Date: January 28, 2026To: Committee Chair Senator Ben Brown, and members of the Senate Economic and Workforce Development CommitteeFrom: Erica Robbins, Affordable Housing Policy Manager, Empower MissouriRe: Support for SB 1105 Founded in 1901, Empower Missouri is the largest anti-poverty advocacy organization in the state. As part of our work, we convene a statewide Affordable...Read More

Facts and rhetoric are frequently misaligned when it comes to anti-poverty policy. This is especially true in the criminal justice arena, where public perceptions of crime have always been more important to policymakers than what the evidence shows. This translates to policies that are fear-based, rather than evidence-based: longer prison sentences for more offenses, more...Read More

House Bill 2256 and House Bill 2637 would drastically increase minimum prison terms in our state, keeping people behind bars for significantly longer. Research shows that this will increase costs with no reduction in crime. Please use this form to urge the members of the Missouri House Judiciary Committee to vote no on expanding prison sentences.Read More

House Bill 1616 and House Bill 2832 establish an oversight body for Missouri prisons that is independent, responsible to incarcerated people and their families, and fully staffed and funded. The House Corrections and Public Institutions Committee held a hearing on these bills on Thursday, February 26th, and our legislators need to hear that Missourians want...Read More

Haircuts. Car repairs. Bus fares. Netflix and audiobooks. These could all get more expensive if plans to impose new taxes on services and phase out the income tax go into effect.  And who would take the biggest hit? Working class Missourians, who already pay a higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes...Read More

Date: January 12, 2026 To: Representative Mayhew, Chairman, and Members of the House Corrections and Public Institutions Committee From: Gwen Smith-Moore, Criminal Justice Policy Manager, Empower Missouri Re: Support for HB 2302 As the largest and oldest anti-poverty non-profit in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri...Read More

A sample of programs from Empower’s annual conference throughout the years. This week is a big one for Empower Missouri: the start of another legislative session and the start of our 125th Anniversary year. From our origins as a conference of 41 people in January of 1901 (the Missouri Conference on Charities and Corrections), through...Read More

When Congress returns in January, the U.S. Senate will face a series of votes that will determine the future of federal housing programs Missourians rely on to stay housed. In late December, Senate leaders made progress in negotiations to prevent a February shutdown. The negotiations focused on an early January vote on a “minibus” bill...Read More

Below is a quick summary of key issues for Empower Missouri in the upcoming legislative session. If you would like to learn more, please register for our Legislative Preview webinar on December 16th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.  We’re just four weeks away from the start of the 2026 Missouri legislative session. Prefiling began...Read More

Daphne is a 58 year old resident of St. Louis, Missouri. Over the course of fifteen years, she has watched her health, the cost of living, and her neighborhood shift around her. Most notably, the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 caused a dramatic shift in her life. She has witnessed how difficult it can be to...Read More