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 establishes an oversight body for Missouri prisons that is independent, responsible to incarcerated people and their families, and fully staffed and funded. This bill will be heard in the House Corrections and Public Institutions Committee next week, and our legislators need to hear that Missourians want accountability and transparency for the Department...Read More

Date: January 26, 2026To: Representative Don Mayhew and the Members of the House Corrections and Public Institutions CommitteeFrom: Christine Woody, Food Security Policy Manager, Empower MissouriRE: Support for HB 1777 My name is Christine Woody and I am the Food Policy Manager at Empower Missouri. Empower Missouri has spent more than 120 years fighting poverty in...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

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

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

The 2025 Missouri legislative session ended last week with some controversy and tension as the Senate invoked Previous Question, or “PQ”, to cut off debate. The Senate employed this “nuclear option” to force a vote on two bills that were in direct contradiction to laws passed by the majority of Missouri voters in the November...Read More

The latest issue to face intense debate in the Missouri Senate is paid sick leave. HB 567, which would remove paid sick leave for workers, passed the Missouri House in March.  Since then it has progressed through the Senate and is now eligible for discussion on the Senate floor. On Wednesday night, multiple Democratic Senators...Read More