Missouri House passes first set of bills of legislative session

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Lawmakers in the Missouri House adjourned Thursday, but not before voting on and approving several measures.

The handful of bills that have fully passed out of the House feature a wide-ranging docket of issues, including a specific tax cut and a measure that creates the Missouri Religious Freedom Protection Act.

That measure, House Bill 75, would bar any public official from restricting access to places of worship. The proposal, which had been introduced in prior sessions, follows COVID-related lockdown measures that attempted to reduce public gatherings. The bill is sponsored by freshman Rep. Cathy Jo Loy, R-Carthage.

“The COVID-19 shutdown made one thing clear: our constitutional rights must never be left to government discretion,” Loy said in a news release.

The full article is available at ozarksfirst.com.

(Story by Mark Zinn, ozarksfirst.com)