By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostA state senator pushing to protect businesses reopening during
the coronavirus pandemic from lawsuits is optimistic the bill will pass.Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville sponsors <a href="https://www.senate.mo.gov/21info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&amp;BillID=54105525">Senate Bill 51</a>
which would protect businesses, schools, and churches which act in good faith
from lawsuits filed by those who contract COVID-19. Luetkemeyer had to work
with opponents who used a 15-hour filibuster to delay a first-round vote on the
bill.“We ended up reaching a compromise that I still think is still
very protective of both our frontline health care workers as well as our small
businesses, our schools, and our churches,” Luetkemeyer tells St. Joseph Post. “This
is a piece of legislation that is very much needed in order to make sure that
we could reopen the economy without fear of endless lawsuits shutting small
businesses and schools down.”The Senate went into a one-week recess due to the severe
winter weather of last week and returns to work in Jefferson City this week.Luetkemeyer says businesses need the protection in order to
reopen their doors, which in turn reopens the economy.“What we don’t need is we don’t need a second wave pandemic where
you’ve got a situation where everybody reopens and then all of the sudden, they’re
getting sued and these small businesses which are desperately clinging to stay
alive get put out of business,” Luetkemeyer says. “And that’s what this is
about, encouraging businesses to reopen, encouraging businesses to stay open.”Luetkemeyer overcame that 15-hour filibuster to win
preliminary approval for this measure. He faces another hurdle, though.“The one issue that we’re kind of trying to figure out right
now is, we have 24 Republicans in the Missouri Senate, we have an emergency
clause that’s attached to this bill. In order to pass an emergency clause, you actually
need a super majority, a two-thirds vote, which means we need 23 senators to
vote in favor of the emergency clause,” Luetkemeyer says.Luetkemeyer says the final Senate vote could be delayed until
he is sure he has the votes needed. An emergency clause makes the bill
effective upon the signature of the governor.If the bill passes the Senate, it moves on to the House. Both
House leadership and Gov. Mike Parson have declared the measure a top priority
of this legislative session.

COVID-19 liability protection pending in the Missouri legislature