Kehoe: Senate works hard from health care to firearms

This week the Senate worked through a number of bills on a variety of topics ranging from health care to firearms to preventing sex-trafficking in Missouri.

Senate Bill 875, filed by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, removes barriers to lower the cost of prescription drugs while ensuring patient safety. It also allows pharmacists to select an interchangeable biological product when filling a prescribed biologic brand name. Biosimilars are already in the market, but right now pharmacists are required to obtain advanced approval from the doctor before making the substitution. This measure allows them to substitute any FDA-approved interchangeable biologic product without prior consent, just like pharmacists currently do for generic drugs. Ultimately, this bill will save Missourians money by making some prescriptions cheaper, while at the same time improving access to certain prescriptions. It will also save the state money, an estimated $12 million by 2019, by lowering some Medicaid costs.

It was both shocking and disheartening to learn during debates this week that Missouri, particularly the St. Louis metro area, is considered a hub for sex-trafficking in the United States. This is a shameful and embarrassing distinction, and one that must be corrected for the sake of the lives that are destroyed and for our collective conscience as Missourians. Sen. Bob Onder's SB804 strengthens the law relating to sex-trafficking by adding components to criminalize advertising another person for sexual acts or conduct without their consent or advertising the availability of a child to participate in sexual acts, performances, or the production of sexually explicit material. While it is tragic that laws of this sort are necessary, I am grateful for the leadership of Sen. Bob Onder, as well as many others, to address this growing issue.

Preserving and protecting the Second Amendment rights of Missourians is critically important to the Legislature, and it is particularly gratifying to do so in a manner that also recognizes the great sacrifices of the men and women of the armed forces who deploy across the globe to protect our way of life. SB656 provides clarity and equity by specifying the fee for applying for a concealed carry permit cannot exceed $100, and this fee must include the costs for fingerprinting and criminal background checks. Additionally, SB656 allows service members on active duty a two-month grace period to renew an expired conceal carry permit. It is both fitting and right that individuals who are deployed in our defense are not penalized for their service. It is my hope that, in some small way, this reduces the stress of returning home and makes Missouri a bit more appealing to veterans.

This week the Senate also finished a second ethics bill, which will go to conference to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions. Discussions on the bills that have passed will continue in earnest, as will debate on other ethics bills. Ethics reform is important to Missourians, and it is important to leadership in both chambers. Accordingly, it is a topic that will continue to receive a great deal of time for discussion and debate in the coming weeks. Of greater importance, even than that of ethics legislation, are bills that protect the lives of the unborn. I look forward to spending significant time on the floor discussing bills which ensure fetal tissue is not sold as a commodity and preventing abortions solely because of a prenatal diagnosis that indicates Down syndrome, or the potential of Down syndrome, in an unborn child.

In addition to discussions on protecting life and ethics, the Senate will also be considering bills relating to transportation funding, protecting religious freedom and voter ID in the weeks leading up to the Legislature's spring break.

Mike Kehoe is the state senator for Missouri's 6th District.