It's another year, and state Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, has found himself on the receiving end of an impassioned veto of one of his bills by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.
Last year, Nixon vetoed legislation that was sponsored by Sater that tripled the state's waiting period between when a woman visits a doctor and can receive an abortion to 72 hours.
This year, Nixon vetoed Sater's bill that would slash the lifetime cap on how long people can receive benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to 45 months and strengthen the program's work requirement -- a move that Nixon, speaking at an early childhood social services and care center in Kansas City, said would remove thousands of children and adults from the state's welfare rolls, legislation its Republican supporters believe would strengthen a work requirement and save the state money.
"When it comes to adults, we can all agree on the need for personal responsibility, but these are children. I don't sign bills that hurt kids -- period," Nixon said in a statement.
Nixon said in recent years, TANF rolls have decreased on their own -- down 13 percent from 2013 to 2014. The legislation, he said, could boot nearly 6,400 poor children from the program.
"Children already suffer lifelong consequences from poverty. Penalizing them further for their parents' behavior is mean-spirited and just plain wrong," he said.
Sater, responding to Nixon's veto, said Missouri should move beyond the "sorry distinction" he believes it has as having a weak work requirement for welfare recipients.
"Instead of embracing the Legislature's proactive reform of our welfare system, the governor is sticking to the status quo; a broken welfare system that discourages work and needlessly creates welfare dependency," Sater said.
Like they did with the 72-hour bill last year, Republicans who hold veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate, say they hope to override Nixon's veto on this bill too. But this time, they think they have time on their side. Since Nixon vetoed the bill while they were still in session, Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard, R-Joplin, said he hoped the Senate would move to override Nixon's veto before it adjourns on May 15.
Sater said he would be glad to bring the bill back up. "I am confident my colleagues will override the governor's veto before the session ends," he said.
The measure originally passed the Senate 25-9 and the House 111-36. While the margin is padded a bit in the Senate, the original House vote was only one vote higher than the two-thirds majority required to override a veto.
(c)2015 The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.)
