Legislation — pending governor’s signatures — supports, protects landowners

BY STATE REP. BRUCE SASSMANN Missouri’s 62nd District
Posted 5/26/21

During my first five months in the Missouri House of Representatives, I voted on hundreds of bills.

However, two pieces of legislation especially perked my interest: HB 369, and HB 574. Both bills …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Legislation — pending governor’s signatures — supports, protects landowners

Posted

During my first five months in the Missouri House of Representatives, I voted on hundreds of bills.

However, two pieces of legislation especially perked my interest: HB 369, and HB 574. Both bills are related to land use, conservation, and agriculture.

HB 369, a bill relating to prescribed burning, was amended and became a legislative vehicle for many other land use bills. The underlying burn bill would allow contractors to assist landowners in using prescribed fires and controlled burns as a land management tool.

Later, an amendment to tackle Missouri’s feral hog problem was added to the bill. Feral hogs are an agricultural threat and environmental nuisance. The feral hog amendment added to HB 369 was a compromise resulting from several years of testimony and debates.

If this bill is signed by the Governor, releasing feral hogs into the wild will become a felony offense in Missouri.

Other attachments to the original bill related to campgrounds.

One amendment limited the civil liability of campground owners and made clear the inherent risk associated with camping. A similar amendment, relating to swimming pools and other bodies of water, clarified civil liability for owners of swimming pools.

I particularly like one amendment that limits the use of surveillance cameras by law enforcement agencies.

Limiting the use of cameras, drones, and other surveillance equipment goes a long way to protect personal privacy and individual private property rights.

The second bill I enjoyed watching was HB 574.

This bill limited access to certain confined animal facilities.

The purpose of the bill was to prevent the spread of disease from one agricultural facility to another. In the past, certain officials and individuals abused their authority to enter agricultural facilities without understanding the pathways for the transmission of disease. Minimizing risks to agriculture makes sense.

I’m confident these bills will be of particular interest to the Governor.

Since these bills were truly agreed to and finally passed by the General Assembly at the end of our legislative session, the Governor has 48 days to sign or veto these bills. If either of these bills are vetoed, the bills will be sent back to the legislature for the annual veto override session in September. If the Governor signs the bills, they will become law and go into effect on Aug. 28.

It has been a great honor to serve during the first session of the 101st General Assembly. This summer would be the best time to visit about the legislation to be taken up in the next session. My best point of contact is bruce.sassmann@ house.mo.gov I’ll look forward to hearing from you.