Date: January 27, 2025 To: Chairwoman Gallick and Members, House Economic Development From: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director  Re: HB 2747 + HB 2047 We are thrilled to offer testimony in support of HB 2747 + HB 2047, which we’ll be referencing as Clean Slate legislation. Our nation’s criminal justice system was conceived and implemented long...Read More

We’re on day 42 of the government shutdown, which has set a record for the longest shutdown in American history. On Sunday evening, a group of moderate Democrats broke from their caucus to negotiate with Senate Republicans on a deal to reopen the government. A series of votes in both chambers will be necessary to...Read More

We’re on day seven of a government shutdown, and there’s no end in sight. In the US, we’ve endured 11 shutdowns (including this one) since 1980, when we began requiring all nonessential government activities to cease when legislation to finance government operations hasn’t been passed before the start of the fiscal year. (The federal fiscal...Read More

On Friday afternoon, after 4PM, ahead of the long holiday weekend, Governor Mike Kehoe announced that he was calling a special session to “enact legislation establishing updated congressional districts for the State of Missouri and amending the state’s initiative petition process.” This is a political move called “taking out the trash,” which refers to the...Read More

Empower Missouri strongly condemns President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) on “Ending Crime & Disorder on America’s Streets.” The order is riddled with misleading statements, prejudicial language, and outright lies about our neighbors who are unhoused. We seek to correct this misinformation and encourage our partners to stand ready to mitigate, and then be prepared to...Read More

Over the last three months, we have published a series of blog posts investigating the housing crisis in the United States. In our first piece, we defined the current crisis. In the second post, we examined the economic factors that created and are sustaining the problem. And in our most recent post, we looked at...Read More

Tonight, I’m catching a flight to Washington, D.C. to meet with staffers of Missouri’s congressional delegation and express Missourians’ opposition to the $300 billion in proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Congress’s “one big, beautiful bill.” Empower Missouri’s focus has traditionally been on state-level policy, but the proposed cuts to Medicaid...Read More

This week, Governor Kehoe signed SB 4, an omnibus utility bill that changes financing for utility companies. The bill adds more ways for utility companies to shift costs to consumers and increase utility bills. Empower Missouri denounces this change for these reasons: Consumers Council of Missouri estimates that SB 4 will raise utility bills by...Read More

Last month, Empower Missouri launched a new educational series on the American housing crisis.  In our March piece, we focused on sharing statistics on the decrease of new home builds across the country and the resulting impact on both renters and aspiring homeowners. Today, we’re going to look at some of the underlying factors that...Read More

Yesterday, Governor Kehoe signed HB 495, a criminal justice omnibus bill with a variety of provisions. The primary provision of the bill puts the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under state control. Empower Missouri denounces this change of control for the following reasons:  There is simply no logical explanation for pursuing this change of control...Read More