Lawmakers Diehl, Lamping Wrap Up Legislative Session

JEFFERSON CITY — Republican lawmakers who represent portions of Brentwood and Maplewood played a major role in shaping this year’s session of the Missouri General Assembly.

The legislature ended its roughly five-month session on Friday, most notably adjourning without deals on sweeping changes to tax credit programs, local control of the St. Louis Police Department or a measure aimed at getting the process started in building a nuclear power plant in Callaway County.

The legislature did have a list of successful ventures, from ending the “franchise tax” on corporate assets to extending a prescription drug program to seniors. House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, said at a post-session press conference that the Republican caucus accomplished some notable goals.

“About five months ago, we came before you all with the Show Me Solutions initiative,” Tilley said. “First and foremost, it was a pledge that we heard the citizens of this state and we were going to balance our state budget, we were going to live within our means and we were going to hold the line on taxes.”

“And let me tell you, first and foremost, mission accomplished,” Tilley added.

House Minority Leader Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, said in a statement that Republicans chose to pursue the wrong types of priorities over the last few months.

“To House Democrats, job creation means providing opportunities for Missourians to support their families at a fair wage,” Talboy said in the statement. “Attacking Missouri workers will not bring economic prosperity.”

Diehl sees expanded role

Perhaps one of the most active members of the local delegation was Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country, who represents Brentwood and other parts of St. Louis County. The second-term lawmaker saw an increased role during this session, chairing the powerful House Rules Committee that can stall legislation before it arrives on the floor.

More notably, Diehl was in charge of a House committee tasked with reconfiguring Missouri’s congressional districts. Drawing the map was especially challenging because Missouri lost a congressional district based off the latest U.S. Census numbers.

After a number of fits and starts, the legislature approved a map near the tail end of the session. Lawmakers eventually overrode Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto, a move that propelled the map into law.

Among other things, the redistcting plan . The Maplewood-Brentwood area will be split between the districts represented by Clay and U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country.

Some lawmakers have suggested that legal action should be taken against the map, especially because of the make-up of the reconfigured Fifth Congressional District. But Diehl told reporters earlier this year he expected the proposal to hold up in court.

“All things considered, I think it’s a compact and contiguous map,” Diehl said. “As we’ve gone through this process, we’ve always said you could look at one particular spot on the map and you can try to find fault with any particular district or spot on the map. But when you go to change that, it creates problems all throughout the map.”

Lamping steers bills to passage

Another lawmaker who engaged in an active session was Sen. John Lamping, a Ladue Republican whose district encompasses Brentwood and Maplewood.

Lamping successfully handled legislation aimed at altering laws related to domestic violence and adoption records. He also was heavily involved in revising laws related to human trafficking.

In an interview, Lamping said the domestic violence bill—which passed through both chambers of the General Assembly—aims to sync up terms and definitions currently in statute.

Lamping also said the bill’s language seeks validate that stalking is encompassed under domestic violence.

“The biggest change of the application now going forward is that there are now protections for teens where there never were protections, meaning court orders of protections that they can request,” Lamping said. “So up until now, a 16 year old dating a 15 year old with the 15 year old subject to domestic violence, there was nothing the parents or the guardians could do in terms of getting a court order of protection.”

“So that’s the biggest change that takes place,” Lamping added. “It really brings into the 21st century the realities of domestic violence in that it does occur for people who aren’t adult age. It was just long overdue.”

In the next two or three years, Lamping said there could be further changes to domestic violence law.

“Anything as comprehensive as this should really every 10 or 15 years… stop, sync it all up and make sure everything’s in line,” Lamping said.

The legislation changing language regarding adoption records and human trafficking also passed through both chambers and are also on Gov. Jay Nixon’s desk.

"Up until now, we barely defined human trafficking in law," Lamping said. "And now, we've redefined it, we've expanded the penalties, we've given the victims of human trafficking the right to use the fact that they're being trafficked as a defense. It really brings human trafficking into the legal code where we didn't have it before."