Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Foster Pension Preservation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Missouri House advances bill to preserve pension dollars for foster children
Summary
The Missouri House adopted a committee substitute for House Bill 737 to preserve certain veteran, Social Security and railroad survivor benefits for children in foster care and to clarify placement and age definitions after a floor amendment process.
Representative (Laclede County), the bill sponsor, presented House Bill 737 and said the legislation would preserve pension and survivor benefit dollars intended for children who enter foster care. "We have a responsibility to be their voice," the sponsor said, describing the change as a move to keep funds for children when they age out of care.
The bill’s principal goal is to stop the state practice of applying certain survivor and pension payments to immediate care costs rather than holding them for a child’s later use. The sponsor said the issue affects about 1,200 Missouri children per year and that the state receives roughly $8,000,000 annually in the relevant pension dollars.
Debate on the floor focused on two groups of provisions that had been part of earlier versions: language clarifying parental supervision of children (often characterized as protecting normal childhood activities such as playing in a yard) and language encouraging placement of children with "like-minded faith families." Representative (Clay County) urged the House not to strip those provisions, saying they had passed the House previously and had been vetted by the Senate. "We're seeing across the country, people that are being reported for abuse or neglect just because they're letting their kids play in the neighborhood by themselves," he said in support of retaining the clarified supervision language.
After discussion the sponsor withdrew an initial amendment that would have removed those items and instead offered a second amendment (ending in 0.03 H) described on the floor as "cleaning up the language" and better aligning House and Senate versions while preserving placement and supervision language. Representative (Saint Louis County, District 73), who served on the Committee on Children and Families, spoke in favor of the amended package and urged passage.
The House adopted the committee substitute and the sponsor's amendment package by voice vote. The chair ordered House Bill 7 37 perfected and printed.
The bill as advanced will go to the Senate for consideration. The sponsor and several members said they intend to pursue related measures separately if needed; no additional fiscal notes or effective dates were provided on the floor.
