Dear NLP Members,

We had a very productive week of hearings and we might even see some bills on the House and Senate floor in the next few weeks. I will break down where we are by topic area below.

APRN Bills

The priority APRN Transition to Practice bills (SB 979 and SB 1016) had their public hearing this week.  The hearing went very well with lots of outside groups expressing support for the bill.  Opposition exclusively came from physicians representing organized medicine. Now is the time to encourage the members of the Senate Emerging Issues and Professional Registration committee to support the bill.  We need a positive committee vote before the bill can move to the Senate Floor for debate.  Use this link to contact members of the committee: https://ujoin.co/campaigns/4296/actions/public?action_id=6494

Workplace Violence Bills

Our priority bill in the Workplace Violence space, HB 2072 unanimously passed in an executive session vote in the House Health and Mental Health committee this morning.  It now will need one more procedural vote in the rules committee before it can be debated on the House floor.

There also were new bills recently filed relating to workplace violence in the House and Senate.  They are HB 3401, sponsored by Representative Phelps and SB 1775, sponsored by Senator Kurtis Gregory. Both these bills need to be referred to committee so a hearing can happen, but they would be substantial progress on the topic.

Lastly, the WPV signage language within the healthcare omnibus bills continue to make progress.  HB 2372 was voted out of the rules committee yesterday.  It can now be debated on the House floor.  The Senate Healthcare Omnibus, SB 841 still needs a favorable committee vote in the Families, Seniors, and Health committee before it can be debated on the Senate Floor.

We also had some press on this issue in the Missouri Independent: https://missouriindependent.com/2026/02/27/missouri-nurses-are-done-normalizing-violence/

Prior Authorization

Last session MONA advocated for legislation that reformed prior authorization.  Those bills are back and are starting to make progress so I thought I would add them to the newsletter. SB 897, sponsored by Senator Ben Brown, had a public hearing in Senate Insurance committee this week.  It could receive a vote as soon as next week and then would head to the senate floor for full debate.  In the House, Rep Stinnett’s HB 3010 passed out of committee and then passed out of the rules committee.  It can now be debated on the House floor.  Now would be a good time to contact your Representative and your Senator in support of these bills.

Bad Bill Update

We continue to follow some harmful pieces of legislation.  They have not moved this week. House Bill 2557 – Emergency Department Physicians is still waiting for a committee vote.  We hope this bill is finished for the session, but will continue to monitor it.

House Joint Resolution 154 – MO Healthnet Work Requirements.  This join resolution is still awaiting committee assignment in the Senate.  Now would be a good time to talk to your Senator and express your opposition to this unnecessary and harmful joint resolution.  Remember, because it is an HJR and not a HB, if passed it would go to a statewide vote of the people before becoming law.  So, the fight is far from over on this issue. The Missouri Independent has covered this issue extensively, here is a recent article about it: https://missouriindependent.com/2026/03/05/missouri-lawmakers-weigh-294m-price-tag-to-carry-out-new-federal-medicaid-rules/

Lastly, HB 1998, the harmful bill relating to DEI and educational institutions still has not been heard.  After being noticed up for a committee hearing a few weeks ago, it was removed from the agenda and hasn’t moved forward since.  MONA will continue to monitor the bill because of its potential impact on nursing schools.  

Upcoming Events:

You can find all our upcoming events on the MONA website under calendar. We have another Day at the Capitol coming up on March 24th.  This event is in partnership with MONL and will be focused on workplace violence prevention.  Please learn more and register here: https://members.missourinurses.org/calendar/Details/mona-and-monl-day-at-the-capitol-workplace-safety-1523059?sourceTypeId=Website

Thank you for all you do to protect access to healthcare in Missouri.

Jack Seigel