential care centers have full sprinkler systems. In group homes like the one that burned down in Anderson, less than half have sprinkler systems.
The bill would require fire alarm systems with smoke detectors connected to a fire department; heat detectors; manual alarms at every exit; an attendant's station; and smoke detectors that provide audio and visual warning throughout the entire building whenever smoke is detected by one sensor.
It also requires individual floors to be divided into at least two sections with a smoke barrier in between.
Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons (R-Kirkwood) said the increased requirements would have notified residents at the Anderson home of a problem and could have prevented the deaths.
To help pay for the new systems, lawmakers created a loan program linked to Medicaid rates the state pays facilities to care for poor residents. The lower the Medicaid payment rate, the longer the facility would have to pay back the loan.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS
Another bill that gained approval would give more protection to victims of rape, other sex crimes and domestic abuse. It would allow them to give the state violence an alternative address, a move seen as a way to prevent abusers from tracking their victims down.
The measure also makes secret the identities of victims of sexual or domestic assault, stalking or forcible rape in otherwise public court records. Plus, it spells out that health care providers cannot charge victims of sex crimes for a forensic exam to collect evidence.
The bill also prevents law enforcement from requiring the victim of a sexual offense to undergo a lie-detector test before starting an investigation.
EXECUTIONERS IDENTITY
People who help execute Missouri inmates would have their identities shielded with the right to sue anyone who outs them, under another piece of legislation sent to the governor Thursday.
The legal anonymity would apply both to past and present members of execution teams, including those who administer the lethal injection and the medical personnel who provide direct support. Anyone, including members of the media, who knowingly discloses the identity of executioners could be sued for both actual and punitive damages.
The legislation passed the House on Thursday by a 110-41 vote. The Senate passed it 27-7 on Wednesday.
The legislation comes after the Post-Dispatch revealed the identity of Dr. Alan Doerhoff last year, who subsequently acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that he had participated in dozens of executions.
Doerhoff's role in Missouri executions emerged last June when he testified anonymously before a federal judge in a Kansas City death penalty case challenging the state's lethal-injection procedures. Executions remain on hold in Missouri as that court fight continues.
Proponents of the legislation assert it is difficult to find people willing to help with executions, partly because of the potential for harassment or threats if their identities become public.
Instead of allowing civil lawsuits, an earlier version of the bill would have made it a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in jail to reveal the identities of people on the execution team.
Senate Democrats who had blocked the bill finally relented after securing that change and several others. For example, the final bill closes only the portion of a record that could identify an execution team member from legal discovery and subpoenas not the entire record, as an earlier draft would have done.
The bill specifically opens records of the state execution protocol that describe the administration of the lethal injection.
INTERNET SCHOOL
Another bill gaining approval would give students in struggling districts the chance to join the new statewide virtual school.
The bill allows students to enroll in the Internet-based program if their school districts fall short of full state accreditation for two consecutive years. That provision affects students in 13 school districts currently.
Those students' districts would be required to pay for the students to enter the virtual school. Their enrollment would be in addition to the lottery system being used statewide to determine which students get state-funded slots in the virtual school.
The bill also prohibits schools from starting more than 10 days before Labor Day unless the district first conducts a public meeting and votes on an earlier start date. School boards would have to vote every year to approve the earlier start date. That was especially important to Sen. Jack Goodman (R-Mount Vernon), whose district includes the tourist destination of Branson.
In addition, the measure changes state policy on districts making up school days lost to bad weather.
Under current law, schools that exceed their scheduled snow days must add up to an additional eight days to make up for missed classes. After that, schools need to make up for only half the lost time.
The legislation requires all districts to include six days in their schedules to make up for bad weather if needed. If districts use those days up, they would have to make up half of the remaining days. But time off for hot weather is excluded.
The Senate passed the measure 34-0 Wednesday. The House followed suit 141-10 on Thursday.
