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Missouri Senate sets aside bill to bar DEI spending; sponsor says it would codify executive order
Summary
Senators set aside House Bill 742, which would prohibit state departments from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Sponsors said the bill would put into statute an existing executive order; several other House bills were also laid over for further consideration.
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Senate set aside House Bill 742, a proposal that would prohibit state departments from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and returned to several other House bills for further consideration.
Sen. Rick Bratton of Harrisonville handled the HB 742 proposal in the upper chamber, lawmakers said. Senate Minority Floor Leader Doug Beck of Afton said the chamber had been close to a compromise on the measure a week earlier before the initial discussions ended.
The report noted that an executive order already forbids some DEI practices at state agencies and that House Bill 742 would codify those limits in statute. The measure was set aside for future talks and no vote was recorded on the bill.
The Senate also returned to consideration of multiple House bills — listed in the report as House Bill 567, House Bill 5406, House Bill 7508 and House Bill 958 — and laid those measures over for further discussion. No final actions or roll-call votes on those bills were reported.
The session featured limited floor debate in which senators said further discussions were needed after reviewing draft language. Lawmakers indicated some provisions in the draft did not match earlier conceptual agreements and required additional negotiation before any final action.
Reporting from the state Capitol, Dean Morgan.
