Let's just slow down a minute, state Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, asked other members of the Missouri Senate's Professional Registration Committee on Monday.
The committee met to consider four bills designed to modify or eliminate a few of Missouri's more than 200 boards or commissions.
The bills came about as a result of work done by the Boards and Commissions Task Force, created through an executive order by Gov. Eric Greitens in April to examine the purpose, effectiveness and necessity of the state's many boards and commissions. State Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, chairwoman of the committee, authored three of the bills.
"I was a member of the task force that learned that many of the boards and commissions had never had members appointed," Riddle said, "had fulfilled their duties, could not meet because they could not get a quorum or their duties did not require the governor to appoint them, but their role was still important."
Senate Bill 843 would disband three groups.
The task force recommended disbanding the Subcommittee on Development of Comprehensive Entry Point System for Long Term Care within the Mo HealthNet Oversight Committee. It was formed in 2007 and was required to create a report by October 2008. Its function is now complete.
The Professional Payment Committee, formed in 2007, never met, Riddle said.
The Missouri State Penitentiary Redevelopment Commission, formed in 2001 and revised in 2005, has not met in many years and its purpose no longer exists.
The groups' responsibilities were not transferred to anyone else.
SB 843 would disband some groups but transfer their tasks to other groups. The bill would eliminate the Missouri State Unemployment Council, which formed in 2004, and require the state auditor to assume its task to study the state unemployment system every five years, Riddle said. It is unknown when the council last met.
"I felt this (study) is something that should happen and the auditor's office is suitable for such a study," Riddle said.
Schupp questioned wording in the bill, which says the study is to be done if money is appropriated. She asked what would happen if the Legislature doesn't set aside money for the study.
"We don't study it?" Schupp asked. "We don't audit it? We don't look at it?"
Schupp said the study sounds like an important task and added she'd worry it wouldn't get done.
Riddle suggested the words "subject to appropriation" be removed from the bill, although money has not been appropriated for the studies in the past.
Also set for elimination is the Foster Care and Adoptive Parents Recruitment and Retention Fund Board, which was created in 2011 and set to automatically terminate or "sunset" at the end of 2018. The board's fund still has a balance and a function, so the bill would transfer oversight of the fund to the State Foster Care Adoption Board.
Schupp said sunsets on boards and commissions concern her too.
"When we set sunsets on bills that are beyond six year, none of us are still going to be here," she explained. "None of us may be here, so we lose a historical knowledge of what happened before."
She asked that those issues come up for review while the same legislators remain.
The Missouri Area Health Education Centers Council. No one has been appointed to the council since 2006. It was designed to recommend policies to help with recruitment for health centers. The bill would transfer their responsibilities to the Missouri Department of Health. No one is on the Unmarked Human Burial Consultation Committee, Riddle said. She doesn't know when it last met.
"They fulfill a federal responsibility to handle situations of historic remains," Riddle said. "Federal law states this must be handled by a Historic Preservation Committee."
So the bill would transfer the committee's duties to the Missouri advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
The bill also recommended reductions to the sizes of several other boards.
The two senators agreed to discuss concerns about the bills later.
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