Cut from the legislation was a proposal opposed by some Democrats and teachers' groups to create an alternative process for people to earn their teaching certificates in Missouri. The plan would have allowed people who completed the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence program to be certified.
"I'm just afraid it's going to provide even lower-quality teachers to areas we need higher quality," said Sen. Joan Bray (D-St. Louis). Supporters said the idea was to encourage professionals, such as engineers or computer scientists who initially pursued more lucrative jobs, to make the leap to teaching and give students access to experts with real-world experience.
"Anything we can do to bring in trained teachers with those backgrounds is a good thing," said Sen. Jeff Smith (D-St. Louis). "This is something that can really benefit our district."
Such professionals still would have had to fulfill some requirements, including passing a state exam testing competency that teachers certified the traditional way also complete, spending up to a year in a classroom first, and taking part in a mentoring program and professional development.
VETERINARY STUDENT LOANS
Lawmakers also voted Thursday to make veterinary students who agree to work with farm animals in parts of rural Missouri eligible to have some of their student loans excused.
The bill would allow six vet students at the University of Missouri-Columbia to get an $80,000 loan. It would forgive $20,000 for each year the students work in a rural area and focus on treating farm animals after they graduate. Tuition for veterinary school in Missouri costs about $60,000 over four years. The measure was approved 157-0 in the House and 33-0 in the Senate.
Sponsoring Rep. John Quinn (R-Chillicothe) says Missouri has a shortage of veterinarians and the bill is needed to entice more veterinary students to focus on large animals rather than pets. Across the country, farmers and veterinarians have complained that there are not enough new large-animal practitioners to meet increasing demand and replace older vets who are starting to retire.
But even as legislators consider a loan incentive, veterinarians and educators acknowledge that part of the solution is attracting more veterinary students.
The state's sole veterinary school on the Columbia campus admits fewer than 100 students each year, of whom about half in 2005 and 2006 said they wanted to work in Missouri.
John Dodam, associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Veterinary Science at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said the department found that over the last two years about 30% or roughly 22 students annually said they wanted to work with large animals.
Congress and several states around Missouri, including Kansas and Oklahoma, have proposed scholarships and other programs to recruit veterinarians to the farms.
The American Veterinary Medical Association predicts that nationwide, demand for food-supply veterinarians will increase by about 12% through 2016. But current increases in new vets foretell an annual 4-5% shortfall.
Those figures count all food-supply veterinarians, from those who work with farmers to those in federal regulatory agencies and those who inspect butchered meat. But the group's president, Roger Mahr, said there is a particular need at the ground level.
FLOODPLAIN HUNTING
Yet another bill gaining approval Thursday would protect hunting and sport shooting on flood plains in Missouri.
The measure creates "hunting heritage protection areas" on the 100-year flood plains of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In those areas, it would bar using a redevelopment tool called tax increment financing to help pay for private projects.
The restrictions would not apply to urban areas along the rivers such as Kansas City and St. Louis.
It would also allow existing municipal ordinances that restrict hunting and shooting guns. That language fixes part of another bill already sent to the governor that also creates the hunting protections but would pre-empt municipal gun restrictions.
REAL ID OPPOSITION
Lawmakers on Thursday also took a non-binding vote on a resolution that voices their displeasure with new federal standards for driver's licenses.
The resolution claims that Congress' Real ID Act unconstitutionally infringes on civil rights and liberties by setting federal standards for driver's licenses. The Real ID Act was enacted after federal officials learned that some of the people involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had legitimate driver's licenses.
The act requires states to verify documents proving that driver's license applicants are U.S. citizens and issue identification cards that meet federal standards. States were expected to comply by May 2008, but the Bush administration agreed to grant states an extension until Dec. 31, 2009.
Once implemented, residents from states that don't comply could not use their licenses to board a commercial airplane or enter federal buildings. The Missouri resolution objecting to the Real ID Act will be sent to Congress and President Bush, but does not have the force of law.
The resolution notes that Georgia, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, New Hampshire and Washington also have condemned the federal requirement.